mary june brown

This last week was less than productive. Somehow, I lost my momentum for my novel. It’s strange–I’m simultaneously excited by it and able to keep my distance from it at the same time.

I’ve been concentrating on short stories for a while, and there’s a real sense of do-ability in shorts–the end is quickly in sight, and I can finish them within a matter of days. For a novel however, the end isn’t just far away, somewhere out there in the foggy distance–the weight of it also looms over me. Makes my shoulders ache.
So yeah, it’s a struggle with this book.

But I intend to win.

Here’s a piece I recently wrote, published at Tiny Lights Online. Those of you who write and feel the disdain of your inner critic will relate:

http://www.tiny-lights.com/searchlights.html?id=212#222

So I’m trying to write at least 700 words a day in my novel, but even that feels like a lot on some days.

I’ve heard various writers talk about their output: 1,000 or 2,000 words a day (sometimes more) or sometimes it’s in incriments of time, e.g., one or two or six hours a day.

The discipline appeals to me, but a word count goal hangs over my head every morning…gotta reach 700 words, gotta reach 700 words, and so on.

And now to it.  I’ve got 655 words to go to meet today’s goal.

I recently had a piece of poetry accepted by The Verse Marauder, at http://www.theversemarauder.com/

I’m especially delighted by this because this has been one of my favorite online poetry journals of late and the application process is simple, and based on the work itself–not on your bio.

Check this site out–it’s great.

I need to have at least twenty submissions out at any given time in order to feel that I am producing, I’ve realized.  This does not mean 20 stories, this may mean 5 stories submitted to 4 places, etc.

Because when the rejections (and the acceptances, Thank God) come in, I need to feel that there is still something to wait for…to hope for.

My own personal submission guideline, you see.

Several days since my last post, but indeed I am still here.  I just finished (finally) the letters of John Steinbeck…which he wrote during his authorship of East of Eden.  I am so inspired by him!

Writers, get this: he actually had to hold his word count down.  He was afraid of going too fast, of not being thoughtful and thorough.  I love that he had to slow himself down.  It makes my 250 words a day seem a-ok.

I had to giggle today when I was at critiquecircle.com. This is the online writing critique site I use with some of my short stories. There are a lot of very good writers there who can help with dead-ends, plot problems, grammar, dialogue, all that sort of thing.

I noticed a little tab in the corner that said “Tools” and thought I’d check it out. There was a submissions tracker, so you could track where you might be sending stories. There’s a name generator to help you find common or obscure names based on Census data. And then…there is what Critique Circle dubs The Ultimate Procrastination Tool:

Hangman.

Check it out: http://www.critiquecircle.com/tools.asp?page=hangman

I am a member of an online critique group that has done me a lot of good: you send your work in, and you have access to hundreds of readers who will critique your work (the catch–you have to critique theirs!).

On one of the forums, I read that placing your short stories in publications with little monetary pay is considered (to some) a mistake. But, in the short-fiction world, professional short-story rates can be a whopping $100, and sometimes even much less.

So, I’ve decided that placing stories in journals where there is the chance (no matter how minute!) of exposure and/or nominations to prizes such as the prestigious Pushcart or O.Henry are worth more in the end that a few bucks. And, one gets savvy to the ways of the publishing world through practice, so if you are indeed placing stories to non-paying markets, chin up. In my experience, these markets are not easy (at all!) to get into and their acceptance rates are not significantly higher than paying markets. You’d be surprised how many rejections one can rack up from non-paying markets alone. Lots.

Now, when it comes to a novel…that’s a whole different animal.

Flush with some recent success at placing short stories in various journals, I have committed that I would work on the novel.

But I keep delaying…outlining, thinking up dialogue, working on settings, tone, characterization, structure, plotting, the list goes on and on. In the end, it’s all a tactic for not getting on the bus.

Reading Steinbeck’s journal, I realize I’m not alone in this. A writer I know recently commented that she fears not finishing her work: I fear not starting. Especially since I’ve had some things accepted, there’s a sense of not wanting to screw things up, not beckon failure and rejection.

Last night, I took out some of the index cards I’ve been using to outline the book. Time to pin them up above the computer and do it…write the thing.