Tag: Secondhand Rush

Coming to terms

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I just read a Clarion Update from Rochita and it helped me understand that I may not have been ready for Clarion West.

I don’t doubt that my writing is up to snuff for the workshop (I wouldn’t have been waitlisted if it weren’t).  What I may lack is a certain level of self-awareness.  What kind of fiction do I do best?  What do I enjoy writing about most?  What is it I bring to stories that no one else can?  I suspect that the workshop is supposed to help me find those answers, but it’s been a while since I even asked those questions.

The questions I’ve been asking recently have been “How can I make this story better?” or “How can I turn that into a story?” or even “Why can’t I finish this !@#$**! story?”  The answer to some of those questions may be to abandon them and try something else, something I need to write rather than want to write.  What stories are really mine to tell?  Ideas are cheap.  Any idiot can come up with an idea for a story.  I need to do a better job of finding the right idea for me.

I think that is what I’m supposed to be working on right now.  For instance, I think my military clone novel (Honor by Proxy) is a great idea and may be my best chance at selling a novel.  However, I am far from a military expert.  That doesn’t mean I can’t write the story, but it may mean I need a new direction.  While my YA space novel (untitled) will undoubtedly draw on my more immediate expertise as a close observer of children (teacher).  I don’t yet have my characters polished for that one, so it keeps skidding to a halt every time I try to work on it.

Am I well-suited for YA writing?  I don’t know.  I’ve sold two stories to youth-themed publications (“Faerie Belches” and “Brother Goo”).  Time will tell.

I need to reorganize my projects, set some deadlines, and bring order to my chaos.  (It can still be chaos, just scheduled and catalogued chaos.)  I have eight months (+/-) to raise my game and become part of the class of 2010.  Right now “Poison Inside the Walls” seems my strongest submission candidate (and likely my next WotF entry), though “Secondhand Rush” (my current WotF entry) seems a good second.  I might be able to use both.  But ideally I’ll create something between now and then that eclipses both.

Faster than a speeding “no thanks”

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 4 Comments

Wow.  Clarkesworld took less than 24 hours to reject “Secondhand Rush”.  It usually takes editors several weeks to decide I suck.

So what now?  I printed it out, stuffed it in an envelope, and it’s off to Q3 of WotF.

Why am I bombarding WotF with my stuff?  This will make one per quarter for this contest year.  (Another will surely be ready by the fourth quarter.)  Well, there’s nothing quite like an “honorable mention” rather than a form rejection.  That’s not to say I’m guaranteed at least an HM (if I were, I probably wouldn’t be satisfied with one), but it gives me the “at least it wasn’t a flat rejection” to pad my ego.  The HM also becomes a tidbit to toss on the cover letter, as if to say “relax, editor, this isn’t pure junk”.

WotF also limits my competition tonon-pros.  Even at small mags you have to compete with pros and “friends of the magazine” who repeatedly have their work printed there.  I feel like I get a tiny bit of favoritism from Sams Dot Publishing because I’ve been associating with them for so long (since it was ProMartian under the late James Baker, no relation).  Maybe my quality just fits their needs, but better than half my published stories have been there.  So entering into a blind competition with other semi-pros is a good place for me right now.  Can I win?  Eventually, I bet I can.  (If Jordan can do it… 😛 )  Or maybe I’ll go pro before that happens.  Either way, I think WotF is a good market for a writer in my position to pursue.

-Oso

“Secondhand” reception

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

“Secondhand Rush” made its appearance at Baen’s Bar a few days ago.  Edith Maor was, as always, right on top of things and provided comments within hours of posting it.  She had some good points that really strenghtened my story.  She seems to have a habit of disliking my characters.  Either I really need to work on likeability or Edith and I just disagree.  It happens.  But when I disagree with an editor of a professional magazine, especially a gatekeeper like Edith, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I also seemed to have been too subtle in a few places.  The ending made reference to something only mentioned at the story’s begining in passing.  I built up the emphasis and made the end reference more direct.  I also clarified a minor character’s involvement (Axel) and made him a touch more important.

The biggest change was to the protagonist.  He was subtly afraid of death in the original (despite being a bit of a daredevil) but without cause.  In the rewrite, [SPOILER ALERT!!] he has multiple sclerosis.  The illness doesn’t change the plot much but changes the reader’s perception of it.  This came primarily from a reviewer questioning how desperate Chang was. It also came a little from Edith’s plea to make Chang more sympathetic.  I know she didn’t mean “pitiable”, but it came from the same place.  Chang isn’t pitiful at all (how many pitiful people climb the exterior of the Statue of Liberty?), just defiant of his illness.

Anyway, I really think this rewrite is a winner, probably 90% of the way to publishability.  If Baen doesn’t want it, WotF is probably the next stop.  I think it will fit their tastes well, based on some past winners I’ve read.  But if I really knew these kinds of things, I’d be writing those stories anyway.

I highly encourage aspiring writers to join Baen’s Bar even if they aren’t ready to post there.  Izanobu can vouch for the benefits of lurking.  Looking at the short, blunt editorial comments left to other authors by the slush editors is enlightening, as is viewing the progression from one iteration of a story to the next.  Pages load a little slow; that’s my only complaint as it impedes my lurk-and-browse technique.

-Oso

Rewriting and revision

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 7 Comments

As I mentioned in a few posts, I’ve been rewriting an old gem I found on my hard drive from at least five years ago, probably more. I think I just finished that rewrite, at almost exactly midnight on May 2nd.  I’ll probably want to edit more in a few days, but I’m pretty pleased with the results.

I didn’t cut the massive opening sequence I had considered axing.  It seemed to start kind of slow, but it was more the fault of excessive wordiness than anything else. Maybe I’ll stick it in Baen’s Bar to get some feedback.

In ways, “Secondhand Rush” is simpler than “Leech Run” which got slapped around.  It’s simpler in that the protagonist’s motivations are perfectly clear from the beginning.  His needs are simple, his life is simple, his goal is simple.

The story’s structure, however, is oddly complex.  It violates Jordan Lapp’s rule that a first person POV story should have no scene breaks.  I, in fact, jump periodically to other characters to eavesdrop of their conversations.  The story wouldn’t work without miranda7 and LucAs [sic] popping in and out.  It’s the nature of the narration that it happen that way.  Trust me, it works.  Some people may not like it, but it works.

miranda7 and LucAs also converse a lot like my students do with text messages.  It’s a byproduct of their living situation (they are downloaded into computers for immortality).  It may make their dialogue tough to read, but it’s always short blurbs and it fits the story.

I’m proud of this little creation.  Sad that I shelved it so long ago.  It wasn’t ready for the public and I wasn’t ready to fix it.  I’m curious to see its reception.  If I don’t declare otherwise here, I’ll have “Secondhand Rush” up in Baen’s Universe Slush by the end of the weekend.

In related news, I have put my Critters membership on hiatus.  I still love Critters, I just don’t have time to keep up my crit count.  That, and I’m considering joining the “sff online writing workshop”, maybe next month when school is getting out for the summer.  (Tarcie, I haven’t forgotten.)  Hopefully I’ll have another story ready by then.