Finishing Up a Short Story Today
April 26, 2005 – 1:13 pmToday, I’m finishing up a short story. Once finished, I will submit it far and wide. My goal is to receive at 50 rejections, 10 of them with decent editorial feedback.
I can say that waiting for a story to be perfect resides in the realm of a mathematical null set. A null set has no value and cannot ever have value. My perfect story will never, ever exist. Finishing a decent story is now my new goal.
I’m also preparing a call for submissions for an anthology I will edit. More on that when I post the call.
How are all my creative pals doing with your latest endeavors?
7 Responses to “Finishing Up a Short Story Today”
Well, I’m not working on a story for once, But I’ll start up a new one for a June 1st call soon. Just taking a little break and submitting an old one to a new place. I think your goal of 50 rejection letters is grand. I am wondering, though, how long it will take to get them since most places don’t take simultaneous submissions? (At least the places I have been submitting don’t often accept them.)
By Sherrill on Apr 26, 2005
I’m feeling fried creatively but still managing to put out material daily. I have a novel bubbling away but every chapter has to be right in an almost mathematical way. I can’t handle sloppy prose in others so I feel duty-bound to work hard to write the best I can. Consequently, it is always draining; but then, it’s also constantly rewarding. x
By Andy on Apr 27, 2005
The 50 rejection slips may take me ten years to achieve, so why set my sights low by accepting only 3 or 4??
I think the piece isn’t very good, or only okay, but I want to send it out, go to that next level, you know?
Andy, the daily committment really spells the difference between crap, average and great writing. I’m now aware intuitively when I’m writing crap - though I may not know how to stop writing it - and when I write great stuff, it almost feels like an itch that has been scratched.
Thanks for posting.
By Jay Sennett on Apr 27, 2005
A wiser person than I once taught me to get everything down, no matter what your internal censor may say. Who’s to say that what you think is crap now won’t be valuable to you in another iteration, at another time?
My biggest logjam has been to trust that eventually, in spite of all that I write that sucks, there will be nuggets of gold worth mining. Secondary to that is my inability to believe in my own standard of what is good - because invariably submitting to other places means their criteria and systems of meaning trump mine, and my fledgling confidence sorely needs a boost before being able to accept the flat-out rejections.
Thanks so very much for providing a forum to get me motivated, thinking and contributing again!
By Jennifer Gee on Apr 27, 2005
For me my standard is: have I said what I want to say, in the way I want to say it?
No artistic medium translates perfectly. Each story has its own flow. If I honor that flow, I tend to be okay.
Plus it helps to read the so-called top literary magazines. They often publish dreck posing as literature. And I am inspired.
By Jay Sennett on Apr 27, 2005
Update: as far a creative endeavors go, I have really opened myself up to potential failure, but also to the potential of wild success: I am on the roster for open auditions for the Life Sciences Orchestra in September…approximately 30 people will be competing for 2, maybe 3 spots in the flute section.
Please, gentle folks, keep me in your thoughts while I prepare this summer - this is the step I’ve been needing to take for about 5 years. Thanks!
By Jennifer Gee on Apr 29, 2005
Jennifer,
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep us posted and good for you for getting up out of your rut.
By Jay Sennett on May 3, 2005