It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote a story based on the timeless game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. It was a cute little story, a commentary on organized religion. It never became what I wanted it to be, so I shelved it. (I do that a lot.)
Anyway, while watching a rerun of The Mentalist, Simon Baker’s display of R-P-S inspired me to pull the story back out. It was an entertaining read but it still had that lacking. What’s more, I’m not sure where the problem lies. I suspect it’s too long for what it is (2400 words), but I see few places to cut.
That’s not true. I know where the cuts would come. But like Dan Brown, I don’t want to cut all my research out of my story just because it could survive without it. I think the researched part (the possible origins of R-P-S) strengthen the story and make the two main characters sound intelligent and knowledgeable. But, also like Dan Brown, maybe I should let the cuts strengthen the story.
I have decided to post it to OWW (once “Poison Inside the Walls” gets a couple reviews…it has one!) to see how others react to it. While they peck at it, I’ll try to shave it down on my own to see if (a) my revision fixes their complaints, and (b) my revision maintains whatever strengths they perceive. I should be able to whittle it down to 1500 words if I cut some content. It’s an experiment I’ll conduct while I’m in Gatlinburg next week. (Unless, of course, something else demands my attention. Smoky Mountains have that effect on me sometimes.)
I was rejected from Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. Ouch.
It’s not so bad, I guess. It was only based on a single page writing sample. Still, I’d have liked the experience. *sigh*
On the upside, I won’t be spending the money. That helps. Maybe I’ll try to get my wife to go to a three day photography workshop in the Smoky Mountains (it was in her photography magazine).
I just sent “Poison Inside the Walls” to the SFF Online Writing Workshop (OWW) for review. I was shocked to find that my 6900-word story registered as 8575 words! This technically puts it over the 7500-word limit. A quick search found another story scoring over 9000 words. I’m sure there are more.
I’m new so I don’t want to rock the boat. I’m not sure how they calculate their wordcount. I suspect it’s based on pages or lines.
If anyone has advice about the OWW word count, let me know. Otherwise, I am asking members to give advice. (If any nonmembers want to chime in, let me know and I’ll email you a copy).
After competing the square on my Kree story about a dozen times (math teacher humor that sadly even my students wouldn’t get), I have finally completed the first draft. Yay me.
I rode a nice wave of inspiration for about 5500 words, good strong words I was very happy with. Then I started to get into the sticky scientific parts and I ground to a halt. After much forehead slapping, I finally backed up and changed the events of the climax. Another dead end. And another. And another.
Originally the protagonist was supposed to make some grand discovery about theKree, the aliens they shared their moon with (not peacably). That was going to end up being another 4000 words that diverged completely from the original plot. Not a good thing. So I tried a more warlike approach, squaring the protagonist off head-to-head with one of the Kree. That technique didn’t work either.
I eventually discovered that the story really wasn’t about the Kree at all; that was why my climaxes kept falling flat. (What would Freud say about that one?) I needed the story to end the way it began, about people.
There is still a nice little Kree battle. I need to set the story aside before making my editorial run at it. There’s probably a lot to cut out, foreshadowing from the original ending and the like. I know of at least one thing I need to add. I’m saving it for editing. This will end up my first submission to OWW, so I’ll have some crit-for-crit work to do to get people reading it.
I finally came up with a title: “Poison Inside the Walls”. I like that it’s got multiple meanings in the story, but it just doesn’t seem as catchy as my normal titles (“Leech Run”, “Glow Baby”, “Thinking Out Loud”, “Decisions, Decisions!”). Maybe I’m evolving past the catchy? We’ll see.
-Oso
PS- I put Oso Baker in the byline. It may come back out in editing.
I just added a bibliography page to this blog. In doing so, it occurred to me that I have never before had two stories published in the same calendar year. Sold in the same year, yes, but not printed.
I find this tough to believe, honestly. I know I am not the most prolific writer or the most published, but I though I had a few streaks. Apparently not.
But 2009 is changing this. I have sold two stories this year, both in the past week. Amazingly they were both sent out on the same day (April 9th if you’re looking for a good day to mail stuff). Surely they’ll both see print before the end of the year. And I have every intention of finishing the year strong (four still out and more where they came from).
There is a chance that I missed something in my bibliography. My pre-2004 records are spotty at best. If I discover any omissions, I’ll be sure to fix it.
After my anticlimactic fumble at the goal line of Clarion West, I spent some time wondering what to do this summer to improve my writing. Write; that was the first thing. Read, critique, join OWW, fraternize, and submit were also on the list. But, golly, did I want that workshop. Face time with pros, some gut-wrenching time for Scott-the -Writer.
Orson Scott Card
So I thought about other options. It was too late for most; others were too expensive. I spent a lot of time thinking about Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. Card is one of my favorite authors and has a very good reputation as a teacher. His characters ae painted on the page the way they might be emblazoned on the ceiling of a chapel. Not cheap, mind you, but some of his time and attention could be really inspiring.
I did some procrastinating that masqueraded as thinking and very nearly missed the deadline. I mailed my application and writing sample on Tuesday; the deadline is Friday (tomorrow). I should hear one way or the other by next Friday.
I’m not sure what my chances are. The website suggests applying early. Ha! Strike one. The only writing sample they ask for is the first page of a finished short story. Yep, the first page. It makes sense. How many editors, or even slush readers, get past that point before stuffing a rejection in the SASE and shipping it back. But gosh, it sure put some pressure on my page one.
I cheated a bit, something I hope doesn’t come back to bite me for being “unprofessional”. You know that big space you’re supposed to leave in the top half of your manuscript, the one for editor’s comments or instructions to the typesetter or whatever? Yeah, mine was a little smaller than it should have been, squeezing a bit more writing onto that first page. *gulp*
The story I sent was “Glow Baby”, the story I sent to Clarion SD that did not go to CW. (I wasn’t even waitlisted at CSD, so maybe that was a mistake, but the first page was less pulpy than “Leech Run”‘s opening.) I stretched to get the end of a paragraph onto the page, really only two or three lines more than normal. We’ll see how that plays for me. I looked at several stories before settling on that one; the descriptions just rang truer for me than the others. “Glow Baby” is the first story I wrote where the setting was based on a real place, a place I was intimately familiar with in memory and emotionally tied to. If the story has a weakness, it’s probably the ending. The pace is slow, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think either of those potential concerns will be evident in the first page.
“Glow Baby” is my second quarter submission to WotF, too. I have not yet heard back from them (a good sign, yes?), but it was a bit of a late entry. The speculative aspect of the story really doesn’t show up until page 4, so it may be a hard sell to the contest. I did write in some foreshadowing (eerie pink light emanating from the window) toward the end of the first page or beginning of the second. Maybe that was enough to pull me through. We’ll see.
A big month for “Glow Baby” any way you look at it. Keep your nubs crossed.
The first short story I ever wrote sold to the first market I sent it to (The Fifth Di… I think). I attribute that luck to good market research and a charitable editorial staff. Since that inaugural publication, no story has sold to its first market. Until today.
Big thanks to Jordan Lapp and his staff at Every Day Fiction. They picked up “How Quickly We Forget” without it being rejected by anyone else first. The story was inspired by a prompt from Jordan.
Being a friend, Jordan didn’t want to look at it without knowing his editors’ opinions first. Fortunately they liked it, too. No word yet on whn the massive three-dollar chec will arrive. They still have “A Game of Telephone” in their queue, the story I wrote for the CoolStuff4Writers.com all-dialogue contest in May. Maybe they’ll like that, too.
It’s always good to make a sale, no matter the size of the check. It’s even better when it’s the firsttime selling to a market. It’s an added bonus it’s Jordan’s zine.
I’m back to one of the topics that I mentioned at the very beginning of my blog: the pen name. Sometimes I wonder if the blandness of my name gets in the way of my success. Sure, a story should sell itself. But who is going to read my story and remember my name to look for more of my stuff? Scott W. Baker? It even sounds a little like George W. Bush. Not cool.
Disney's "Special Agent Oso"
Online I’m Oso. Many of you might only know me as Oso or have to make the connection between my real name and my handle. Would it be so bad to be Oso Baker? I think I need to decide soon, before I start making career-launching sales (like placing in WotF or something).
There are problems with the plan. I do have some previously published work, but most of it is obscure and hard to find (if not impossible). But there’s at least one other Scott Baker out there writing speculative fiction (vampire stuff, I think). I don’t want to be mistaken for him (hence the W).
Anyone out there use a pen name? Abandon an old pen name? Have an opinion about pen names?
Scott W. Baker .net 