I’ve been working on this new story for about a month now and I think that I’m making a dog’s breakfast out of it. What a mess. It seems too long and too short at the same time. I’m trying to create a sense of tension without over doing it. Guess what? I think I’m over doing it. Also a sense of place. Foreignness and coldness yet a caring place. Justice and unfairness at the same time. What a joke. The story probably isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. I’ll keep trying though. What a damned mess.
Ron Eglash talks about fractals in African village structure. I’ve been thinking about this for my next story. When I was a kid in high school I won third prize in the nationals at the NAACP ACT-SO program for a project I did on binary language. It’s so funny to think that it was in my blood all along.
I’ve been working on a story that is about three-quarters done. I want to have is done soon so that it can be critt’d in my summer class. Then I got another idea for a story last night involving binary math and language. It’s still percolating in my head so I don’t want to write about it too much. It’s just nice that I seem to have a constant flow of stories lately. The trick is to write up the stories well. Isn’t that always the trick?
The prof. for my summer writing class, Mary Anne Mohanraj, is away this week teaching at Clarion UCSD. I actually forgot that she was going to be one of the instructors there this year. And, yes, I had applied to Clarion. And, yes, of course, I was rejected...again. So I’m a little sad about all this exciting stuff going on — without me! I suppose there is no hope for me of ever getting into Clarion so I don’t think that I will apply again. (Of course, that’s what I said last year.) I couldn’t afford it anyway. It does bother me that there seems to be this little club that you need to get into in order to have a successful career in the SciFi field. That actually seems to be true for the entire publishing industry.
I feel so stupid for even applying. I swore that I wouldn’t. Then I saw that Neil Gaiman and Nalo Hopkinson were going to teach this year and like a sucker I applied. I don’t want to do that to myself again. I hope that I will keep my promise and not apply next year. I mean what’s the point? Work hard to get into a program that could potentially bankrupt me financially all so I could write stories (or not because I would probably freeze from fear) that may embarrass me right in front of one of my heroes. (Don’t you know you never should meet your heroes? All they can do is disappoint.)
I used to do Virtual Clarion and I’m afraid that it may have stunted me. It’s just not a place for beginners even though they say they are. They kept begging and begging for people to submit critiques, but I really didn’t know how. So I asked “How do you critique?” on the board and they basically said “get off the board.” Not in those words exactly but, I got that feeling. I finally learned how to crit by going to the Critters site where they had a number of articles listed. Critters is a much better place for beginners. (Also they are FREE which at this point is my exact price range.)
Clarion is the MIT of SciFi lit. They expect you to be an expert student. I prefer the Northeastern University model: accept everyone, teach them well, and let them sink or swim based on their own hard work and talent. Seems more democratic.
So this is my Clarion rant. I’m jealous and angry. Left out again. Maybe one day that won’t be true. Maybe one day my potential will be an actual. Until then I just need to get over it and not worry about these things.
As I continue to pursue this writing “thing”, the idea has popped into my head about simultaneous submissions. After all, life is short and waiting months and months for replies from publications just doesn’t seem fair to me. I found this article which is basically telling me what I want to hear —
From Breaking the Rules by Bill Vossler:
No Simultaneous Submissions.
Break this rule. I’ve published 2,700 pieces during 26 years of writing-- and submitted 4,000 queries and items-- and I’ve been nipped by this rule but once. That makes the odds pretty good.Here’s why I break this rule: I deal with my mail every day. Why can’t magazines? They say they’re inundated; they’re busy. Know what? So am I. But a simple system would solve their mail problems. If they wanted to. Scribble “No thanks” on unacceptables (they’re usually obvious); send a pre-printed postcard to possible or definite yes-es. The point is: create a system that works, rather than plump the mail on an increasingly large pile each day. Like brushing your teeth; do it regularly rather than wait for a flurry of cavities.
...And really, we writers should suffer the problem of more than one editor at a time desiring the same piece of work.
I don’t know if it is a good idea but I’m thinking about it.