Insomnia and a Story a Week

8

Well, my mission to revive Short Story Monday is failing so far.  I seem to be sleeping only about every other day which is doing wonky things to my brain.  Between that and packing to move, my writing productivity has dropped far too much.  I got my third chapter out for the novel chapter exchange with my friend an entire week late, for one.  This has to end.

This morning when I couldn’t sleep I worked on a new short story and managed about 1000 words I don’t totally hate.  I think I need to let the rest percolate in my head for another day.  Hopefully tonight I’ll get some sleep and that will allow me the brain power to finish it.  The story is somewhat different from anything I’ve tried before, so no idea if it will work or not.  I think the beginning is super rough, but my beginnings are always the worst part.  Which is really unfortunate, since beginnings are the first thing people see when they’re reading.  I truly have to work on that.  It’s what editing is for, right? Right?

I realized though that this story might qualify in terms of theme and feel for the Shine anthology, which means I’d have to get it done and through draft form by the end of July.  It’s entirely possible, depending on how many drafts it is going to take.  I’m hoping not ten, I think I can reasonably do four drafts in the timeframe, depending on where my beta readers feel the story is at.  Of course, I haven’t written the end yet, so my normal predilictions for disaster or ambiguous endings might disqualify it from that anthology, but I’ll worry about that when I get there.  I can always try a happier ending version.

In other news I queried on Delilah again, since they’ve had it now for 4 months.  Still considering it, apparently.  This is a good thing, I think.  But damn I’m impatient.  It could be my first sale… meep.  I just want to know.  I hate wait. (Yeah yeah, wrong profession, move along now…)

I’m starting to mini-panic about World Con.  I don’t know what I’m going to do there.  Sure, go to panels and all that, but I’m going to be all on my own.  Will I have the courage to talk to strangers?  Will they even care what I have to say? So much easier to hide at home, but I’ve been dreaming about going to Montreal and to a World Con for years and now I can have both at once.  Even if I won’t be able to afford to eat while I’m there, heh.  I guess I’ll go and try to let things happen as they happen.  I’m sure it won’t be nearly as scary as I think it will be. Probably.

I haven’t been staying nearly far away enough from Clarion West blogs as I should. Whoops.  Slightly depressed now. I really wish I were there.  I’m ready, even if apparently my writing isn’t.  I figure I have about 30 weeks until I have to have something new ready for next year’s application.  Last year I took a real gamble with the story I chose because even though I love it, I’ve gotten very mixed response to it from “this is really cool, I couldn’t stop thinking about it (the gist of comments from a really well-known author!!!)” to “this doesn’t make much sense, why is everyone crazy and what’s going on?”… I guess I chose poorly.  Next year I’ll try to send something (or two somethings) that get a more universal okay.

8 Responses to “Insomnia and a Story a Week”

  1. osomuerte

    I recommend trusting your gut when you submit next year (and you better — I plan to be at CW with you). If you love a story, that’s the one to send. If you love two stories, then you can take the advice of others. It’s always better to love multiple stories, isn’t it?

    • izanobu

      I almost chose a different story last year for my application. That story is the one now being held for second consideration… So part of me will always wonder if I went with the wrong choice…

  2. Ursula

    The Clarion teachers have public readings, you know. You could come up, and we could go to one.

    • izanobu

      I’m not sure if that would just depress me more… I mean, what would I do, introduce myself as one of the people who utterly failed to get in this year?

      Also, aren’t you leaving town? We’re moving for the next couple weeks… so not sure when I’d be able to come up anyway. Going to miss Coronation too…

      • osomuerte

        Introduce yourself as one of next year’s attendees. 🙂

      • izanobu

        Oh god, Oso, I totally can’t do that 😛 But it made me laugh. I got the generic rejection letter this year, so I think it would be supremely arrogant of me to presume I can get in next year (not that it will stop me from applying and hoping!)

      • Ursula

        Introduce yourself as someone who likes their writing?

        We’re moving at the end of July. That still leaves evenings & weekends for important social activities.

  3. osomuerte

    I probably couldn’t do it either, not with a straight face. It could be a good ice breaker.

    Seriously, if there’s a real opportunity to go to a reading, try to work it out. Make it the last one if you’re worried about lamenting your absence. Or go and laugh at how burned out the Clarionites are.

    I can’t realistically go to a reading, being in Tennessee. The closest I’ll get is DragonCon in Atlanta; to my knowledge, none of the instructors will be there, but Mike Resnick and a small slew of other authors. Anyway, don’t be afraid to wade a little deeper into the SF pool. Connections can reportedly take you a long way. (I’ll confirm that if I ever make any.)

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