Category: Writing

Good Rejections

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

Today I receive a wonderful rejection.  It’s always nice to get a personal, positive rejection.  It’s like hitting on  girl (when I was single, long ago) and having her say “you’re sweet and I’d love to go out with you, but I’ve got a boyfriend and we’re pretty serious.  I wish I’d met you three months ago.”  At leas I think it would be similar to that.  I usually got the cold shoulder of hysterical laughter as responses.

This email started by saying the story did not fit the anthology as well as other stories, hence the rejection.  Then it went on to say the story (TWHDotGMP) was “very, very funny” — calling part of it “brilliant” — and said nice things about enjoying my style, ending with an invitation to end more for the next antho.  Happy ego.

Alas, I don’t use that story’s in-your-face comedic style very often.  I will definitely explore it further in the future.  But gosh it’s tough to write humor.  Time consuming.  Only about 10% of my jokes are ever funny, so I need to write ten times as much to get each funny moment.  And TWHDotGMP is wall-to-wall (attempts at) humor, be it snappy dialog, absurd situations, or rimshot jokes, I packed it.  Exhausting to write so it can be perpetually amusing to read.  And then I had to push a plot in, too.

It’s a dangerous thing, writing humor.  I have a very odd sense of humor.  My target audience would also be people with odd senses of humor, but odd has a lot of directions to choose from.  Funny is subjective.  On the up side, no single rejection of a humor story should cause concern about the story’s market chances.  On the down side, this editor’s kind commentary is no guarantee that any other person (let alone editor) in the world will appreciate my razor wit.

I believe the market for SF humor is wide open.  Start naming some sci-fi funnymen.  Adams, Pratchett, Piers Anthony…I’ve received recommendations for others that I can’t recall.  I’m not just talking about stories with funny moments, I mean stories designed to be funny above all else.  There is a niche market for that and I could strive to establish myself there.  But then there’s my WotF story.  Are there any funny moments in it?  Maybe a snarky comment or two (I can’t think of any), but not really.  It’s got rape, drugs, incest, lying…no jokes.  So maybe I’m spreading myself thin by trying to write the funny and the serious.  Or maybe I’m covering all my bases.  Or maybe I’m just writing what I need to write and to hell with anyone’s opinion.  Or maybe I just haven’t found myself as a writer yet.  Or maybe I just like starting sentences with the word or.  (Ooh, I started and ended that one.)

I haven’t been able to count on sales to point me toward my niche.  What have I sold?  My two biggest earners were both fairly serious outerspace stories — one on a colony with aliens, the other on a fueling outpost near a colony.  “Excuse Me” was farcical humor, “Faerie Belches” was a lot less funny than the title implies (kind of an urban fantasy for kids), “Leech Run” was new space opera (of the Firefly vein), and flashes really are their own beasts altogether.  Oh, and a violent military vampire thing.  And time travel, serious but Twilight Zone-esque.  See, all over the place.  And my submission catalog isn’t much more focused.

So I guess I’ll keep exploring myself as a writer.  Some funny, some serious, some light, some dark…hopefully some sales.  Maybe I’ll find a career somewhere in there.

Pens and Flashbacks

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

I just did something I haven’t done in a long time.  No, not that.  I did that just…well, since I did this other thing, for sure.  And it’s none of your business when I…  Oh right, what I actually did do.

I wrote a scene by hand.  Just a scene, but it was a complete scene.  I was editing my Codex story and decided a scene was needed and grabbed a pen and wrote it out.  It felt really good.  Better than any scene I have typed in a long time.  Why was it so good?  Was it the pen-in-hand?  Or just because the story so desperately needed the scene?  I’m not sure, but I’ll likely do more.  It’s something different.  Writing by hand uses different parts of your brain, so it may well stimulate different ideas.

The scene, as it turns out, was a flashback.  (No!  Not a flashback!  Never a flashback!)  Flashbacks get a bum rap sometimes.  Don’t get me wrong, bad flashbacks are very bad.  Flashback overdose is the reason I stopped watching The Event.  But there are times when a flashback is appropriate, nay, necessary.  I tried the story without it.  It begged for the scene.  I wrote it and now I am happy.  It must mean something.

Here are my rules for flashbacks, be they for the flashback squeamish or the flashback junkie.

  1. Try the story without it. Flashbacks are like that jerk wide receiver on a football team; only keep him around if the team can’t win without him.  If it takes three guys together to take his place, do it and get rid of the bad influence.
  2. Make the flashback work harder. Parts of a story propel plot, character, backstory, milieu, ideas…the flashback should do it all.  It should be the tightest part of the story, doing more work than any other comparably long section of the story.
  3. Be proud of your flashback. If you’re ashamed of any line in it, toss that line or fix it.  There are people out there who believe that every flashback is bad.  They are wrong, but giving them ammo to deflate your flashback is going to cause doubt.  Be confident in your whole story, but especially the flashback.
  4. Don’t make the story about the flashbacks. Memento was a clever film.  Once.  Flashbacks should serve the story.  You never want the attention in a story to be drawn to the writing; you want it drawn to the story.  If your flashbacks are about style, you’re asking for trouble.
  5. All rules are made to be broken…if you have a great reason. Punctuation, spelling, syntax, continuity, all have rules that are worth breaking for effect and cause.  Know the rules and break only when it’s beneficial to the story.  If you don’t know why you chose to break the rule, don’t break it.  The same goes for these.

Besides, these are my rules that I made for my stories, not yours.  So go make your own rules.  And do it in pen, just to change things up.  You’ll love it.

Formatting and Reformatting

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I just sent off a story to Daily Science Fiction (soon to be added to my market list).  It’s a new market with excellent pro-level pay and a lot of Codexians selling there.  I like any pro market with electronic submissions.

However, DSF’s online submission form requires plain text formatting.  This caused a problem for this particular story.  It had tons of italics, all necessary for complete understanding of the story.  It also had a Cuban character used as a part-time point-of-view who thought in Spanish punctuation (upside-down ? and ! per my high school Spanish lessons), which isn’t a plot necessity but a stylistic flair I particularly liked.  And some boldfaced section breaks when the POV switches.  Thank goodness for search and replace!  As it was, it took half an hour to fix everything and make sure the replacements were right (a lot of underscores that marked italics ended up on the next line, which had to be fixed). Oh yeah, I also removed a big equation that really was only there to show off; no big loss.

This begs a question: how big a role does excessive formatting play in the story selection process of magazines?  Clearly my formatting is labor intensive even for the guy that formatted it that way to begin with.  Now if I can send a Word file once they choose to buy it (as they will in pipe dream land), then it shouldn’t be too bad for them to adapt for publication.  But the Spanish stuff is pretty specialized.  And lots of italics can be tedious.  Reading on screen can make that worse, too.  So this may be a waaaaay long shot for me. It may be time to start exploring some more semi-pro print zines for this one.  I should hear soon from DSF; their response average is around 1-2 weeks.

Long Time, No Me

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I posted.  I haven’t made any progress on my market list due to limited time.  When I do get time, I’m writing.  To make matters worse, I’m sick — not stay-home-from-work sick, just feel-miserable-and-don’t-want-to-move sick.  Trick-or-Treating with my daughter did me in.  Cold air.  My throat hurts just thinking about it.  Who am I kidding, my throat hurts anyway.

I’m probably wasting my time working on my Codex Halloween story (title abbreviation: GotJ) because the Halloween elements aren’t going to be removed easily and I honestly don’t want to.  The main characters’ names are Ghost and Boo (the former comments on the painful coincidence), the term trick-or-treat comes up (in different context), and the space station is called the Jack-o-Lantern.  I could remove the trick-or-treat reference, I guess, and it wouldn’t be too bad.  I’m a bit attached to Ghost (Geist, really, but is referred to both ways) and Boo as names.  And the Jack-o-Lantern stays.  So it will make a far easier sell for an October issue than a January (which seems more likely what’s being read for now).

I think I’m procrastinating on the novel.  I need to just get the damn thing drafted so I can edit.  I’m just a little overwhelmed.  I need to build up on my planning.  I actually like the concept of the spreadsheet J.K. Rowling used; I may try something like that.  Organization is not my strong suit.  A little effort there, though, should get me back on track.

I’ll put forth an effort to share more soon.

Markets

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I’ve decided I need a post that illuminates my market list a little more.  I’ve started it, but daggum, it’s going to take a while to do it the way I want it.  So it’ll happen, but it may take a week or so, depending on how busy I am.

Shopping Sprees and Other Bad Habits

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

I went to the used bookstore yesterday.  I love that place, but it’s not quite what it used to be.  Not sure why, but their SF section seems like they washed it in hot water.  I used to be able to find lots of Writers of the Future volumes there, but this time I found only volume 3 and a best-of edition.  I bought both despite their not-quite-reduced-enough prices.  I also picked up the third Star Wars short story collection in Kevin J. Anderson’s brilliant idea series (listen to him talk sometime — like at the Superstars of Writing Seminar in Utah — and he’ll tell you all about how they happened), Tales of the Bounty Hunters.  I’ve been curious about his Mos Eisley/Jabba’s Palace/Bounty Hunter collection, so I was pleased to find one.  I also nabbed Neil Gaiman’s Stardust (cute movie, better than anticipated), the newest copy of Analog I could find (this past May)…and I think that’s it.  Maybe one other I can’t recall.  Nothing I was dying to own, but all stuff I was happy to add to my collection.  Just don’t tell my wife.

In other news, I finished my Codex Halloween Contest story in time to compete for no prize whatsoever.  I’m fairly pleased with it, even if it does meander a bit.  I’m hoping to get some insight from other members on how to tighten things up.  I can’t read their comments until I vote, however, and I still have 7 or 8 left to read.

As I was recently asked in a comment, “How is the novel going?”  The status bar has been telling the whole story…nowhere.  I’ve come to the realization that my characters are the type my daughter plays with, with the clothing you put on them by folding down the little tabs.  Remember those?  Yeah, they were made out of cardboard, too.  Thin cardboard.  I need to do some serious character discovery before going further.  

So now I’m going to take part in my favorite writer-hobby: novel jumping.  I’m much happier with the development in my Naked Man story which has recently revealed to me it must be novel length.  It’s a stand-alone novel set on another planet and focusing on a bizarre religious custom based on an actual Japanese custom.  I’ve decided to work on this one as opposed to the YA SF novel…or the old YA fantasy novel…or the military SF novel…or the SF sports novel…or the other fantasy novel…(wow, lots of irons in the mental fire)…because it’s the most like my WotF winner.  That’s pretty much it.  But the similarities are good.  Well-developed (at least mentally) milieu: society, planet, religion, and colony infrastructure are all pretty clear to me.  The story centers on a few multi-facetted characters while the stereotypes get pulled in as minor players.  The conflict grows in stages and builds to a very significant size, all while building the internal conflict in the protagonist.  The conflict will affect multiple areas of the protag’s life: job, girlfriend, mother, brother, religious beliefs, self-image, view of society, and all in different ways.  It’s a deep story that says a lot about my personal view of religion and health care in America while extrapolating it enough that even I have a hard time recognizing it.  It’s ambitious in a way that will stand out from other novels.  Whatever novel I finish first, I suspect this one will be my first sale.  So it gets my attention.  No more switching until it’s done.  Maybe.

Ouch and Oucher.

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Not a great day, Thursday.  Got home to find a rejection from Analog.  A single sentence, as formulaic as possible.  No feedback.  No compliments.  Just no.

Nearly but not quite an hour later, I discovered an email from Apex magazine.  Apparently the story I sent them had “some wonderful prose” but the editor “couldn’t get emotionally invested.” At least I had lovely prose.  Not sure I’ve been told that before.  That story is one of my older ones and had really only gotten a facelift, tummy tuck, and implants from the original scheme.  (That is, tightened the wording, trimmed down some scenes, and added something to make the character more likable…not that implants make someone more likable…I’m going to stop now before I say something I’ll regret.)  Anything particularly “lovely” must have been there all along, like an ugly duckling.

I’ll have those stories back out by Monday.  I jut need to make a fix to the Analog story (TOL) and make sure I’m sending the right draft of the other (SR).  These are, incidentally, the two stories that were held and released by ASIM.  I must find them a home.

 

Brainfail?

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Maybe I’ve completely snapped.  Or maybe some editor out there thinks I have.  Or at least a webmaster.  Allow me to explain.  No, there is too much; let me sum up.

A couple weeks ago, I sent a submission status query to a magazine using their “Contact Us” page on their website.  I never heard back, so I went to their website today to try again.  I cannot find that contact page.

Have they changed the page?  Maybe, especially if it wasn’t working.  At least as likely is the possibility that I had six different sites up at once and sent the query to the wrong magazine.

Go ahead and say it: “Wow, that’s dumb.”  Maybe your interior monologue was kinder than that.  I suspect it was way harsher.  Mine was.

For those who visit frequently, you know I am fairly open about my missteps in professionalism.  In other words, when I screw up, I blog about it.  Why?  Because misery loves company.  And to warn other writers of the little things that can go wrong when your brain is not functioning while corresponding with (other) professionals.  And to let you kind folks feel a little less alone when you screw up (because you know it’s happened, though maybe not as often as I do).  Or to give hope to people in the “If that idiot can do it than I can” tradition.

Anyway, I hope the message is properly disposed of by environmentally friendly means (such as the delete button).

Hey, that’s my story they’re talking about.

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Found another little blurb on a blog about Zero Gravity.  One story seemed to get more word space than others.  Guess whose.  😀

The stories that stood out for me were ‘Leech Run’ by Scott W Baker. Leeches are people that can suck the power from any source so are particularly dangerous on a spaceship. Although illegal to transport leeches anywhere Captain Titan is unscrupulous enough to do it at a high price. But of course things go wrong as one of the leeches escape from the hold. I liked the idea of ‘leeches’ as if they were a new kind of vampire and the mystery of how one could disappear from a sealed hold to reappear again was intriguing. There was a nice little twist at the end too.

The whole review can be found at Jacqueline Kirk’s blog.

What’s wrong with me?

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 7 Comments

My latest submission to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction has been out 17 days.  Doesn’t sound like long for a postal sub, but my previous F&SF have taken 10 days, 8 days…and that’s it.

Only two prior submissions to F&SF.  What’s wrong with me?  Sure, I like e-subs for their convenience, but this is F&SF for pity sake.  They passed on “Leech Run” and an old novelette that I’ll one day novelize, E&P.  But that’s it.  At least that’s all my records show, and I didn’t record anything to Duotrope about either of them.  It’s been over two and a half years since I sent them anything.

I find this tough to believe, honestly.  My record keeping has gotten better of late but I could easily have missed a sub or two, especially if I considered them impossible sales.  But to not even try?

There was a time when I heard a heartbreaking stat about Gordon Van Gelder only buying like three stories from slush ever.  But that shouldn’t stop me from collecting rejections from them.  Heck, I haven’t sent them GB or EE or TOL or any of my other stories making rounds. I didn’t even send them my 1500-word fart joke, “Excuse Me”.  It’s possible that I sent them “Chasers”, a story I sold back when I was just starting to keep records.   (I’m thinking of sending that one to Escape Pod once I hear back on “Leech Run”…but that’s another post.

More and more I am realizing that the person who has stood in my way of becoming a professional writer is me.  So while I hope that this delay from F&SF could mean good news (not necessarily a sale, but a rewrite request or just a nice personal rejection would be lovely), I’m going to start creating a target list for markets and prepare submissions for those targets ahead of time so I can drop a story in the mail the minute it’s rejected elsewhere.