Living the Fictional Dream

…14 more to go.

I was thinking this SED contest required 14 stories total, then I realized, since we start and end on a Wednesday, it’s actually 15 stories total. Wowzers.

I’m just glad to have one written!

Six members of the group turned in a story for yesterday, which is awesome turn-out, in my opinion. Congrats to all of y’all!

And now I must find an idea for today’s story. There is something pecking at the back of my brain about a superhero ball, but I can’t quite suss out what the plot would be.

The sad thing is that I kept having these little story ideas recently, but I was saving them for the SED contest. But now the ideas all seem to have flown away. I knew I should have made a list! Curses!

Once again, my writing group is challenging itself to write a story every day for two weeks in the month of June. Last year, I got several good stories out of the SED contest, some of which were published. I wrote a lot of dreck, as well, but that always happens with a challenge of this sort. You have to write through the dreck to get to the good stuff. Any any amount of good stories makes the goal worth attempting!

Hopefully, this will be the challenge that I need to help my writing motiviation. I’m not sure I’ll have the same stamina for it that I had last year (I won the 2008 SED contest), but I’m looking forward to trying.

If you don’t see as much of me around here from 6/10 to 6/24, you’ll know that I’m (hopefully) slaving away on my daily story!

Good luck to all the Writer’s Ink members as they dive into this contest tomorrow. I hope we all get lots of good stories out of it!

In other news, if you’re looking for a fun story to read to pass the time, check out “Seaside Sideshow” by writing group mate Stephanie. It’s a unique take on the selkie myth. I tried my hand at a selkie story last year, but I think that hers is better! It’s up at Bewildering Stories.

And, if you’re looking for something to read that’s more informative but less fun (strictly speaking) check out writing group mate Jens’s blog article, “Korean Suicide Culture.” I don’t have any formulated thoughts to share on this yet, but reading about it really made me think.

I didn’t end up actually writing at my writing group’s write-in last night (hmm… how many times can I get a form of the word “write” into one sentence?). But, I’m pleased with the way I spent my two hours.

I dug back into my pool of rejected stories and found new markets to target them to. My writing group makes goals for writing-related tasks that we will hold each other accountable for accomplishing between meetings. My goal for the next meeting was to submit a story. I did one better last night and submitted two. Go me!

Lack of writing (be that because of work, the baby, or just a stellar lack of motivation) is one reason that my publications have tapered off so since January. But, the other reason is that I have not kept on top of my rejections. The best thing to do is get a rejection and send the story right back out again (or, if needed, revise and then submit again, depending of the story). It’s important to keep stories in circulation!

Add these two stories to the two that I submitted at the end of May, and now I have four stories making the rounds again. It’s definitely progress! Perhaps the end of the year will hold a few more publications for me than the beginning has. If one of the four were accepted, I would call it a win.

And, in the meantime, no matter what happens with those four stories, I do have two upcoming publications to look forward to. I will have a story (”The Last Ball at Concord House”) in the first issue of 10Flash later this summer, and one of the later issues of A Thousand Faces this year will feature a superhero short story that I wrote last year (”Dinner for Three” — a story that can loosely be termed a sequel to “Bridge Club”).

Oh, and speaking of superhero fiction, the new issue of A Thousand Faces is available, and it features an amusing flash piece from writing group mate, Jens. It is even set in Fort Worth! Give it a look when you have some time.

Happy writing and submitting, every one!

This is a little belated, but last week one of my archived posts from this blog was reprinted over at EDF’s Flash Fiction Blog. It’s called “Excuses, Excuses,” and originally appeared here last July. Head on over and take a look. And, while you’re there, read some of the other recent blog entries. Jordan wrote an interesting one on dialog-only stories, K.C. contributed one about common story ideas, and there are quite a few other interesting reads, as well. This is a very informational and helpful blog if you write fiction — flash or otherwise.

Sorry I’ve been M.I.A. in the blog-o-sphere lately. The craziness keeps increasing. I guess it will be that way until the baby makes her appearance (estimated at the end of August). My husband and I have been/will be booked every weekend between Memorial Day and the end of June! Trips home, attending weddings (3 in June!), helping my sister move (well, he did that last weekend — I supervised and fetched lunch!), and baby showers. It’s all fun and/or important stuff, but leaves little time on the weekends for writing or blogging. Add to that a huge slew of projects at work that have to get done before I go on maternity leave and all the house projects we want to complete before the baby comes (finishing the nursery paint job, new carpet in the nursery, putting together baby furniture), and I’m definitely feeling the pressure.

However, I am looking forward to my writing group’s write-in this week. Those are always fun, and I know I’ll have at least a couple of hours that I can devote only to writing. It will be a nice change of pace from the hectic day-to-day.

I hope everyone else is having a less hectic time than I am, and that you all have ample time to pound away on those works in progress! Happy writing, everyone!

I’m working on another flash piece right now… it started with one of the prompts from my writing group’s April prompts writing contest. The prompt challenged me to write a story about ice. I wanted to do something different than just have the story take place in an icy setting or have an ice cube as an object. So, instead, ice is the main character… in a way.

Now I just need to buckle down and do revisions after my writing group was so helpful as to send critiques to me. I don’t know why I’m having such troubles making myself sit down and write or revise these days. Maybe my group should have more write-ins… I find myself being more productive at planned writing activities than in finding time on my own. When I’m at home right now, there is always something else to do — usually baby prep.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and we’re going to stay at my parents’ cabin for the holiday. It is usually so quiet and peaceful out there — also, there is no internet or cable to distract me. Perhaps I will find some good writing time while we’re there — when we’re not at my friends’ pool party!

Sorry for disappearing on you guys for a week. I caught this horrible crud last week and it laid me low for a long time. I’m only just now finally feeling sort of normal and getting back into the swing of work, and I’m still suffering from the lingering cough and runny nose. It really sucks being sick when you’re pregnant — you’re not allowed any of the good meds!

But, enough about that boring stuff. Let’s talk about writing.

When I logged into my email account after having been down for so long, I was rewarded with one acceptance and one rejection. It was nice that they balanced each other out!

A very strange story (about superheroes and vomit, of all things) was rejected. I wasn’t surprised. There were some really stomach churning descriptions in there (yes… I wrote it under the influence of first trimester morning sickness!). Now I have to look at it again (if I can find the stomach for it) and see if there is something revisable in that mess. I liked it at the time, but now… I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s because I’m now past all that nausea?

On the happier side of things, I wrote a little ghost story flash called “The Last Ball at Concord House,” and it will be published in the inaugural issue of 10Flash. I’m excited about that — it’s really neat to be part of a brand new ‘zine. And congrats to K.C. for all the work she’s been putting into it! I think it’s going to be a really fun publication!

And, speaking of K.C., if you’re interested in writing flash, you should read this post over on her blog. I enjoyed it a lot.

Finally, this is a little late, but my writing group mate Alex had a story published on Every Day Fiction earlier this week. It’s called, “The Squeeze.” It’s very short, and the ending will make you laugh.

Thanks to last night’s write-in with my writing group (and fellow attendees Stephanie and Sandra), I managed to finally finish the flash piece that I’ve been working on for a couple of months. And, after that, I popped it in an email and sent it off to the market it was written for. We will see if they like it!

Either way, it was a nice sense of accomplishment to actually finish a story this year. There hasn’t been enough of that lately. I know I have my excuses (all called pregnancy, LOL!), but it felt nice to actually finish a story and get it out the door.

Maybe I need to make myself a small but managable goal for the next few months. If I could make myself sit down for, say, two hours a week and either write or dust off stories for submissions, that would at least be a little progress. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, but I also don’t like slipping into the void of absolutely no progress.

Hmmm… something to think about anyway.

Happy writing everyone (especially Virginia and Dauna who have challenged themselves to write a story a day for the next two weeks)!

Some members of my writing group have been having an exciting time of it this month. Stephanie has been inspired by her April Fool challenge, and she’s in the running to win the monthly prompt-writing contest (I’m facilitating this month). Talk about a great way to get your butt in the chair for some regular writing — challenge yourself to write a story every day for a month (and then actually follow through).

But, Stephanie has some serious competition from fellow writing group mate, Sandra, who blasted in out of nowhere to tie Stephanie for first place. They have until midnight tonight to break the tie, otherwise, the winner is the person with the highest word count.

Makes me happy to see all this writing. And hopefully we’ll see some short stories and flashes by both Stephanie and Sandra out in the world sometime soon. As the facilitator, I read all the prompts as they are submitted, and these girls have put out some quality writing this month. A few revisions, and they should have some great stuff.

Congrats, girls!

My writing group mate Virginia has started her first blog — Coaxing the Muse. Check it out when you get a chance. Some of her recent short story/flash/microfiction publications are linked there, as well.

Glad to have you among my fellow bloggers, VA!

When you can get a really good writing group together, the result is kind of like magic, and it’s something you don’t want to lose if you can help it.

It’s hard, because people are people. Sometimes, they don’t gel and there are bad feelings. That hurts the group, because a good writing group has to trust each other to share their very personal creative visions. A flame war is the quickest way to lose your group.

Other times, it’s hard to find the right mix of committed people. A lot of times people will get excited about the idea of a group, but once they actually join, then they disappear and you never see them again. I never know why that happens. Maybe the reality of actually having to crit other people’s stories to get their own stories critiqued was too difficult for them? Maybe they are intimidated by a group that already knows each other? Maybe, while they want to write, they just ultimately don’t have the discipline to sit down and do it (which, by extension, means they don’t have the discipline to make the time for group activities, as well)?

There could be a million reasons. But, personally, I think that having a lot of members in your group who never show up and never contribute weakens the group as a whole. It makes it harder to build trust between the members because people don’t want to share their stories with people they never see or talk to, or people who never share their own work in return. 

Disappearing members also makes it really hard to plan group events and activities. If you can’t count on people to show up at least some of the time or for certain events, how can you get a good group rhythm going?

And it can be really frustrating if the people who disapppear stick around just long enough to vote on issues that affect the group as a whole, but then vanish, leaving the group as a whole to deal with the affects of that vote. Of course, that probably happens in any group that is made up of people, whether it’s a writing group, a sewing group, or something entirely different.

And then there is the whole time issue in general, which is always a challenge. These days, everyone has a busy life. It can be a conundrum in and of itself to find a time that everyone can get together to devote an hour or so to writing and critiquing. Things come up — Bible studies, night school, family issues — and suddenly core members can’t meet on the same old night.

But, if you can find that perfect mix of people and time and get a writing group off the ground, the effort is worth it.

My writing group, Writer’s Ink, has been going for several years now. It has its ups and downs, but in the past couple of years we’ve finally developed a strong core group of members who don’t disappear on us and who are dedicated both to our own writing and to helping each other improve our writing.

It’s been fascinating to watch all of the core group develop as writers. Most of us didn’t have any publications at all when we started — or maybe just one or two. But in the past couple of years, suddenly stories from our group are showing up all over the place. Check out the publication lists on my blog, Alex’s, Stephanie’s, and Jens’s — you’ll see. All of a sudden, a group member gets that first publication, and before you know it, they’re going gang-busters.

The things I’ve learned from these guys would take me forever to list. Just to hit a few highlights, Jens has taught me to be a total nazi in my elimination of complex verb constructions and how that leads to a much more polished whole with a much better flow. Reading Stephanie’s work has given me so much inspiration for word choice — she always uses words in her stories that are completely unexpected, and yet make perfect sense in the unique way she used them. And when she critiques my stuff, not only do I benefit from her super copy editing skills, but she has this way of asking quesitons that makes me re-think certain choices in ways that improve the whole. Alex opened my eyes to the superhero fiction genre, a new favorite of mine, and he has this great understanding of all types of genre fiction as a whole that he brings to our crit sessions. I can always count on him to keep me from straying too far into cliched territory. Virginia, my fearless co-leader, is the most encouraging critter I’ve ever had, and yet she also isn’t afraid to be critical when it will improve the story. Some things I’ve learned from her are the evils of using the words “almost” or “just” and how to avoid clunky word repetition and annoying be verbs. And there’s my darling sister, Jamie, too — she’s been critting my stories since we were kids, and she is the person who keeps me honest. When I’m being too nice to my characters (a big weakness of mine), she kicks me in the butt and sets me straight again. Good stories require drama and plot, and good drama and plot require unhappy characters!

But the other cool thing about a writing group that really gels is when the creative energy starts flowing. Sometimes you don’t even need a crit. We get together at least once a month for write-ins. We started having them regularly after learning about them during National Novel Writing Month one year. There is something about a group of people sitting together and writing that really makes the creative energy flow. Suddenly, I have a huge chunk of story that I didn’t have before.

Sure, if I sat down at home and wrote, the same thing could happen. But at home there are so many distractions to pull my attention away. When I’m at a write-in, I’m there to write. And so are the others, and when we’re serious like that, the writing just comes.

Also, it’s great to be at a write-in when you get stuck on something. Everyone is always willing to take a five-minute break to help you pick the perfect character name or help you get past the plot point that’s got you stuck.

Our group challenges each other, too, which helps with that whole aspect of making yourself sit down and write. If I want to win the group’s monthly prompts contest, I have to write. If I want to compete in the group’s anually Story Every Day contest, I have to write. If I want to contribute a story to our annual themed collection… you guessed it, I have to write. Sometimes, those stories you force yourself to write don’t work, but I’ve gotten so many stories from activities like that published over the past couple of years, that I know it’s worth it.

I know that one day things will change and I won’t have the Writer’s Ink that I know and love any more. People will move away, change jobs, run out of time to devote to the group and/or their writing. Hopefully, even if we aren’t a formal group any more, at least some of us will still be crit partners. Who knows what the future holds? This year alone promises many changes. I just hope that such a time is a long time in coming, because I love this group. And, no matter what happens, I’ll always be glad that I had them for however long, because they have totally helped to shape me into the writer I am today!