First of all, status update. Unfortunately, that means confession time. I have not been writing much. I didn’t submit anything for Q2 of the Writers of the Future contest, and while I did get an entry in for Q3, I just missed the Q4 deadline. Bad Andrew! No cupcake.
The question of course is why. At first, I think it’s because I got bummed and emotionally burned out after two consecutive close but no cigar stories with the contest. The long wait and then letdown is hard to take.
Second, I made the decision after Q1 to focus on writing a novel. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow through on that either. It wasn’t a total loss, though. I went to a week long writers workshop taught by NY Times bestselling author David Farland. And let me tell you, if you have the chance to go to one of his workshops you should jump at it. I learned a lot.
Part of that workshop was a group critique of the first three chapters and a 3 page outline of your novel. I expanded the scope of my Q1 finalist story “Equivalency Pairs” and submitted that.
People either absolutely loved it or absolutely despised it. More despised it than loved it. Farland, at first, didn’t think it would appeal to a very large audience.
It turned out that a lot of the negativity was because I had done a poor job conveying how I was going to treat the novel. It’s hard to condense a 100,000 word story into 3 pages, and I focused on the plot points and neglected to mention the tone and what devices I would use to tie those points together.
I had a one on one breakfast with Farland, and after we discussed what I had in mind in greater depth he was more excited about it. He made some key suggestion on how I could improve it further. They were brilliant suggestions. The man knows his craft.
Even still, the cold reception I initially got on top of ultimately losing the contest (even if I got really, really close) made me lose some enthusiasm for the story. And after what I learned in the workshop I could see the potential audience limitations it had, even if they weren’t as dire as Farland originally thought.
I wanted a bigger breakout novel. I stopped writing the “Equivaleny Pairs” concept and started brainstorming for something bigger and better. While I got a basic premise formed, I never got anywhere near a complete concept. Basically, I floundered.
Meanwhile, I had been sending out both my finalist stories to markets (my previous HM story as well, but don’t expect it to sell). “Equivalency Pairs” is a 17,000 word fantasy story. There are only a few professional markets that accept fantasy of that length. It burned through Fantasy and Science Fiction, IGMS, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies in about two months with nothing but form letter rejections.
I know that it’s a hard sell because of its length, but once again these rejections–not even personal rejects, but form rejections–impacted my enthusiasm for the story and my writing in general.
My Q4 finalist “Wormwood’s Impact” is a 7,300 science fiction story. I had my hopes pinned on it since it is a more reasonable length. Being under 8,000 words and in the science fiction genre meant many, many more potential markets.
So far it has racked up 6 rejections, all form.
With my writing enthusiasm diminished, I allowed other interests to take priority. I bought and played a lot of StarCraft II. I watched a lot of TV. I got plain lazy.
I started to feel guilty for not writing, but I dismissed it at first. My writing is a personal endeavor. I owed nothing to anyone else, so if I chose to do something else instead, I had nothing to feel guilty about.
But then I realized it wasn’t guilt. It was regret.
So now I’m trying to get back on the horse. I started on story for Q4, but put off writing it too long and didn’t leave myself enough time. But I think it’s a really strong concept, and I’m going to complete it for Q1. And then I’m going to start working on my abandoned “Equivalency Pairs” novelization, unless/until I come up with something more solid for my bigger breakout project.
Which leaves the question of what to do with the current version of “Equivalency Pairs.” It is currently awaiting judgment at Tor.com, a Hail Mary submission to the last professional market I know of that will consider a fantasy at that length. It’s been there for almost 90 days. Duotrope lists the average response time at 190 days.
I have been following author JA Konrath’s blog for a while now. He is a HUGE advocate for self publishing on the Kindle. Author Dean Wesley Smith, whose blog I’ve been following almost religiously, has recently started advocating it as well. And I think I’m going to try it.
I considered just sending a withdrawal notice to Tor.com and throwing it up immediately. I mean, Tor.com is well beyond a long shot. They pay 25 cents/words for the first 5,000 words, 15 cents/word for the next 5000, and 10 cents a word after that. This is compared to a standard professional rate of 5 cents/word. They throw around big money, catering to name authors, and I just don’t have the resume.
I may end up withdrawing it eventually, but for now I’m going to wait. The reason is that within the next couple weeks we should start getting some results from Q3 of the contest. As I said, I did manage to get an entry in for it. And it’s another long one. Assuming that it doesn’t win, I’m going to have just as much trouble placing it. I’m going to want to put that one on the Kindle as well.
It just seems to me that having two (or preferably more, but alas, they are unwritten) works on the Kindle is much better than having only one. If a reader enjoys the first story they read, they are likely going to see if you have anything else available. If you have something there, chances are they’ll buy it. If you don’t have anything, they can’t buy it. By the time you *do* put a second work out there, it’s too late. They’ve moved on and forgotten about you.
So I’ll wait until I hear the fate of Q3 before pulling “Equivalency Pairs” from Tor.com. Hopefully Q3 will be a Finalist as well (what are the odds of three in a row?), and during the second round of waiting I’ll hear from Tor.com. Maybe they will buy it. And maybe Q3 will go the distance.
Then I wouldn’t have anything at all to put on the Kindle, but I think I could live with that.
