Journey Into Publication

Well, isn't this exciting?

My first professionally sold story was released yesterday. It's the tale of a man who finds out his future and past are linked, and he's not at all happy about it. You can read His Father's Eyes for free at TGeneDavis.com

In addition to that, I also released a collection of short stories yesterday, available digitally through Amazon and in print through CreateSpace. This collection ranges from light fantasy to dark science fiction.  

Digital: $2.99 (Free to Kindle Unlimited Users)

Print: $5.99

And, finally, I created an Author's Page on Amazon. Among other things, it's supposed to link to this blog. It gave me a chance to write a new BIO, which I've included below. The address is easy to remember too: www.amazon.com/author/thewritescott

Scott Hughey was born young, and has done everything within his control to remain that way. His fiction has won two honorable mention awards during 2014 in the Writer's of the Future Contest. And yes, he double-checked. "Two" counts as multiple. He has also sold fiction to T. Gene Davis' Speculative blog, and ghost-written multiple non-fiction articles on the internet. That's no mean feat for someone who, strictly speaking, doesn't believe in ghosts. Scott is an IT professional. You could change that today by purchasing a million copies of his work.

Motivation Isn't Enough

A friend of mine asked me recently, "What motivates you to continue writing?"

That could have been taken in a number of ways. He didn't mean the question negatively, or so he assured me. It helped that he gave me three options to choose from:

1) Did I continue for the eventual recognition? He knows me well enough to know my ego, and how much it likes to be fed.

2) Or was it the allure of eventual money? I've not hidden my desire to eventually make writing my primary source of income.

3) Or finally, was my ongoing motivation the craft itself? Did I continue what I did for the sake of art, or (if you will,) the sake of ART?

To all of this, I replied, "Yes."

First off, I love that he saw all of these as eventual realities. It doesn't seem to occur to him that I might not find success.

Of course, people will eventually recognize how fantastic my writing is. They'll giggle at the right places, cringe at the purposefully cringe worthy sections, and crave more. This will result in my stories selling, and some amount of monetary success. And obviously, none of this will happen without the craft improving. Unless I create good stories, there's nothing worth recognizing or buying.

Honestly, each of those motivations feed the others. And, I've begun to see the motivations bear fruit, to some degree.

First off, I can tell the stories are getting better. Partly, this is due to feedback from my beta readers and occasional publishers. But moreover, I'M enjoying them. I've mentioned before, how I used to believe that being a good reader naturally made me a good writer. Then I'd write a story that might have been good enough, but good enough never is.

The craft is improving. If I'm honest, I'm finally (consistently) writing stories that I would buy and read myself.

I'm also receiving some recognition beyond my beta readers. Form rejections are turning into personal rejections. Stories are making it beyond the first rounds of editorial slush piles and competitions. It's not a given, but it looks like one or more of my stories might make it into a real-honest-to-goodness-professional-anthology. More on that when and if it actually happens.

Oh, and a story finally sold.

Sold.

At pro rates, no less, which is an important distinction. At least, to me it is.

I've self published stories. I've had stories accepted in non-paying online publications. With apologies to those publishers, most of those stories wouldn't have made it in a pro market.

But at least one has. (I'll post about it in January, when it's available.)

All of that means that within this past month, I've achieved, to some small degree, each of those 3 motivations. People are liking my work. Some of that work has sold. And, through writing daily, the craft itself is continuing to improve.

So, now that I've tasted a small part of success, I asked myself which of the options continues to provide the most satisfaction and motivation?

I can't say. All I know is that I'm hungry for more. Hopefully, that's a good sign. I've heard of writers who sold one or three or so stories, and figured they had it made. I'm quite certain I don't. Since starting writing again a little over a year ago, I've been adamant about continually producing and improving. No more shortcuts to success. There's no substitute for striving to get better and hard work.

If I had to choose one I'd pick #3. I'm glad to be one of those writers who enjoys writing as much as having written. At least, I do on most days. And I can immerse myself in a story I'm writing as much, or sometimes more, as I can in one that someone else has written. It's harder, but it's more fun.

I still want to make this my primary income source one day. So #2 remains part of the long term goal. And my ego hasn't been fed all day, so we mustn't forget the importance of #1.

But yeah. It's the craft.

At least, at this moment it is.

Back to the novel...

Write What You Feel (and more)

You know that old saying, "Write what you know?" If you're interested in writing, and the fact that you're reading this blog suggests that you are, then the answer is probably "yes."

You've probably also heard multiple remarks about the saying, some funny and others not so funny. If not, I'll give an example and let you decide if it's funny or not.

"Hey Scott. Why do you write these weird stories?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, like this one about alien cat people who use their advanced technology to invade our timeline, starting the zombie war decades before it originally happened in 2032?"
"Oh. Well like they say, 'write what you know.'"

I know. You saw that coming a mile away. That's the advanced time technology at work.

Here's the thing. "Write what you know," doesn't mean only write what you're familiar with. Otherwise, we'd never have stories about a police box that's bigger on the inside, carrying an alien with two hearts across time and space. And you know what? That'd be a shame.

Write what you know means write what you feel.

Here's some examples. Do you know the elation you feel when you see your child for the first time? Can you recall a time when your heart was torn in two by the loss of a loved one? How about the bone chilling terror of someone sticking a gun in your face and demanding your money?

Write about that. AND HERE'S THE BEST PART! You don't have to write about a newborn child anymore than you have to write about a robbery or anything else from your life. You can, but you don't have to.

Take the joy of the newborn child and use those real emotions to describe the happiness of a long awaited reunion. Take that loss of a loved one, and draw on those feelings when your character looses her job. Take the terror of the mugging and show the fear of dangling over the edge of a cliff.

Write what you feel. Sometimes, even write about what made you feel that way.

I'll add this to it. Write what you feel like writing about. That'll carry you through 90% of your writing duties. Yes, I made that statistic up on the spot, but it feels right, doesn't it? Sometimes, you have to push through as a writer and finish projects (or start them. Or continue them.) However, most of the time, your passions can carry you through the work.

Another example. I wrote a long outline for a story last night. It's a good outline of a story that I've wanted to tell for a few months now, but couldn't figure out what really happened. Now I know. But guess what? It's still not ready. I could have started it, but I didn't want to. Something else was on my mind. That's okay. It'll wait.

Instead, I finished and submitted another story, which I'd also put aside temporarily. And, like my last blog entry, I made progress.

Take those feelings-- the grief, the triumph, the hope and the despair. Which one, or ones do you want to write about? Which idea has you jumping up and down inside? When possible, write about where those passions are. And always, write what you feel.

Hand Written Manuscripts

I love hand writing manuscripts.  The only issue is, I also despise hand writing manuscripts.

Getting to the computer to write isn't always an option.  Neither is using that as an excuse to keep from writing.  Enter the notepad format.

Writing out long hand actually has some benefits.  Usually it means I'm not on a computer, so fighting the many distractions is easier.  I can write pretty much anywhere too.  The writing itself seems to flow a little bit quicker in that format.

But you know what?  Publishers won't accept my handwritten manuscripts.  You can't blame them for that.  I wouldn't accept them either.

Typically, I can finish a short story or novel chapter quicker if I'm writing longhand.  It's not because of typing speed- I'm pretty fast.  It's just- I'm not limited to location, and sometimes the ideas fall onto the paper better in this format.

Then I retype.  Or is it type?  I try not to edit as I do this, but it's pretty much impossible not to tweak a little.  I'm a minimalist writer when it comes to first drafts.  Transferring a 2500 word story from paper to computer will usually add about 300-500 more words. Then in revising, I'll reduce that by about 100-200 words.  Or so.  It all depends.

All that to say, I love hand writing stories.  It's quick and I get strong stories.

And I hate it.  It takes roughly twice as long start to finish.  I wrote the last short story in about three days.  It took me that long to type it out again.

What's a writer to do?

Making a Living with Your Short Fiction by Dean Wesley Smith

I finally took the time to look up an article I read on Dean Wesley Smith's blog.  This is required reading for those interested in writing short fiction and considering indie publishing electronically.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=9457

The blog discusses the need for:

• Work ethic
• Writing in multiple genres
• A love for Short Fiction

The math involved fascinates me.

Having fun

Writing thrills me.  I smile more often these days too.

Still writing the novel, but as I've said before I want to write novels and short stories.  The shorts are just plain fun right now.

I finished and submitted a short story twice in the last two days.  I started both after beginning the novel.  While I planned to work on both types of stories, the output of the shorts far outpace the novel.  (The novel currently sits at about 3000 words so far.)

Frankly I'm not sure if I'm stalling or not with the larger piece.  What I do know is my short stories are improving and the word output is increasing the more I practice.  Tonight I had no idea how to finish the story, but I sat down with a goal of figuring that out.  1200 words later I had a completed story.

Fun.

Upward and forward and such

Haven't blogged much recently. Writing fiction is taking precedent. If I have to choose (and that is exactly what I've had to do) between the two I'll take the stories.

Good forward progress. Four short stories finished and in publishers piles. A fifth one is in progress and about halfway finished.

I read short stories and novels, and they're both what I want to write. I'm doing preliminary work for a novel, but it scares me. Still I plan to take the plunge when this story is finished. Hopefully.

Eventually I will probably work on burgh at the same time. Knowing how I work, on alternating weeks.

Anyway: still writing

Finishing

Finished the short story.  Other than how it started I had no idea where it was going.

I'm neither an outliner nor a seat-of-the-panters.  Typically I shape a story, jotting down notes, key points, questions the story should answer and what not.  I may not always know how it's going to end but I have a pretty good idea of how it's getting there.

Not this time.  I promised myself I'd write every day, and so I did.  Beyond an extremely vague idea for a character I had no clue where things were going.  The story takes two sharp turns that make sense now but surprised me at the time.

Writing the story reminded me of spinning in the car because it hit a sheet of ice.  Not that it went quickly.  I just wanted to stop.

So I did what Neil Gaiman said. I finished.  I did what Dean Wesley Smith said.  I wrote the next line.

Is it good?  I hope so.  Maybe.  The important thing is I finished it and submitted it.  I learned I could write a story even when the writing doesn't flow out of me.  And I learned actually writing.

It feels good.

Finish it (Or how I think I've stopped the cycle)

It almost happened again.

Here, in brief, is the story of my writing.  Years ago, I decided professional writing was what I wanted to do.   For now I'll spare you the previous things I wrote that led me to believe I had I shot.  Feel free to insert here the usual "If I only had the times," and the "I can write better than that's" of many like-minded young writers.

I wrote a short story.  If memory serves it was around 2500 words and took three months.  And oh, it was horrid.  I knew something was wrong with it, but couldn't figure out what or how to fix it.  So, I submitted it for publication to Fantasy & Science Fiction.

It was promptly rejected, and rightly so.  The editor even wrote a nice personal letter explaining why it was rejected.  He (or she, I don't remember and the letter disappeared long ago) advised me to keep writing.  Had I taken the advice this journey may not have taken so long.

I didn't know how.  Writing fiction was much harder than I'd realized.  Practice?  Ha!  That was for "lesser writers."  I just couldn't think of another good idea.  (Or a more original excuse.)  So I quit.

Fast forward.  Two other times I picked up the pen and put it down again.  Fortunately, both times I realized that I'd actually have to work at the craft, but even then I believed there were shortcuts.  Someone who reads as much as me should be able to write better.  I still felt (to dwindling degrees, but it was there) a sense of entitlement.

Twice more when the writing (and in the later instance, life itself) grew difficult I put the pen down.

Now the present.  I've been writing every day.  I'm open to learning.  When a deficiency becomes apparent (I loathe building the setting) I work to improve and write outside my comfort zone (my last story was built around a particular setting.  To my surprise, my first reader said that the characters were better than any previous story.)

I have multiple submissions out.  (Eventually I may move to indie publishing, but I tried that as a shortcut too.  I don't want to indie publish because my work is so bad an editor won't but it.)

And then the last two days happened.  The brick wall smacked me hard in the face.  With my latest story submitted (and the first rejection letter just arrived) I wasn't sure what to write.  I had three story ideas that seemed promising, but discarded them for various reasons.  I started one, but it didn't seem good enough.  Maybe I'd write tomorrow.  But that path leads to not writing anymore.

What is that rule?  "Finish what you write"?

I'm finishing it.  Either it will be good practice that improves my skill but doesn't sell, or it will be good practice that improves my skill and sells.  After a few hundred words the story began to intrigue me again.  Usually I at least think I know what will happen, but this time I have no clue and it's constantly surprising me.

I suspect the beginning will have to be tweaked once it's finished.  And I have no idea whether or not it's good.  But I'm writing it.  I'm finishing.  And I'm repeating.

Writer's write.  I think I'm truly becoming one.

Progress

Two days ago I finished a 4125 word short story and sent it off to a publisher.
Yesterday I got about 820 words into my next short story.
Can't wait to see what I do today.