Meanwhile…

Vacation, amIright? I spent the last couple of weeks wrangling in-laws and seeing friends I don’t see nearly enough and playing lots of Rock Band.

Yes, I created Virtuoso Of The Serious Combat on Rock Band, so if you’d like to get into a drum-off with the Iron Acrobat, match guitars with the Secret Earl that Grasps, or sing a duet with the Eighth Unspeakable Warden, this is something we can make happen.

Saw Up in the Air, which was excellent, but didn’t get to see Sherlock Holmes (don’t worry, I will). Drooled over Star Trek on Blu-Ray. Went to a hockey game. Tinkered on the cars a bit.

But last night before bed I felt the writing urge start to hit. Ideas percolated. That part of me that needs to write was letting me know it’s time to get back to work.

Goals for the year:

• Some rejection letters from pro markets. As Erin indicated a few weeks ago, our writing group has decided to focus on producing stories that might be publishable at the pro level. Having just received a loss at the latest Writers of the Future, I feel like I’m a step ahead on this one.
• More writing in general. I don’t feel I was particularly productive this past year, for whatever reason. I need to get back to pumping out lots of writing exercises, as that’s usually where I get my published flash pieces from. I want to keep up my goal of submitting at least one story a month somewhere. Since I set that goal late last year I’ve basically just been meeting the minimum, which really isn’t enough.
• Reading more. I am by no means a slow reader, but damn it takes me forever to get anything read nowadays. I need to make more time for that, because it’s an integral part of being a good writer.
• Finally finish revising several stories I’ve got gathering dust. I have a few stories that I’ve gotten great notes on from the writing group that are just sitting around. I need to finish revising them. In particular I want to finish my rewrite of my Dr. Strange-style urban fantasy, and decide what to do with my feature-length Chuck Chaykin story.

Every Day Fiction is in the process of selecting stories for the Best of 2009 Anthology (there’s a thread about it here – if you haven’t already, feel free to check out my last couple of stories published there, maybe comment/rate them, and if you have a forum account feel free to mention me). I think “Apotheosis Cake” might be worth putting in there, but I won’t be surprised if I get left out.

What the nomination thread has really made me realize is that my output this year has really not been very good. Most of the other writers listed in the nomination thread have got a good half dozen stories to pick from. Jens and Stephanie are pumping out novels faster than I’m getting flash pieces done, and Erin has created an entire new person, from scratch. There is no excuse!

I’ve worked on far fewer prompts this year, and out of the couple of stories I’ve had published recently (or soon-to-be-published), at least one of them was actually written last year. I’ve more or less decided not to attempt NaNo this year, in the interest of getting something done instead of wasting a month, but really I’ve been wasting most of this year. I feel stagnant.

To my credit, most of the stories I submit get accepted within a couple of attempts. It would be nice to say that I’m just exacting and have high standards for myself, but it’s really just because I’ve actually only finished a handful of stories this year, and the few I have submitted just happened to hit the right editors at the right time.  I should be getting a steady stream of unfortunate and regretful form letters. But I’m not because I’m simply not sending out enough submissions. I have a ton of half-finished stories laying around doing nothing for me. There’s no reason I shouldn’t have a piece in Every Day Fiction every month or so, or in every issue of A Thousand Faces or 10Flash. I should be working on podcast stories, too, an area I would love to get into.

So starting in August, I’m going to start pumping out the short fiction, as much as I can manage. I’m setting a goal of submitting at least one finished short piece a month (whether it’s flash or longer works). That doesn’t seem like much, but for me it’s a huge jump in productivity. I need to get this discipline down before I attempt a novel again.

The whole purpose of setting up this blog to begin with was to force myself to write more and on a regular basis. It worked well for a while, but I’ve slacked off these past few months. Time to get back on track.

Listen to me, I sound like Charlie Brown, gearing up to take another run at Lucy and that damn football.

Sorry about the rambling. Gay has a great post about this sort of thing over at the Flash Fiction Chronicles that pretty well mirrors how I’m feeling at the moment. Here’s to rejection!