Writing • Page 21

Yeah I'll take a look at older stuff I've done

 

I finally broke through on a chapter that’s plagued me for three years.

 

which led to me finishing the entire revision today. wow. what a weekend.

 

That's an excellent feeling. So jealous.

A few weeks ago, I got some really good but tough criticism which made me rethink the story I'm currently working on. It's put a stop on my progress since... which sucks but has allowed me to organize my thoughts more, which I probably needed to do anyway. I only have 6 or 7 pages so far and I'm intimidated to start writing again. For whatever reason, it's always extremely challenging for me to create plots. My premises always formulate in very abstract ways. For example, I began this story mainly as an experiment with multiple POV's in one small family. Each chapter would follow a different family member, differing the syntax to evoke a particular personality/life perspective. I had this vague idea that the theme should focus on faith and inner spirituality and how it affects POV, and I'd somehow make that come through in the writing. I'd give myself a week timeline for the story to unfold. I keep asking myself "What would these characters do that would set forth a divine-tinged climactic event in one week's time?" and the narrative would follow--conceptualizing after crafting these complex characters. It's slowly formulating in my head, but like... really slowly. I'm wondering if I set myself too many expectations or rules.

 

I’ve spent almost fifteen years coming to terms with a dirty, disgusting, no good first draft is better than getting too caught up in my head on the front end. Think this may be happening to you, here.

but my main thought is—a big event is what would trigger that in a family. Death. Baby. Wedding. Etc. if you haven’t nailed down the central event causing this, that may help.

 

Finishing up the second draft of my first short story for this writing class I've been taking. I've really enjoyed the process! It's fun to have a creative project to work on in my spare time.

It's technically the final draft for the class, but I have no doubt I'll continue to make larger edits after I've submitted it and finished the course. It's getting closer to where I want it though. Either way, it's crazy to see something I had the tiniest nugget of an idea for suddenly be 14 pages long.

 

friendly reminder while everyone has a bit more writing time that submissions are still open and are due in about 3 weeks!

 

Anyone writing through the quarantine? I've been working on a lot of poetry, none of them about what's going on lol.

Also pushing y'all to submit again. The free link is above. Would really love to read some of you guys' work :) would love even more to possibly feature you in a published journal.

 

I've written two poems during it. One about COVID-19 and the other about my body dysmorphia.

I just don't have anything on the duality theme or I would submit.

 

Most of the editors are pretty openminded and willing to stretch on theme if the writing itself is good, in case you change your mind!

 

about to hit 100K words on my book. About a third of the way done!

 

No idea whether I'll just get laughed out of the thread for this, but I've started writing a blog about Incubus, going track by track through their catalogue. I've never done any kind of blogging or music writing, but it felt like a fun project to have a go at. I've got no ambition for it beyond my own amusement, but I've been really enjoying the process of writing and would love to get better at it. If anybody felt they wanted to give a bit of feedback or some pointers I would be super grateful. The posts are only short 500 word jobs.

www.enjoyincubus.home.blog

Anybody else here write any music blogs I could check out?

 

Just finished up a story for this! Given that it's fiction, should I still use this PROSE/POETRY link? Thanks!

 

Just sent my submission in and trying to convince @angrycandy to submit something, too.

 

Awesome. Yes, you can use that link still!

Hell to the mfn yes!!!!

 

We're extending the deadline ten days (4/19)! We need fiction and nonfiction pieces in particular!

Toho Journal Submission Manager

 

Submitted! I took part of a short story I had written a month back which loosely connects to duality.

 

last day to submit guyzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Toho Journal Submission Manager

 

Now that I can stop hounding you guys to submit, I'm actually excited to talk about my own stuff going on.

I recently had a short story accepted by The Mystery Tribune, but only into their online (daily) publication. I originally submitted to their journal but they told me that they only have enough space for it to be online. It'd be more accessible to the public, but at the cost of never being printed (it's a 22 page beauty that I've always imagined in print) and potentially being buried under hundreds of other stories that are featured on their website. They also told me that it'd be unpaid, but I'm used to that so that's not as huge a factor in my decision. I don't want to seem ungrateful but this story deserves more than what they're offering.

I reached out to a couple of the other places I've submitted this story to, to get updates and weigh my options, but so far none of them are accepting it (though one editor replied saying he'd "love to see it in print someday but unfortunately it's not for us for now"). Right now, I'm leaning on saying no to their offer, keep submitting it places- hope that's the right decision.

What do you guys think?
tl;dr a 22-page story I'm particularly proud of was accepted, but unpaid and only online. It'd be publicly accessible, but buried under hundreds others, published daily. I think it deserves to be in print; it's been praised by writers and editors; but i also want my writing to get out there

On another note, I've been plotting out this new story of mine with this website called Plot Factory. Really helpful so far. The ideas that have been nebulous and floating in my head now exist concretely and I've actually made plot threads come together. I'm the kind of person that mostly formulates stories from emotions or loose themes and sometimes even vaguer than that; organizing plot is super tough for me and this website has helped a ton.

 

If it doesn’t feel right to put it out, don’t. Trust your gut.

 

So follow up on my last week's post about the online acceptance. I ended up declining their offer.

I'd told you guys that I reached out to a couple of other places that I'd submitted the story to weigh my options. A couple days after declining, one of the places I submitted back in December accepted this same story to be printed in their June issue!

This is the longest piece of writing I've ever had accepted and published (22 FKN PAGES, Y'ALL!!!), and I really needed this good news, so the last few days I've felt like I'm floating on a cloud.

 

Congrats; I'm sure it's a great feeling.

 

I came across a "Year's worth of prompts" from writer's digest. Gonna try to do five of them a week and then do review/editing with the other two days of the week.

 

starting to crack open some ideas on my first long form writing in a long time. excited but also nervous i “lost” whatever talent i had when i was younger and writing a lot during college. here’s to hoping it’s like riding a bike lol.

 

got 2.5k ish words done today. not bad, more than I expected. going to try to shoot for a goal of about 500 a day, if I can. should be relatively easy while WFH with everything going on with COVID.