a question

Since I haven't quite jumped into a novel, I figure if I don't actually write, I'll work for an hour on submissions or editing. Is that okay? It's just that I've been holding on to several things, telling myself I "wanted to look through them one more time" before sending them in, so I want to get those at least sent out before I get back to my half-finished novel.

Okay, a question about simultaneous submissions. I've got 5 magazines I want to send a story to. Most explicitly say they consider simultaneous submissions, but some don't. Also, the response time varies a lot. So what if a magazine accepts it in two months, but I haven't heard back from the magazine that pays three times as much because their response time is six months? Can I email them and explain that I have an offer? Or do I just accept the first one I have? I mean, it's jsut a short story, and we're not talking a lot of money, but I don't know when to hold out for a long shot and when to just go with the magazine that's most likely to publish it, even if they only pay $40. What do you think?

PS--I know I sound like a brat for assuming that ANYONE would want to pay me for ANYTHING I write, let alone fight other editors for the chance to publish my little story. I was just wondering what to do if the situation should happen to arise.

Quotes

"To Be What You Must, You Must Give Up What You Are."

- Cat Stevens

And another, on revising, from Elena:

"Murder your darlings." -Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

Day Eight

Did it:

Kim
Jamie - I had to kill a character. No idea that would happen this morning. And when you only have four characters, and you kill one on page ten.... well, that's a little frightening.
Laura - All characters survived
Elena
Julie-I worked on a cover letter for a short story I'm submitting, plus I revised it.

Didn't:

An issue...

I decided to write early this morning, because I'm so creatively exhausted (and physically exhausted) by the evening. I should be planning for my day, but it's a short week at school, we'll survive.
Anyhow, I was working on some dialogue this morning and have discovered that I have an issue with dialogue. The words themselves are easy. The problem is in the "she said, he replied" stuff, I guess my inner actress comes out and I just think about the lines as if delivered on stage, and so my writing tends to like the, "she said with a sultry voice" kind of stuff. Can you write dialogue like that? Is it too confusing? Should I worry about it at this point, or just deal with it in a 2nd draft?

An example...

My teacher saw me staring aimlessly and came over to my desk, she knelt patiently by my side and asked in that sweet teacher voice, “You having some trouble sweetheart?”
“Nope, just thinking.”
“Do you have an idea that you’re thinking about?” she asked hopefully.
“Well, I’m just trying to decide”, I lied. To make a decision you have to have the hint of an idea.
“What are the ideas you’re thinking about?”
(Geez, does this woman work for the CIA Interrogation team???)
“Well, I’m deciding whether to write about an animal or a person.”
“Or you could write about both.”
(Is that supposed to help?)
“Yeah, I guess I could. Like a girl and her ….” I looked up, the first animal I saw was a giant snake hanging off the corner of the teachers desk. “And her pet snake.”
“Sure”, she said with a very hesitant look, “that could be really interesting. Why don’t you try writing about that?”
“Ok, I will. I’ll get started right now.” I looked up at her, hoping she would buy my false confidence. She strolled off, it must have worked.

Day Seven...

Did it:
Laura
Julie--I had to ignore my poor son, but one tage doesn't take long.....
Jamie -- 3/4 page.... I think I'm rounding up :)
Elena
Kim

Didn't:

Business, Revisited

I think we'll go with bonus points for weekends.

Happy writing....

Quandary

First:

I read the best line in "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman this weekend.

It said,

"If he had been younger, he would have put it in his mouth."

I love how that line says so much in such an uncomplicated yet unique way.

Second:

I found a piece of old writing today when I was cleaning out the drawer in the kitchen. I think it's a description of a dream I had that I wrote down on a piece of paper while I made the girls' breakfast one morning. I really like it, but I have no idea for a plot to go with it. A great scene, but no plot.

So, now I have three stories and I can't pick which one to make my project for the next year. I thought I'd give a line from each one... and you could vote on your favorite. Not that one line will tell you or me much. But I thought it would be a fun game to play with my indecision. So, in the spirit of the Dating Game:

Game Show Host: Story Number One... what is your favorite line?

Story Number One: Well, I'd have to say it would be this little ditty: "

Haltingly, I ran my mind over the empty memories of those faraway years. Truth be told, there was not much I could remember either. My parents themselves were like missing teeth, teeth knocked out and never grown again, in all the months and days that’d passed. Teeth that left a swollen pit where root had snapped from base.

Game Show Host: Well, you know, that's not really one sentence, Story Number One.

Story Number One: It isn't? Well what about this:

I breathed in deep, taking cold air inside my lungs as I tried to burn out the blood and dirt and tears of all those tales.

Game Show Host: Really, Story Number One, you're going to be disqualified if you keep going on like this. I think you just think you're better because she's written more of you.... Moving on... Story Number Two, what's your favorite line?

Story Number Two: Honestly, I think I need to be re-written... but you know, it's the heart that counts.

Game Show Host: Give us a line.

Story Number Two: If you insist. I guess I'll choose this one:

Of course, in the back of my mind I knew that things could turn out like the library. It had been missing since Thursday.

Game Show Host: Really, can any of you count? I guess I am dealing with the written word here. Okay, okay. Story Number Three, what about you?

Story Number Three: Well, there's not much of me to draw from. And really, she was serving breakfast at the time... but I guess I'll go with this:

“I will not buy you back with blood,” he said, “but perhaps I can recruit you.”

Game Show Host: Well, there you have it folks. Three lines. Which would you pick to be your story of the year?

Day Six

Did it:

Kim
Jamie
Elena--three pages of world-building finished at 11:30 p.m., only because I had a deadline.
Julie--I'm rounding up


Didn't:

Did We Discuss This?

Are we doing weekends?

What's your vote?

Good Quote

I read this today on Dave Farland's daily email. Since I think I'm not the only one rough drafting, I thought it might help some of you, as much as it helped me.

“Writers write. Put your butt in the chair and write on a regular basis. Ray Bradbury said, ‘the muse cannot resist a working writer.’ I start off by writing why I can’t write. Type every reason you can’t write. Complain . . . whatever. Half a page to a page in, the muse says, ‘Well, if you’re going to be writing anyway, you can do better than this.’ Also, if you don’t protect your time, no one will. I wrote my first book two pages a day, five days a week.

Don’t rewrite as you go. Don’t try to make your first chapters perfect. If you come to a scene where you don’t know what 14th-century underwear looks like, don’t stop and research 14th-century underwear. Just write ‘underwear here.’ The second draft is filling those holes. Seventy percent of a first draft is garbage and 30 percent is gold. It’s a very daunting thing to think you’re going to sit down and write a whole book out of thin air, but you have to work, even when you’re not inspired.”

Laurell K. Hamilton.