All three of the stories I’m preparing to send out to magazines, “Flipside,” View,” and my latest WotF submission, have been revised to an “acceptable” level and sent off to my personal harshest critic (my brother =).
I also received critiques on “Flipside” from a couple of writing buddies, and both believe that the story needs to be “tightened” up. Unfortunately, that’s like saying “you should write better characters” or “your plots aren’t strong enough.” Er… I know they have a point (I wouldn’t be giving them to review any of my stories unless I trusted them, of course), but how do I go about tightening up a story, when in my head it sounds pretty damn tight? A friend recently suggested to “read it as if it was someone else you know who read it.” Another advice I understand to be valuable, but have no idea how to go about putting in practice.
So, I’m just pouring out my frustration here. I expect my brother will come back with “all three are complete garbage.” (I can fully trust him to not pull any punches) On the other hand, if I continue NOT sending stuff out because I believe it’s garbage, I may never send anything out. I figure, at least if I send something that I know isn’t perfect and get a rejection, I won’t hurt as bad as if I send something that I think is the greatest piece of writing on Earth and get the thumbs down on it.
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So, I guess she’s my inspiration to try and put myself in the way of the steamrollers. I could continue writing (because I can’t, and don’t want, to ever stop =), keeping everything to myself until I produce “the masterpiece,” which I’m pretty sure will never happen. Or I can put myself out there, even with stories that aren’t the best they could be, were I a better writer, and set myself up with a gauge of sorts. I don’t expect any of these first three stories to be picked up by the magazines I’m submitting to first (especially since these are the TOP sci-fi/fantasy magazines out there today), but if I keep producing stories and keep submitting them, I figure one day I’ll get to the point where my stories may start getting accepted, and not as a fluke. And I’ll have a clear indication of when I “get there.”
So, that’s my rant for the day.