Story-Go-Round
The more stories you get out there, the more chances you have of getting published. A real “duh” statement, huh? But… I don’t know… sometimes I need to be reminded of that.
It can take so long to hear back on a story, it feels like they fall into a void for a while, even as I am obsessively checking my email to see if I’ve gotten any responses. Sometimes I need to think about tossing more stories into the void to see if they hit solid ground instead of waiting around for the stories to come back.
I read a thread on the Every Day Fiction forums about some of the regular contributors. There are authors at EDF who get stories published with as much regularity as every month. It was nice to hear some of those regulars say on the forum that to get that many stories into EDF, they max out their submission opportunities.
EDF allows an author to have three stories in their slush pile at a time (which is pretty unusual), and some of these repeat authors have three stories in the slush constantly. Talk about a dedicated approach! And yet, those authors have the credits at EDF to prove that it works.
It seems a method that one could apply to one’s writing in general. It’s simple, right? Get those stories out there, and keep them going.
Of course… that means I need to actually write some new stories! Luckily, tomorrow is my writing group’s monthly write-in. Two hours of writing with friends. There is something great about a write-in for getting the creative energy flowing. I have a werewolf story that is almost finished — my goal for tomorrow is to complete the revisions on that sucker, and then maybe I’ll even see if I can find a likely market or two for it!
In other news, I found this article about unstoppable rules for writing short stories interesting.
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Hey Erin, thanks for reading my blog. I was excited today to find out we kind of think alike: got that from reading YOUR blog. Yes. We need to get it out and out and out. I don’t know if you read the comments I made on ron carlson’s book Ron Carlson Writes a Story on my blog. You may want to check it out. It’s the most clearly defined process information I’ve read. Right down to an almost sentence by sentence discussion of what came next as he wrote his story.
The best part is that when I finished reading it (it’s short) I had a dedicate Ron Carlson day for myself and…wrote a story!
I’m adding you to my site.
I’ll have to check that entry out. It sounds great!
Adding you to mine, as well. Thanks!
EDF have rejected a LOT more than they’ve accepted from my submissions. I’m now in the same state; I really need to be writing something new.
My goal right now is to write two more flash pieces while my current flash piece is in the queue and send them both in. Of course… I have to think of some flash pieces to write, LOL!
Hey, Erin,
I absolutely keep as many in to EDF as they allow. Except right now… I only have one in. But for the most part, it’s three at a time all the time. Seems to work.
I like your blog, btw.
I’m working on upping my submission number now!
Glad you liked it, Kevin. Thanks!
I have two stories in their queue now. We’ll see what happens. I’ve never submitted more than one at a time before.
Me neither, but I have two in now two. **crosses fingers**