Posts Tagged Proof of Concept
Scheduling
Posted by DLThurston in Capsule, Nickajack, Short Stories on June 28, 2011
Alright, that was fun yesterday, and I’ll probably do that again. Not on any real schedule, but every few weeks or so when inspiration strikes.
So then, this is a lot of week. I need a schedule.
Today: #5MinuteFiction (everyone come and play!), then getting my submission to Future Lovecraft finalized and sent out the door. Did the final editing pass yesterday, today is about finalizing format and getting the cover email assembled.
Tomorrow: #HumpDayChallenge (everyone come and play again!), Wednesday Writerly Words, then…gosh, it’s a weird hole in my week. Future Lovecraft will be out the door, my Memory Eater story will still be out for review with my fellow Cat Vacuumers, and my wife will probably be writing like crazy to get two stories out the door by week’s end. So it’ll probably be alternating between Wii Sports Resort and plot noodling on Nickajack.
Thursday: Fortnightcap (everyone come and…read!), hopefully people will indulge me as I go non-fictional this week, a story that I really want to tell but want to do it more narratively, hence doing it there. Then get critiques for Memory Eater.
Friday: State of the Writer, and then BALLGAME!
Three day weekend: Edits to Memory Eater with any eye to getting it out the door by Monday.
Then…Capsule. I know, it’s exciting.
Beyond Light, Capsule, Nickajack, Planning, Proof of Concept, submissions
The Barrel of a Shogun
Posted by DLThurston in Contests, Short Stories on June 20, 2011
For those of you who don’t know the story, “barrel of a shogun” was perhaps my single most infamous typos. In part because it was so persistent. It survived not just edits of the story that spawned it, but even the transition from a short story to a short teleplay. The word was meant to be shotgun, but because I am my own worst editor, and Word never thought to mark it with one of the red squiggly lines I overuse as a crutch, it just kept thriving.
I tell that story not to provide a cautionary tale about editing, or warning about reliance on spell checkers that can’t necessarily understand context, but more as a distraction to myself as I realize what phase my writing career is about to enter. It did so gradually, without me being aware of it, which is probably how it’s supposed to happen. I realized this weekend that I already have two stories out for consideration, two in progress that will go out between now and July 15, and another story that just got rejected and will likely head back out again soon.
Depending on response times for the three stories for anthologies with June 30th deadlines, I may soon have five stories simultaneously out for consideration. And all in the month when my first short story publication is supposed to drop.
Madness. Absolute madness. And yet, it’s a point where I needed to get to, that point where I get over the jitters of submitting and have a solid stable of stories ready to venture forth into the world. Most of them even have secondary or tertiary destinations if they miss their primary targets. But I will say with confidence: one of the five will hit. I’ve been told for years that as an author one shouldn’t set goals that are outside of one’s influence. Which is to say never set “publication” as a goal. But I’m feeling just that good about where I am now that I see limbs and I want to walk out on them. So that’s my limb. One story. 20% success rate. If it was a major league hitter he’d be sent down to the minors, but for a starting out writer it’s probably hoping for far too much.
But if it weren’t for optimism, I wouldn’t be sending out stories at all.
So out on the branch I go. Just watch out for me, cause if I miss and go zero for five, this branch is just high enough for a noose.
Beyond Light, Proof of Concept, Sleep, submissions, The Face of the Serpent, Vampires of Mars
Biography
DL Thurston's short fiction is available now in the Steam Works anthology, and coming soon in The Memory Eater and The Old Weird South. He also contributes regularly to the group blog Unleaded, Fuel for Writers and the online 5 Minute Fiction writing challenge. He lives in Annandale, VA with his wife and two cats.
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