Friday, February 4, 2011

The Adventure That Was January

 So far the year has been full of writing adventure - from the fantastic SCBWI conference held in NYC last weekend to the focused insanity that is Write 1 Sub 1. This month was the first month of Write 1 Sub 1, a year-long project to write (and submit!) a short story every week.

I wrote five short stories in January:
  1. Pomegranate Soda, about the challenges coming home from Iraq;
  2. All We Know of Heaven and Hell, a sci-fi story about a woman who joins a dangerous space mission to earn the money to save her young daughter's life from leukemia;
  3. Why Peter Came, a horror piece of flash-fiction where there's trouble at the Darling residence (I love this story but feel guilty turning my beloved Peter Pan stories into something darker);
  4. Alien Lands, another realistic contemp story about life in Iraq;
  5. Every Other Sunday, about family and grief.
I subbed out seven stories altogether to fourteen different markets.  Which allowed me to garner my first three rejections of the year (well, from that batch; there was another that came in on the 1st of the year, which was an especially nice touch).  I'm not too bothered by those numbers, though. Like many short story writers I sub to the top journals that seem appropriate and then work my way down the list.

I made my way about 1/3 of the way through this round of revisions on my novel The Goddess of Vengeance Wore Pink Galoshes. Sometimes I'm overcome by despair of the revision process, but usually I'm full of excitement about this story and the process of making it even better.

Aaand my YA mystery work-in-progress now has a working title: Recovering Sara. Love love love this thing, even in rough draft. I'm at about 13k and taking a break from writing to go through revisions - I was experimenting with first person present tense and I've decided first person past fits the tale a bit better. It was fun for me as a writer to do first person present, but I think it reads more accessibly this way.

So yeah. That's January. What are you guys up to this month? What's coming up in February?

11 comments:

Old Kitty said...

Wow!!!! Yay that you're all prolific with your stories!! They'll find homes, they will!!!

Congrats with your new wip and lovely title!! Recovering Sara. Sounds fabulous!!

What's coming up in Feb? Oooh hopefully more subs and last of my edits! Well, I can only try! Take care
x

Unknown said...

Great job on all that's been accomplished! That's incredible! Keep up the great work!!!

I wrote a novel in January, I'm currently working with a publisher and hopefully in February I should hear if I'm going to be a published author!

dolorah said...

Its nice to see someone in love with their WIP, and the revisions on another.

Awesome that you're writing and submitting so many stories.

@Jen: Congrats to you too. I'll keep my fingers crossed you get published.

......dhole

Charmaine Clancy said...

Edit, edit, edit - that's my February :-)

LMB said...

Your short stories sound interesting & I hope they get published so I can read them...I even tried clicking on the underlined titles, hoping they would lead me to a story!

Katie Axelson said...

So remember that WIP that I had contemplated finishing by Labor Day... then New Years...? Well, it's not done yet. So we're hoping that will come to a close soon! I'm kind of getting sick of it but it's so close to first draft completion that I don't dare put it away. I also very, very rough drafted a very, very weird short story that I'm kind of interested in playing with some more. It's so different for me... There's also A LOT of reading on the horizon, and I'm ok with that.

<>< Katie

Anonymous said...

Nicely done. "Focused insanity" - that should be our new W1S1 motto. =]

Jemi Fraser said...

You've had a productive month! Mine's been crazy busy and not nearly as productive. Hope February gives me a little more time! :)

Sophia said...

Wow, if that's not some serious productivity to aspire to then I don't know what is! Short stories, first drafts and revisions, you're off to a fantastic start this year.

I have the beginning and ending of a short story in rough so I'd like to piece together a finished version. It's not much but I'm not much of a short story writer and I don't have an outlined novel to dive into-- I don't want to get rusty with all this thinking but no writing! I hope your month continues to be as productive as January!
- Sophia.

Tamara Holland said...

Nice work! I am in re-writes of mini-series bio-pic I plan to have out for reads by colleagues at the end of the month. And, in my day job, I filed a Reply Brief in a capital appeal in January.

Are you on Twitter? Would love to follow, if so. Hit me at @beanupthenose.

Shelley Sly said...

Wow, you've been so productive -- that is fantastic! I like the premises of all of your stories. Wishing you the very best of luck!

And I like the title "Recovering Sara". Man, you are good at titles! ;)

After receiving a personalized rejection (yay), I'm going back and revising my MS before querying it again. So that's my plan for February.