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The Trunk
Disclaimer: What I am about to write here applies only to me. You should in no way take this post as me trying to give you writing advice. What works for me may not be the best thing for you. The views expressed yadda yadda, etc.
Perhaps it is a defect in my psychological make-up, but once I've finished a story to my satisfaction--once I've workshopped it and rewritten it and had the Red of Doom! bleed all over it--after putting all that work into it, I refuse to give up on any story.
I'm a stubborn bastard when it comes to my fiction. I think each of my stories deserves a home of its own, so I never give up on them. Never Ever.
I may run out of reasonable markets to send a story to. It may sit around for years before I send it out again, but I never give up on a piece. I may pick it up after it's sat for six months, look at it, and work on it some more, but I never put a story into "The Trunk."
This brings me to my next thought (this would be a good time for you to glance up and read the disclaimer again):
I know several writers who have made it very clear that they only submit to SFWA pro markets and certain "first tier" semi-pro markets (though determining what constitutes a "first tier" semi-pro market can lead to the same kind of arguments we saw on the SFWA community about what constitutes a "professional writer"). If they can't sell it to one of these top markets, they put the story away. If this works for them, great.
It doesn't work for me. This is not to say that I don't start by submitting to those kinds of markets. I do, mostly because that's where the money (such as it is) is and because (this is the important bit) that's where the story can find the widest audience.
The last time I checked my spreadsheet, I had about 90 potential paying markets I can submit to. Some pay 10¢ a word, some pay 1¢ a word, some pay $20, some pay $5, but they all pay something.
I don't see the point in letting a story sit around on the hard drive doing nothing if I can place it somewhere. 10¢ a word is damned nice and $5 is better than $0. $5 will buy me a cuppa down at Dunn Brothers. I'm just saying.
But the important thing, at least to me (see disclaimer above), is the story is now out in the wilds and in front of readers. That's why I do this (well, that and a pathological need to tell lies in the form of fiction), I mean, come on: this isn't a business where you get rich. I write with the idea that, first and foremost, I want to entertain people (including me) and if I sell a story to a magazine that pays $25 and has 200 (or 20) readers and only a quarter of them liked my story, well that's 50 (or 5) people I've entertained today.
If I "Trunk" the piece, how many people did I entertain? How many people got a smile, or a bit of joy, or even just a thoughtful "Huh?" reaction from my story? The answer is: none.
It occurs to me that this philosophy may mark me as an "amateur" in the eyes of some people. So be it.
One argument I can hear rising up already is: "Yeah, but you're judged by the company you keep."
Yes, that is true. You are judged by the company you keep. I learned that back in high school. That said, I do look for certain things in a market.
1) Pay. As in: do they? There are exactly two 4TL markets I work with, and I have specific reasons for working with them.
2) Editorial presence and control. I don't want to be in a magazine where the editor obviously doesn't care about things like grammar and punctuation. This leads me to:
3) How does the finished product look?
I look at these three things because yeah, anyone could get some web space and put on a beanie that says "I is un editorz" and start paying 1/10 of a penny a word for their new ezine, "Amazing Astounding Supernatural Fantastic Tales of the Weird." I could do it. Hell, I like to think I could do it and be a decent editor. I wouldn't even need a beanie (with or without a propeller) and I'm sure I could come up with a better name for my magazine than the one above.
(See disclaimer above) I just think writers harp on the "judged by your company" too much. New markets have to start somewhere and not everyone who wants to start a magazine is bestest buddies with well-known writers who can help their magazine gain instant acceptance and respect by having their story appear in that magazine.
And I don't like the concept of being judged by the company I keep on any level. In real life I hang out with a lot of people who live non-traditional lifestyles; some of them way out on the fringe of what "normal" society considers "good company." So you see, the "company you keep" argument doesn't hold a lot of water with me. Less so if I'm being paid by that "company" to entertain and amuse people.
Another argument against my philosophy would be, "You’re going to be embarrassed by this stuff later down the road."
Perhaps, but I doubt it. Why should I be embarrassed? It may not be the best work I can do now, but it was the best work I could do at the time with the skills and tools I had available to me. And I found that story a home, a place to be read by other people. Hopefully it brought a little joy into someone's life, even if that someone was the only person who did enjoy it.
Why should I be embarrassed? I was paid money for something I love doing (Please note that this is not an excuse to write crap. But then again, if someone bought it, it can't be complete crap, can it?).
And if I were ever to "hit it big" as a writer, then all this published early work will give literary crit wanks something to gnaw on for ages. I'm just doing my part to secure their futures, right?
Writers sometimes talk about how their stories are like their own children. Well, if that's true, and if my child is ugly, cross-eyes, inarticulate, and wets the bed, I'm still going to love him or her anyway, bumps, warts, comma-splices, misplaced semi-colons and all.
And I won't put my children--I won’t put something I do indeed love--into a "Trunk" to be forgotten.
Your mileage may vary.
In Peace,
Michael
Perhaps it is a defect in my psychological make-up, but once I've finished a story to my satisfaction--once I've workshopped it and rewritten it and had the Red of Doom! bleed all over it--after putting all that work into it, I refuse to give up on any story.
I'm a stubborn bastard when it comes to my fiction. I think each of my stories deserves a home of its own, so I never give up on them. Never Ever.
I may run out of reasonable markets to send a story to. It may sit around for years before I send it out again, but I never give up on a piece. I may pick it up after it's sat for six months, look at it, and work on it some more, but I never put a story into "The Trunk."
This brings me to my next thought (this would be a good time for you to glance up and read the disclaimer again):
I know several writers who have made it very clear that they only submit to SFWA pro markets and certain "first tier" semi-pro markets (though determining what constitutes a "first tier" semi-pro market can lead to the same kind of arguments we saw on the SFWA community about what constitutes a "professional writer"). If they can't sell it to one of these top markets, they put the story away. If this works for them, great.
It doesn't work for me. This is not to say that I don't start by submitting to those kinds of markets. I do, mostly because that's where the money (such as it is) is and because (this is the important bit) that's where the story can find the widest audience.
The last time I checked my spreadsheet, I had about 90 potential paying markets I can submit to. Some pay 10¢ a word, some pay 1¢ a word, some pay $20, some pay $5, but they all pay something.
I don't see the point in letting a story sit around on the hard drive doing nothing if I can place it somewhere. 10¢ a word is damned nice and $5 is better than $0. $5 will buy me a cuppa down at Dunn Brothers. I'm just saying.
But the important thing, at least to me (see disclaimer above), is the story is now out in the wilds and in front of readers. That's why I do this (well, that and a pathological need to tell lies in the form of fiction), I mean, come on: this isn't a business where you get rich. I write with the idea that, first and foremost, I want to entertain people (including me) and if I sell a story to a magazine that pays $25 and has 200 (or 20) readers and only a quarter of them liked my story, well that's 50 (or 5) people I've entertained today.
If I "Trunk" the piece, how many people did I entertain? How many people got a smile, or a bit of joy, or even just a thoughtful "Huh?" reaction from my story? The answer is: none.
It occurs to me that this philosophy may mark me as an "amateur" in the eyes of some people. So be it.
One argument I can hear rising up already is: "Yeah, but you're judged by the company you keep."
Yes, that is true. You are judged by the company you keep. I learned that back in high school. That said, I do look for certain things in a market.
1) Pay. As in: do they? There are exactly two 4TL markets I work with, and I have specific reasons for working with them.
2) Editorial presence and control. I don't want to be in a magazine where the editor obviously doesn't care about things like grammar and punctuation. This leads me to:
3) How does the finished product look?
I look at these three things because yeah, anyone could get some web space and put on a beanie that says "I is un editorz" and start paying 1/10 of a penny a word for their new ezine, "Amazing Astounding Supernatural Fantastic Tales of the Weird." I could do it. Hell, I like to think I could do it and be a decent editor. I wouldn't even need a beanie (with or without a propeller) and I'm sure I could come up with a better name for my magazine than the one above.
(See disclaimer above) I just think writers harp on the "judged by your company" too much. New markets have to start somewhere and not everyone who wants to start a magazine is bestest buddies with well-known writers who can help their magazine gain instant acceptance and respect by having their story appear in that magazine.
And I don't like the concept of being judged by the company I keep on any level. In real life I hang out with a lot of people who live non-traditional lifestyles; some of them way out on the fringe of what "normal" society considers "good company." So you see, the "company you keep" argument doesn't hold a lot of water with me. Less so if I'm being paid by that "company" to entertain and amuse people.
Another argument against my philosophy would be, "You’re going to be embarrassed by this stuff later down the road."
Perhaps, but I doubt it. Why should I be embarrassed? It may not be the best work I can do now, but it was the best work I could do at the time with the skills and tools I had available to me. And I found that story a home, a place to be read by other people. Hopefully it brought a little joy into someone's life, even if that someone was the only person who did enjoy it.
Why should I be embarrassed? I was paid money for something I love doing (Please note that this is not an excuse to write crap. But then again, if someone bought it, it can't be complete crap, can it?).
And if I were ever to "hit it big" as a writer, then all this published early work will give literary crit wanks something to gnaw on for ages. I'm just doing my part to secure their futures, right?
Writers sometimes talk about how their stories are like their own children. Well, if that's true, and if my child is ugly, cross-eyes, inarticulate, and wets the bed, I'm still going to love him or her anyway, bumps, warts, comma-splices, misplaced semi-colons and all.
And I won't put my children--I won’t put something I do indeed love--into a "Trunk" to be forgotten.
Your mileage may vary.
In Peace,
Michael