Monthly Archives: October 2018

Post #44 – Writing Retreats

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10/25/18

Are they worth it? Are they comparable or better than writing conferences such as CapClave, which includes small workshops in addition to panel discussions with writers and editors?

And what to choose? A blogger I follow, Luke Tarzian, recently went on a writing cruise. There’s, of course, Clarion West and Odyssey. This Wired article on the Strangely Competitive World of Sci-Fi Writing Workshops was eye opening too.

Then there is Writers of the Future, if you place in the contest. I admit I am skeptical about this contest given L. Ron Hubbard’s history. Based on what I’ve seen online, the contest and retreat appear to be legit.  Also, big names in the speculative fiction realm attend every year and teach during the retreat, but it’s hard to overlook the Scientology connections as reported here and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, I’ve submitted a story every quarter for the last year.  One of my stories got through the first round of judging recently, and I admit I am intrigued by the possibility of spending a week learning the craft. Since I’ve continued to submit a story every quarter, it may still happen eventually, though my conscience is weighing heavily on me these days.

The thing about Writers of the Future is it’s free. Otherwise, I don’t know if I can justify both paying for the retreat and taking the time off from work. One seems manageable. Both seems burdensome.

Maybe it’s an investment I need to make to get better. A couple beta readers have mentioned I’ve noticeably improved since starting out, which was a great ego boost. But I don’t want to plateau. I know I’m far from a good writer, and I want to continue to improve. I’m thinking it’ll be an investment to make when one of the two constraints are lifted, i.e. the retreat is free or I’m retired.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve attended a writers retreat, which one, and what you thought of it.

Photo credit: Christian Georg via Pixabay

Post #43 – Business Trips

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10/18/18

I’m coming at you from the thriving metropolis of Orlando, Florida. No, not Disney. I’m in real Orlando. Okay, I’m near the convention center, which is probably closer to Disney than downtown Orlando. You didn’t know Orlando had a downtown? Actually, I didn’t know that either until a few years ago when a friend got married there, and I’m from Florida.

I’m on another business trip, where I often get some of my best writing done. This particular trip involves an industry convention where you meet lots of people, some are my clients and some I want to be my clients. There are education sessions, one of which I presented at.  There are the usual after hours parties, which I usually eschew. The hosts aren’t looking for my business. I’m essentially a vendor like they are. I also try to avoid the fancy dinners that take all night. I don’t find appealing sitting at a table for hours wondering where the waitstaff disappeared to again. Instead I write and I sleep, two things that don’t happen enough at home.

However, so far I’ve been so busy here my writing has suffered. I’ve used what would be my writing time in the evenings to prepare for my presentation and to do real work.  Don’t you hate it when real work gets in the way of your writing?

My only writing accomplishment was hammering out a 900 word flash piece on the plane here. The idea for the story came to me last Friday while running. Those runs remain my favorite time/place to come up with new ideas and plot existing ideas, as I detailed in Post #33. I’m pleased the story came together so quickly. I already sent it to one of my beta readers, who liked it.  I should be able to finalize this one and get it out the door to its first potential market fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, I’ve gone on two runs while here and have nothing writing related to show for it. There have been no new ideas and no further plotting of existing stories.  I’ve been more concerned with not getting run over by Florida drivers, who don’t feel the need to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk… ever.

Let me know in the comments whether your business trips are productive from a writing standpoint.

Photo credit: Skitterphoto via Pixabay

Post #42 – Plagiarism and Banned Authors

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10/11/18

A blog I follow, The Ryan Lanz, had a recent post on plagiarism.

Then I read this story about Amazon banning self publishing authors for questionable conduct.

Neither issue impacts me at the moment, and yet now I’m hesitant to dive into self publishing, especially on Amazon. As if it’s not scary enough to put oneself out there by self publishing a novel, now you can be falsely accused of plagiarism? With limited recourse? And potentially being prohibited from selling in the largest online  marketplace? Though I’m likely years from attempting to publish a novel, I dream of self publishing a collection of short stories. Ideally, this would include reprints of my stories that appeared in literary magazines, along with maybe a new tale or two to lure in my vast audience. Remember this is a dream. But could I be accused of plagiarizing myself?

As an aside, the most interesting copyright case I remember involved George Harrison being sued, and losing, for plagiarizing “He’s So Fine” when writing “My Sweet Lord.” The court’s decision made obvious the judge was a fan and really didn’t want to rule against Harrison. How else did the judge come up with “subconscious plagiarism”? Unfortunately, the facts were not in Harrison’s favor.

And what’s with gaming the system to increase your ranking on Amazon? I enjoy money as much as the next person, but I can’t see myself trying techno-tricks to beat Amazon at its own game. Maybe I just don’t have the bandwidth to attempt to learn such tricks, but more likely I just don’t care. Maybe I’d feel differently if writing was my career. Maybe when you’re desperate, this seems like an easy solution to help. Isn’t that the rationale/cause of a lot of crime?

Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. Maybe there is a story or two to be had from these events. I’m always on the look out for those.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve had issues with plagiarism or the machine that is Amazon in general. Are there other traps out there to be weary of?

Photo credit: mohamed_hassan via Pixabay

Post #41 – 3Q18 Update

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10/4/18

The third quarter is in the books, and below are my stats.

Words written = 13,400

Submissions = 26

Rejections = 23

Acceptances = 0

Publications = 1

It was an interesting quarter. I spent July feverishly trying to finish a novella in time for Tor’s submission window, which closed mid-August, only to realize it wouldn’t happen. The novella had grown beyond my original intended ending, and there wasn’t time to develop a new proper ending. This project remains ongoing. I still haven’t figured out what that proper ending is yet.

August was bookended by a business trip the first week and vacation the last week, both of which offered opportunities to be productive, and I took them. During the business trip, I wrote a new children’s picture book manuscript, which I’m really excited about, added on to an in progress short story and started a flash fiction story. On vacation I finished that short story and flash fiction story, started a new flash fiction piece, and added 1000 words to the novella.

I was disappointed not to receive an acceptance this quarter. That broke my (admittedly short) streak of one acceptance a quarter this year. However, that was buoyed by the publication of my first accepted work in the Fall 2018 issue of Stinkwaves Magazine. Technically, that issue was not published until October 1, but I’m counting it because the issue was available for pre-order in September.

I’m comfortably on track to hit my 50,000 word goal by the end of the year. For the final quarter of 2018, in addition to the never ending cycle of submissions, I’d like to finish the novella and the new flash fiction piece. I’d also like to start and finish a new children’s picture book manuscript. In fact, my new goal is to do that every quarter. My list of ideas for children’s books isn’t getting any shorter.

The open question is what to do about NaNoWriMo. Do I attempt it? If so, with what? Do I try to hit the 50,000 words using a series of short stories, or do I finally work on my novel?

I doubt I’ll try either way. I still don’t have the time needed to devote to that challenge, so the pressure would just annoy me. I may devote the month to my novel anyway. I’m intrigued to see what progress I can make. A post last month on A Writers Path advocated writing 300-500 words a day for a year. Writing 300 words six days a week for 50 weeks comes to a respectable +90,000 words in a year, i.e. a novel. (Ironically, I’m excluding two weeks for vacation, which is one of my more productive times.) If I try that approach over the 30 days in November, I’ll at least net 9,000 words.

Let me know in the comments how productive your last three months were and how you plan to finish out the year. Do you plan on tackling NaNoWriMo?

Photo credit: Free-Photos via Pixabay