Living the Fictional Dream

For a brief moment, “A Castle in the Clouds” is in a top 10 list at Every Day Fiction. Nice thing to wake up to. Must be because of all the voting you guys did — thanks!

If you head over to EDF today, make sure you check out today’s story — “Double Virginity” by Kevin Shamel. Science fiction with a twist — it’s a great read.

Waiting is never fun, but right now it seems less fun than ever! A literary flash piece that I wrote a few months ago was accepted by a literary e-zine. It is supposed to be published in their September issue, but that issue still has not appeared on their website. I emailed the editors once to ask about the publication date and was told to expect it on September 15. That day has come and gone, but no new story for me to happily announce on my blog!

Anyway, I don’t mean to complain (at least not too much). I know that e-zines operate without much staff, basically depending on the efforts of the dedicated few who do all the work. I understand that there can be issues and delays.

But, dang it, I do want to see that story out in the world. I’m anxious to know what other people think of it! And, there is also the fear that the e-zine will fold without publishing my story. The last time I had a piece accepted by an e-zine that kept moving the publication date back, it folded and I had to start anew searching for a home for that story. This one took me longer to place the first time (sometimes I think mainstream/literary fiction is more subjective to editors than even genre fiction, but maybe that’s just because I specialize more in the genre fiction), and I would hate to have to start over.

Though, if the worst case scenario happened and I did have to start over, I did eventually re-place the story from the first time an e-zine went under on me. I’m sure I could do it again, if necessary.

Right now, though, I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope that the September issue of the literary e-zine publishing my story makes it out soon. I was impressed with some of the stories in their previous issue, so I would love to see what else they have to offer!

I recieved an interesting rejection today. The editor of a fairly prestigious e-zine said, “No to this, but please keep trying us?” Short, sweet, and to the point, but also a rejection with a grain of hope. And not a dreaded form rejection, either.

After I read the note, I stared at it for a while, trying to parse the appropriate meaning from that question mark at the end of the sentence. It seems a very deliberate punctuation choice. A period would be the norm, but a question mark means something else entirely.

This particular market has rejected quite a few of my stories. Perhaps the editor meant that question mark as an acknowledgement of that, and also hopes that I will continue to submit to them despite the number of rejections? If that’s it, if the editor actually remembers who I am and that I’ve sent stuff before, maybe that means that they really like my voice, and, as yet, I just haven’t sent them a story that quite fits with the e-zine? That I’m almost there…

That would definitely be a nice thing to believe! It’s a market I would particularly like to appear in, both because it pays better than a token payement and it is a fairly well-known market, at least in e-zine circles.

I probably shouldn’t overthink it. It’s just as possible that the question mark was a typo. That thought brings to mind Eats, Shoots and Leaves and the example of the difference between “the panda eats shoots and leaves” and “the panda eats, shoots, and leaves.” Gotta watch out for those gun-toting pandas, yeah?

Either way, the rejection leaves me inspired on two counts. First, I need to keep pressing on that particular story. There must be a home for it somewhere! And, second, I need to write more of the kind of story that this particular e-zine publishes so I can try them again.

Good morning, world! It’s a lovely day today, because my flash piece, “A Castle in the Clouds,” is the story of the day at Every Day Fiction. You should definitely check it out! And, while you’re there, vote on it and maybe leave a comment.

This story is a fantasy romance/parable. My favorite part about it is the setting. Ami lives in a cloud. When the weather changes, so does her home, so it’s larger on rainy days and smaller on sunny ones. It reminds me of a game that I used to play with my grandmother as a child — our paper dolls had such fun exploring imaginary rooms. I loved to imagine the craziest most awesome rooms. In that game, it was a regular mansion, not a cloud, but imagining the possibilities that could exist was so exciting… Imaginary rooms could hold whatever you wanted — clothes, toys… anything!

When I was younger, I remember reading a fairy tale about a girl who lived in an invisible castle in the sky. Her companion was a large spider. The only thing the girl was not allowed to do was go into the spider’s special room during a certain hour of the day. At that time, he would cover all the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, so no one could see in, and she never knew what he did in there. So, of course, one day the little girl went into the room before the appointed hour and hid under the couch. The spider came in and, while he thought he was alone, he became a man. When the girl’s hiding place was revealed (as of course it would have to be), the castle became visible and floated down to the ground. She lived there with the man and it was nice, but never as wonderful as it had been living in an invisible castle in the sky with a spider.

Weird story, huh? I wish I remember the name of that tale. I’ve always remembered the story. It was one of the inspirations for “A Castle in the Clouds.” Another inspiration came from Little Women. There is a chapter where Jo and the girls, and Laurie, of course, describe their imaginary castles in the air — places where they are carefree and all their dreams have come true.

Ami’s adventure in my story is totally different from those above, but those were the things that gave me the first glimmer of inspiration that eventually became “A Castle in the Clouds.”

I hope you enjoy it, and if you have time, leave me a comment here and let me know what you thought!

I can’t believe how fast the summer flew by. It seems like just a blink ago it was June! And now it’s September, and Writer’s Ink is getting ready to gear up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or just NaNo — writers are often called WriMos). NaNo happens in November, but it takes a while to get your idea in place, do any outlines or other prep work, etc.

We have quite a few successful NaNo veterans in my writing group, and it’s something we look forward to every year. This year, we’ve decided that October will be our NaNo planning month. We’ll devote our meeting time (aside from any crits we have) to prep work for NaNo and other planning exercises.

Last year was the first year since 2005 that I participated and didn’t win NaNo. My failure was due to the lack of an idea I was really invested in. I had an idea that I kind of liked and started with that, but I guess I wasn’t feeling it enough because it never gelled, and I abandoned it after a couple of days and a couple thousand words.

Then I tried to write the sequel to my sucessful novel from the year before. However, since I’m not done revising that first novel, the sequel stalled a bit. Also, I made a crucial plot decision in the first chapter that set the tone for the rest of the book, but about the time I hit 6K I realized that I should have done something different.

I totally wasn’t ready to chuck it all and start over again, so I threw in the towel and used NaNo to focus on all my burgeoning short story ideas instead. I didn’t write 50K, but I wrote several stories that ended up finding homes, including “Zero to Clean in
Ten Minutes or Less,” “Remember?,” and “The Widow and the Stranger.” So it was a productive November, no matter how you look at it.

Now I need to decide what I’m going to do this year. I really don’t want to branch out into another novel idea that will wind up a first draft in need of heavy revision. I’ve got several of those lying around. Novel revision is apparently my big weakness as a writer.

One thought I had is that perhaps I should take one of those novels that needs revision (the revision is pretty major — pretty much total rewrites) and work on that. There would probably be 50K of new text, and it might end up more polished than the typical NaNo novel, because it’s already been done once.

The other thought I had is to write 50K worth of short stories. Then I’d come out of November with tons of stuff to market. Or at least tons of stuff to prep for submissions, but I’m much better with following through on revision of a short piece. Maybe because it doesn’t take so long!

Well, I still have a month and a half or so to decide, which is a good thing. Of course, most of that time will be eaten up with work. The fall is my company’s busiest time!

What about you guys? Any Wrimos or potential Wrimos out there? Any tips or tricks to share?

I go back and forth on how effective writing prompts really are. Most of the time, I’m not that into them. I have enough ideas floating around in my head — I tend to feel that I don’t need anyone else’s inspiration. However, sometimes they totally work out!

I’m sure I’ve discussed my writing group’s monthly prompts contest here before. Some of the stories I’ve had published this year were the result of prompts from the contest, so that in and of itself illustrates the value of using them.

I think, possibly, the best thing about the prompts contest is that it can get me writing when I might be stuck on something else (a or story-in-progress). And like anything of the sort (prompts, the group’s story every day contest, etc.), there can be good and bad results. Some of the prompts I attempt come out extremely crappy, and others are either good or at least good enough that they can be retooled into something I can submit.

The other good thing about prompts is that they challenge creativity and allow me to stretch myself. It’s harder to write about something that I didn’t choose myself. Prompts created by someone else make me work for the story, but in a good way. I think it’s helpful to get out of one’s comfort zone (genre of choice, POV of choice, etc.) and write something else on occasion.

And, sometimes, I use the prompts provided by my group’s monthly contest to expand one of my already-created fictional worlds. I’ve written many a prompt (and short story) for the group set in the fantasy world of my first novel, and each one helps me to know that world just a little better. Whenever I get back to revising that novel, it will be the richer for that extra work.

The danger of exercises like prompts, writing a story every day, and other such things is that they can take you away from the things that you really need to focus on. It can be so seductive to focus on something other than that novel or short story I’ve been struggling with.

I don’t know that I like prompts enough that I would seek them out on my own, but as long as Writer’s Ink has the monthly contest, I will occasionally delve into that madness.

I watched the premier of the new HBO series True Blood tonight. The series had an intriguing hook, and it left me wanting more, like the first chapter of a good book. Of course, the series is based on a book series — the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris — so maybe that’s why.

Interesting premise… a girl with some sort of psychic powers (telepathy and possibly TK), a vampire whose mind she can’t read, a feisty best friend, a brother associated with strange circumstances, a dead “fang banger,” and a couple of crazies out to siphon vampire blood. Take all that, throw in some Louisiana accents, and you’ve got the beginning of what looks to be an interesting story. I’ll definitely be tuning in next week.

Part of me wants to read the books so I can find out what happens without waiting a week for the resolution of each episode’s cliffhanger!

Anyway, it goes to show the importance of the opening hook.

Lots of writing exercises going on in my writing group write now, and I’ve promised myself that September is the month that I’m going to make the most of them. Jens is running our prompt contest this month, and I have my eyes on the $10 prize. His prompts were quite challenging, I must say, but I have several ideas already. And I already turned in one, so go me.

We’re also doing a world-building exercise. It’s really fun! Six of us claimed land on a map that Virginia made, and now we’re coming up with the common elements of the world at large and the unique elements of our countries. Alex actually posted about this last week and included a lot of cool world-building links.

World-building can be scary some times, and yet it is also fun. The first time I built a world, it took me years to get it all fleshed out. This time, I’m starting with the world first, so hopefully the stories I eventually write set there will be well grounded in their unique fantasy world. Maybe it’s because I have experience creating a world before, but this time it seems more fun and less stressful. Maybe because I know that I can do it if I take the time. It also helps to be doing it with a group of friends.

If only I were better at making up words/names for things. That has always been a struggle for me, because I always think the made up words sound so stupid when I make them up (but I don’t think that when other people do… must be that hyper inner critic of mine!).

When I was a copy editor (before my tech writing days), my team used to say that only a fool copy edited his/her own work. Our little copy editing joke based on that saying about how a lawyer defending himself has a fool for a client. I claim no knowledge of anything related to the law, but it boggles my mind how hard it can be to see the errors in something I’ve written myself — especially right after I’ve finished writing it!

I think that the writing portion of the brain is totally separate from the part of the brain that knows grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. The creative side of the brain likes to see the piece as you meant it to be, not how it actually is (hence missing words — the kind of thing that happens when your muse talks faster than you can type!). As a whole, creativity is a different mindset from the logic of copy editing.

Now, I think I’ve discovered a new part of the writer’s brain — let’s call it the poet’s corner!

I took a poetry workshop in graduate school. The professor had his own poetry published and, for a time, was the head of the creative writing portion of the department. Most of the students in that particular class were people seeking their masters or their PHD in poetry. I and two of my classmates were prose people who’d taken the poetry workshop for the experience. Next to all the others, we were rank amateurs.

As far as classroom critiques went, that poetry workshop was the hardest of my whole graduate school career. Graduate school crits are far and away more difficult than working with my writing group today. Partly because you’re students thrown together by chance instead of friends, and partly because, since the critiques were part of our grade, a lot of students hunted for things to dislike about your work (I guess they thought it would impress the professor) and never worried about telling you if they liked anything. They also weren’t sticklers for constructive criticism, and didn’t care if they crushed your muse. But those crits gave me a thick skin when it comes to criticism and rejections, and they made me really appreciate the supportive, yet constructively critical, writing group I have today.

One of the poems I wrote in that poetry workshop was about something I’d seen in real life. I’d been driving to campus one day, when I saw, on the side of the Interstate, the burned out husk of a car that had been in an accident. But what struck me was that, in the trunk of that car was a dozen red roses. The flowers had a shocking beauty when compared with the soot-streaked metal of the car, and it made me sad to think about the person who probably died in the crash and the person who loved them enough to bring the roses.

I took the poem to class, and no one liked it. No one. The comment I will always remember was from this girl who seldom had anything good to say about anyone’s poem. She said I shouldn’t have used roses because they were too cliche. It was her only comment at all on my poem.

That moment nearly turned me off to poetry entirely! I was so angry… One of the things I like about writing is being able to use inspiration taken from the real world. Sure, not always and sometimes you change it, but other times the real world inspiration is important. And that image that I tried to recreate in that poem would have been totally different if the flowers had been violets or calla lilies or irises! The roses spoke of love, and the color red spoke of passion. It had to be red roses!

After that, I decided to tackle the poems I had to write for that class in a different way. Instead of trying to tell a story that meant something to me, I focused on the language to the exclusion of nearly everything else. I called it word-smushing — I tried to put together words and phrases that sounded cool without caring what they meant. The weird thing? My professor ate up this new style, and I ended up with an A in the course, even after such a stilted beginning.

With the opening of Every Day Poets for submissions, I decided to dust off some of my old poetry and give submitting it a try. The first poem I sent them was one that I’d written based on an actual event. I’d gone out to the country one night to watch a meteor shower, and when I got out of the car, a hamburger wrapper blew by and smeared ketchup on my leg. The poem was my imagining of how that wrapper came to be on that deserted stretch of road. But EDP rejected it. So, I pulled out a poem that I’d written in my word-smushing days , and it’s been accepted. Woo-hoo! I’m excited about it.

Let me be clear, I’m not dissing either EDP or poetry in general. Not at all. It’s been eye opening to have my poetry reacted to the same way as it was in graduate school (though, I much appreciate the EDF editors for being positive and constructive in their rejections, as opposed to the snootiness of some of my former classmates).

Now that I have more distance from that poetry workshop, the more I think maybe the reason my “real life” poetry isn’t successful is my own mindset and the writing style that mindset evokes. I’m a prose person. Poetry is hard for me, and when I’m writing poetry about something real, I think maybe I’m too literal about it. I use too many conjunctions and articles, when every word needs to have a certain kind of importance. The word-smushing somehow gave me access to the poet’s corner of my mind. Using something less personal as the subject helped me get away from telling the story and really explore the poetic nuances of language.

I’m proud of the poem that EDP accepted. I had fun writing it back then (despite my issues with that workshop class), and some of the wording and imagery I used has stuck with me, even eight years later. And the poem is actually about something — it’s just not about a real life event or image; it’s about something more ephemeral than that (the title of the poem is “Inspiration,” if that gives you an idea). I’m really excited for the poem to appear in EDP, whenever that comes to pass.

I don’t know that I will ever pursue poetry in the long-term. It’s a challenge for me to get into that mode, apparently. I wonder if there is such a term as “prose-bound”?

The thing I admire the most about poets is how they can take so few words and make a piece of writing where every single word is important and pulls its own weight. To do that and to tell a story at the same time… that’s impressive! 

I’m glad EDP has come along. This poetry submission process has helped me to re-examine some of my misconceptions from that grad school workshop, and I think I’m a better writer for it. And, who knows… maybe a few trips to the poet’s corner are in my future. We’ll see what my muse has to say!

I can’t believe the upswing in spam comments I’ve gotten in the past couple of weeks! I was marking spam comments today, and I got a little click happy. Two actual comments went into the spam netherspace, and I can’t figure out how to get them back! Grrr!

Anyway, sorry KC and Sylvia (I think it was y’all’s names I saw flash by before the comments disappeared!). Total blunder on my part. I wasn’t trying to make you spam.