(no subject)

[petermarcus]

Rainy day. Rain for two days straight, which is great for our drought, but makes my commute annoying. Three and a half hours altogether yesterday, coming and going. An hour in this morning coming in. Probably worse this afternoon when I'm heading home again. Days like this make me miss Florida. When I was there, I missed mountains. Now that I'm here, I miss the beach. Maybe I'll move to California where I can have both. I was in L.A. a month ago, though, and I wasn't impressed.

Speaking of slumps (yesterday's entry), is it possible to be in a freshman slump? I'm unpublished so far (not counting college lit mags and a failed E-Zine a few years back). The closest I've come so far is a semifinalist nod at WoTF for my last (completed) story, which came with an excellent critique, a nice Honorable Mention certificate, and a lifetime membership to the Scientology mail list. I'm working on a good one now that's probably too long. Most likely a 14k novelette (SF mystery), which is tough to sell for unpublished wannabes like me, especially since I'm taking the Bwana advice (see Speculations) and sending stories only to pro mags. So far, I'm about 2/3rds through and I think it's my best so far, so I'm taking extra care with it. But I've been working on it for almost a year now. Much of the delay is Real Life(tm) intruding, which includes 2 or 3 jobs at any one time, business travel, golf addiction, house construction, etc... I know I have some downtime, however, and I'm right on the edge of procrastination vs. revision-mania. I can buy the idea of subconscious procrastination -- the process of writing molds the potential into the actual; the idea of a story becomes real words written onto paper. When the story is incomplete, the potential (and the fantasy) is there for it to be a 'Work of Substance' (insert orchestra). When the story is actually written, there is no potential anymore. The story is now the story, good, bad, okay, whatever. It stands on its own. On the other hand, for the same reason that a first album from a band is usually the best, revision over time can generate good work. I do tend to get too close to a story, and need to back off for a while until I can look at it objectively. It would probably be helpful if I could work on several stories at a time, rotating the objectivity, but I don't seem to be able to do that. Especially since I seem to be stuck in the subgenre of SF mysteries -- they need to be plotted out fairly thoroughly before I start writing. I dunno, it's still fun, even though writing seems to use a definition of 'fun' different from what most people think the word means.

Enough rambling for now? I think so :)

Comments

[wolfiegirl.livejournal.com]

I have trouble working on several projects at once, too. But I also have trouble staying excited about just one at a time--and my brain comes up with another (completely different, completely exciting to me at the time) idea. So, while I'm not exactly working on several at once, my brain is.

As to the advice, I say if you decide what's most important to you--getting published, or getting a pro career in writing going--then just do what you have to for that. I know, I know, big ol' duh on that, but sometimes it helps to remind ourselves of that.

By the way, I can't remember if I saw and commented on this in the Rumor Mill, but in case I didn't, congrats on your honorable mention at WoTF. That's pretty good, a bajillion writers enter as often as they can, and never make it that far. (BTW, that got you on the permanent Scientology mailing list? I want to know what I did to get on the permanent psychic hotline telemarketing list...)

Re:

[petermarcus.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I was jazzed to get the mention. You'd think it would encourage me to write more often, but it almost paralyzed me (what if this story isn't as good as that one....and so forth). Ah well, keep plugging away I guess.