Emptyeye

Although not for the best reason. I got my first rejection of a story yesterday, from 10 Flash Quarterly. I’m pretty sure this makes me a real writer, since it will be the first of many rejections to come. Heck, Ray Bradbury says that he got a rejection a week for 50-plus years. I’m not Ray Bradbury, in either sheer output or skill, so I fully expect more “Sorry, we’re passing on this” letters in the future.

As for the story I had written for 10 Flash, I quickly sent it out to Abyss & Apex. I don’t have high hopes for acceptance here, since Duotrope (Which is an awesome website for finding short story markets, as well as tracking what you’ve sent where) reports an acceptance rate of just over 1%, versus about 15% for 10 Flash. But I figure that’s still better than the 0% chance I have if I don’t submit it, and the more stories I have out in the wild, the better the chance that one of them eventually gets accepted somewhere.

Onward!

-EE

Awhile back, one of my friends noted that he was editing his book, and implied that he hated the process. It makes sense, in a way; in On Writing, Stephen King mentions that cutting out words from your story is akin in some way to killing your children. He goes on to mention that, whether you like it or not, it’s something you have to do to make your story the best it can be.

It probably says something about me that I actually like the process of revision and editing. It sounds strange, but I look forward to taking words out of a story, knowing that what’s left will be tighter and faster-paced as a result of it. To be fair, it probably also helps that I don’t have the attention span/dedication to write a full novel, choosing instead to write and submit short stories to various markets (I’m currently attempting to participate in the monthly version of Write 1 Sub 1). I like the stories I write, but I don’t spend enough time to be able to get emotionally attached to any of them, or the words within them, to the point that I struggle with cutting stuff most of the time.

How about you? If you’re a writer, or a musician, or some other creative profession, so you enjoy deletion as much as creation?

-EE

Later on today, Speed Demos Archive will be starting their summer marathon, creatively titled Summer Games Done Quick. It’ll start at 2PM EST today, and tentatively go until about midnight on Saturday. Check out the full slate of games to be played here. I’m not participating in this one (Utah is a little far from Connecticut for my taste), although I did begin a game facts cheat sheet to help out potential commentators with some of the games they may not know very well, which the runners of the games then filled in with even more cool stuff.

This time around, they’re playing for the Organization for Autism Research. So make sure to check it out and donate if you can.

-EE