My Own Worst Enemy

Have you ever had a story to tell, and you knew it was inside you waiting to burst forth, but you were too afraid you wouldn't be able to do it justice?

This kind of stinkin' thinkin' hit me hard when I came up with the idea for my story "Soulless in His Sight." Who was I to think I could write an homage to Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and McCarthy's The Road with Diogenes (crossbow and hatchet instead of a lamp) tossed in for good measure?

Here's the concept: What if Faulkner's Vardaman didn't know his own strength, and he hurt someone close to him? His father, a violent incarnation of McCarthy's paternal character, believes his son was born without a soul. Like Diogenes on the hunt for an honest man, the father must find a soul for his son so he can go to heaven and see his mother.

On Week #9 of Write1Sub1 2011, I finally decided to give it a go. I wrote, polished, and submitted "Soulless in His Sight" to Shimmer, a market I'd been stalking for over a year. The editor eventually responded, "I've read this story a few times now, and though I like it very much, the ending still makes me hesitate. I think if you were to be more concrete with it, the story would be a home run."

I was definitely open to a rewrite, and after making a few minor edits and overhauling the end, the editor replied, "I like the revisions very much. Fatha and Boy are just great; the story has a genuine voice that shines." In spite of my self-doubt, "Soulless in His Sight" eventually appeared in Shimmer's July 2012 issue, and if that wasn't cool enough, in 2015 a reprint will appear in the Wastelands 2 anthology edited by John Joseph Adams.

"Soulless in His Sight” was a challenge for me to write, but I'm so glad I stuck with it and now have a story I can point to as one I didn't allow to beat me—and an example of my best work.

We don't have to be our own worst critics.

Believe in yourself. Believe in your work. Cool stuff will happen.

Week #15 Weigh-in

The end of Week 15 is upon us!

How's it been for you? Have the words flowed like Dandelion Wine, or has Something Wicked gotten in the way? Here's your chance to tell everybody about it, whether you're a weekly or monthly (or anything in between) W1S1 participant.

If you've managed to write a story and submit a story, shout it from the rooftops. Yahoo! If you've had something W1S1-related accepted, tell us so we can add you to the Write1Sub1 Hall of Fame. But if stuff has interfered with your writing and every reply has been a rejection, let us know that too so we can commiserate. We're all in this together.

This year, we have cool forms for reporting our acceptances and paid publications. (Thanks to Jeff Chapman for keeping us organized.)

Please report ONLY accepted/published stories that you wrote as part of your participation in W1S1 (2011-2014).

(Please note that reports will not immediately appear, as they must be verified/processed by the weekly moderator) 

While W1S1 continues to encourage all avenues for publication, we want to especially highlight those stories and markets that help to put new eBooks on a writer's eReader. 

Even if you have no acceptance or publication news to report, please update us on your week's progress in the comments. Successes and failures, triumphs and disasters, brilliant ideas and insane dreams: we want to read all about them.

Why Write Short Stories?

It's the writer's dream: have an agent, sign a book deal with a big publishing house, see our work on the shelf at the local airport. But writing novels takes time. And revising them takes a whole lot more. We need something along the way to boost our creative energy and remind us why we started writing those 300-page tomes in the first place: to share our work with readers.

For the past four years, I've been writing and submitting short stories for publication. No agent is necessary, you can build your audience and compile publication credits, and you'll get paid for your work. Some novelists think they can't do short fiction, that their stories are too big. But my favorite authors have done it: Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, China Mieville, and Alastair Reynolds. If they can, so can we.

There are so many short fiction venues available now: magazines, anthologies, online 'zines, and eReader publications. Writing and selling short stories is an excellent way to build a portfolio of your published work. Pay varies widely from token to pro, but there are other benefits, such as exposure. Having your story published alongside a well-known author in a themed anthology will introduce new readers to your work. And once the rights revert to you, the story can be republished elsewhere as a reprint, expanding your audience even further.

One of the greatest benefits to writing short fiction is the ability to develop characters from your novels, giving readers some insight into their backstory—or creating characters that will someday appear in their own novels. I wrote 7 stories about Captain Bartholomew Quasar, sold 6 of them, then had a publisher approach me about writing a novel-length adventure. I've sold other tales with recurring characters—Coyote Cal & Big Yap (weird westerns), Mercer the Soul Smuggler (supernatural noir), Charlie Madison, private investigator (future noir), and Brawnstone & Dahlia (urban fantasy)—and it's been a blast to learn more about them with every story I write.

Thanks to Write1Sub1, we're spending 2014 in Ray Bradbury's shadow and growing in our craft along the way. Many of us write novellas and novels in addition to our short fiction, and we've found W1S1 to be a great way to stay on track as we pursue our dreams. I've committed to the monthly challenge again this year (12 or more stories in 12 months), and I'm telling new tales about my recurring characters. Some of them are clamoring for novels, too, but we'll see how that goes.

This is a great time to be a writer. Don't pigeonhole yourself. Branch out, stretch those wings, and see what you can do.

Week #14 Weigh-In

The end of Week 14 is upon us!

How's it been for you? Have the words flowed Quicker than the Eye, or has A Sound of Thunder gotten in the way? Here's your chance to tell everybody about it, whether you're a weekly or monthly (or anything in between) W1S1 participant.

If you've managed to write a story and submit a story, shout it from the rooftops. Yahoo! If you've had something W1S1-related accepted, tell us so we can add you to the Write1Sub1 Hall of Fame. But if stuff has interfered with your writing and every reply has been a rejection, let us know that too so we can commiserate. We're all in this together.

This year, we have cool forms for reporting our acceptances and paid publications. (Thanks to Jeff Chapman for keeping us organized.)

Please report ONLY accepted/published stories that you wrote as part of your participation in W1S1 (2011-2014).

(Please note that reports will not immediately appear, as they must be verified/processed by the weekly moderator) 

While W1S1 continues to encourage all avenues for publication, we want to especially highlight those stories and markets that help to put coffee or tea in a writer's favorite mug. 

Even if you have no acceptance or publication news to report, please update us on your week's progress in the comments. Successes and failures, triumphs and disasters, brilliant ideas and insane dreams: we want to read all about them.

March Monster Blogfest

Are YOU a "March Monster" winner?

At the end of each month here at Write1Sub1, we congratulate everyone who has managed to stick to the challenge: whether weekly, monthly or whatever variant is working for you.

  

This month, everyone who has done so receives the March Monster Blogfest Award (in honor of Ray Bradbury's first collection of short stories).

So if you've met your W1S1 writing goals during the month of March, just leave a comment below, and if you had something W1S1-related published last month that you're particularly proud of, post the link, and we'll check it out!

Blogfest Rules: Visit your fellow March Monsters' blogs and give them each a virtual pat on the back for a job well done. We're all in this together, folks.