Writing • Page 34

Currently sitting at 8,760 words with the second draft. I've had two days so far where I've done zero writing. But yeah, Thanksgiving will skew things a bit. Keep at it!

 

Well, I ended up editing 13,255 words of the second draft last month. I definitely petered off towards the end, but it was a huge improvement after nearly two months of being at a standstill. I'm almost finished with the arc for the second out of five MCs, then it'll be onto the third hopefully without going another two months dawdling.

 

That's pretty great! Congrats on all the progress! I only got about 6-7k in for November, which ended up being extremely busy quitting my old job, starting a new job, and going on a few trips to see friends and family. I have about 9K now. I've realized I don't particularly enjoy vomiting words on a page just to get them down, but I probably needed to do that to start. At heart, I think I'm a tinkerer. I like working at the sentence level, and I guess that might be because even though I've written stories my entire life, I'll always feel like a poet attempting fiction (who is currently writing a story about a poet attempting fiction).

 

Sounds like a hell of a month! And you were still able to churn out that many words, nice.

 

work in progress: ultimated

 

-Can’t Believe-

 

-winds of change (haiku)-

 

Had no idea this thread existed. Subbing

 

Welcome! What do you write? Any pubs?

 

I don’t have any books published but I’ve been talking to a publisher based in Pittsburgh since last spring and have calls with them once a month on what I’m writing. It’s my first attempt at a novel so it’s taking a bit longer than I imagined, but I love it. I’ve mostly been writing children books for a couple years when I have spare time. Hopefully one day have some books published under my name. I’ve written dozens of screenplays, but unfortunately most I no longer have the rights to and can’t share them, which ironically pushed me more to begin writing a novel.

 

work in progress: one more day

fragments: satellite

 

keepin hope (and this thread alive):

fragments: flatline

work in progress: the sum41 song

work in progress: all my dyslexics live in texas

 

Keep it coming, man. Great stuff as usual and it’s appreciated that you’re so down to share with us.

I’m about 14K words into the novel, coming in a little under 40 pages. Slow and steady, but it would be amazing to suddenly acquire the mental ability to focus and get a lot done in a single sitting.

The poetry manuscript keeps getting rejected. It’s really disheartening and frustrating; only six places are left that I’ve submitted to. Many of these poems are now over two years old (and gone through several revisions). Honestly, I just want to publish this book at this point and now I care way less about who does it and if they’ll promote it. But it’s been rejected so many times now, I’m not even sure if it’s good enough to publish anymore. I’ve also lost any credibility in judging these pieces after having spent so much damn time with them.

 

sucks man, sorry to hear. I've never submitted anything anywhere, do they give reasons for the rejections? Or do they basically just say 'no'?

 

Sometimes there's a reason, most of the time not. I don't expect a reason, though it's nice to occasionally get feedback, and I think if you receive feedback that generally means you were near-acceptance (I've had experience as a fiction editor for a journal and there are hundreds of submissions. Manuscripts are even more dense/require a lot more reading so you can't expect individual feedback on every rejection). What's wild is that my collection has been shortlisted for contests and was the second place finalist for one. But since then it's just been form-rejection after form-rejection

 

Have you thought about self-publishing? My wife and I did this last year. A poetry / creative / mindful / sensory vibe book. Admittedly, she has a floristry business so already has a following. However we just crowdfunded, I taught myself indesign, researched printers and gave it a go. Ended up releasing it a few weeks after our 10 week old had heart surgery so it’s doable even in high stress situations, ha!

If you believe in your work enough to send the manuscript out don’t be disheartened or put yourself down. It does have value. Hard road after two years but try not to give up.

 

Hey y’all, I’ve been working on a project for a couple months now that I’m hoping will be ready to put out in the world soon. I’ve never publicly shared my writing before and was wondering if anyone had any experience using Substack. It’s something that would basically have weekly installments once I start posting it and I read some newsletters or whatever on that platform. Any insight on your experiences and/or recommendations for other services would be appreciated.

 

I actually know plenty of authors who use Substack. They live by it and I’ve enjoyed reading newsletters created with it, so definitely worth a shot. I haven’t tried it but I’ve built out newsletters myself using Canva, which seems more catered to designers.

also, late reply to @awakeohsleeper, but yeah, not trying to self-publish with this one. Self-publishing is expensive and a ton of work doing it all yourself or with hired hands, everything from editing to layout to design to promotion (I’ve used hybrid publishers before which was a similar experience). All the power to those who decide to self-publish but that’s not me; I really want this collection to find a home, even if it’s a small press, which I’d expect it to be anyway. Not only is it about the amount of work, but now it’s a pride thing for me. I think I’ll just keep pushing. You’re right that I’ve worked too hard on this to give it up. I have to remind myself that I’d held onto my first novel for seven years before it was accepted somewhere.

 

-My Bloody Valentine-

 

love is a pistol
and you're a bullet
my finger on the trigger
dare i pull it?

wait
is that finger mine or
yours?

BANG.

-BANG-

 

This may or may not be the best place to put this!

I started a place to write about one thing a day (Film / Music / TV) to keep the juices flowing. I named it ironically because Production company names at the start of Films / TVs are ridiculous and I think the As Tall As Lions S/T is wildly underrated.

If you want to give me a follow, that would be brilliant! So far written about Aftersun, Banshees of Inisherin, Thank You For Smoking, Carly Rae Jepsen, Chvrches and Seahaven.

www.instagram.com/softhumproductions

 

YESSSSSS just received an acceptance for this poetry collection I’ve been trying to get published for a while now!!! I’m so thrilled!

 

Well done! Pleased to hear it -amazing you were able to persevere.

 

Hell yeah congrats