I use the word stomp a lot in my stories, I’ve noticed as I proof-read through the last batch.
Behold my $1.39 stock photo book cover for my e-chapbook I hope to have out before Christmas! Self-published, so don’t be too happy for me.
I’m stuck on one bloody sentence that I
just
can’t
get
to
work!
“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma.”
“And in the afternoon?”
“In the afternoon—well, I put it back again.”
Oscar Wilde
I wrote.
I wrote about one short story a week, more or less.
And now, sadly, comes the editing. Perhaps in a week or two I’ll have a nice little e-chapbook to share with you.
I did have a writing partner, who also tried to write one short story a week. It was a bit like school. I miss school and the deadlines and the expectations to do work. By myself, I do very little work because I am easily distracted and I get migraines and now I work in my basement since COVID which means a whole new set of distractions I have to learn how to avoid (I’m right next to my sewing machine now. Do you know how many things I could sew? Neither do I!)
In any case, the worst part of writing is whatever step you are on currently.
Hello my four blog followers.
My piece “6-12-1989 still” is in Dreamers Creative Writing Issue #6. Get your copy here: https://www.dreamerswriting.com/dreamers-store/?fbclid=IwAR28iJveDDRcinCzXtE6a_vF6hO9xbkBCV4eUZ0Q2_YINymFQPS1cLPdV90
And now I’m stuck trying to decide whether to explore that corner more fully or back up somehow. The other thing I have to decide is how much effort to put into writing versus finding paid work. For all the words I’ve ever written, I’ve only made about $1200 Canadian. It is an unpleasant truth that for all my writing abilities, it is not a sustainable, long-term, job prospect.
There’s more time to read and reject things. Another story rejected!
Send it out. Geoff says the story is mean, but maybe I am in a mean place right now. I do feel emotionally mean, like in the parsimonious way, but with feelings instead of money. I will keep all my thoughts and feelings for myself.
Picture: Wolf_Kolmården.jpg: Daniel Mott from Stockholm, Swedenderivative work: Mariomassone – Wolf_Kolmården.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12423176
My odd Wolf Children story (11 423 words) was rejected twice in the past two days. Not even simultaneous submission rejected, but rejected within twenty-four hours of submission each time. I have some mad props for these journals’ response time, but also, great sadness because I write weird things that speak to very few people other than myself.
Geoff said he liked it.
Now I’m stuck proof-reading it before I try to find it a home.
If I could just write perfectly to begin with I wouldn’t have this problem.