Yeah, that's a lot of cards.
See…when I do this NaNoWriMo thing, I usually have an idea of where I’m going but don’t always know how I’m going to get there. This morning I figured out how I was going to get there.
Oct
31
2009
I think I might need more index cards
Oct
30
2009
Are we sure there isn’t medication for this?
Normally October is a great month for me. The weather in DC is crisp, the air has enough of a chill to it to make that leather jacket I couldn’t even contemplate during summer seem appealing. The leaves are interesting colors, and the crockpot becomes a viable cooking device again. Normally.
This October has been unsettled at best and downright weird at worst. The weather has been all over the place – shirt sleeves one day, my winter coat two days later – and work has been so strange that today we passed the point at which I stop caring what happens and everything becomes ridiculous.
And yet…this year I’m writing a book. Yes, I’m “doing” NaNoWriMo.
To that end, I share the pep talk that went out today.
November 1: At midnight, local time, start writing your book. You need to log 1,667 words per day to stay on par. The website will be very slow for the first few days of the event, but with patience you can update your soaring word count in that box at the top of our site. Watch your stats graph fill. Send a link to your author profile to your friends so they can follow your progress. Revel in the majesty of your unfolding story. It’s November 1! You are an unstoppable novel-writing machine!
November 2: Stop writing. Wonder if you should start over. Keep going. Feel better.
November 8: As the first full week of writing comes to a close, you will be at 11,666 words. This is more fiction than most people write in their lifetimes, and you did it in a week. Go, you! This is also Municipal Liaison Appreciation Day, a raucous international holiday that celebrates NaNoWriMo’s volunteer chapter-heads (the folks who organized the write-in you went to last week). Chocolate, flowers, and gifts of expensive electronics are appreciated.
November 13: Nothing really happens on November 13.
November 15: After the second week of writing, you will be at 25,000 words. This is the approximate length of such legendary works of fiction as The Metamorphosis, Of Mice and Men, and Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion. You’re halfway to winning! Attend a Midway Party in your town.
November 16: The second half of NaNoWriMo dawns. Writerly confidence builds. Your book comes to life, and characters start doing interesting, unexpected things. Nice. Weird.
November 22: After the third full week of writing, you stand at 35,000 words, the NaNoWriMo milestone universally recognized as The Place Where Everything Gets Much Easier. This is also when you fly out to San Francisco and join us for the Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon, where you’ll help us set records for group noveling and candy consumption.
November 25: Novel validation and winning begins, and Word-Count Progress Bars turn from blue (under 50K) to green (over 50K) to purple (over 50k and a verified winner!). Check our FAQs for details on uploading your manuscript and winning. A limited number of 2009 Winner T-shirts will appear in the store. These will make you smile, and will feature a squirrel.
November 26: American Wrimos celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving by gathering together with friends and family, wolfing down a huge meal as quickly as possible, and then ditching those friends and family to hide in the bathroom with a laptop.
November 30: By midnight, local time, we will all be the proud owners of 50,000-word novels that we barely could have imagined on October 31. Plan to attend your local NaNoWriMo Thank God It’s Over Party, where grins will abound, champagne will flow, fives will be highed, and wrists will be iced.
You did it. We all did it.
December 1: Sleep will fall heavily across NaNoLand, as 150,000 writers close the book on a crazy, oversized dream.
December 2: The “I Wrote A Novel, Now What?” page goes up on the NaNoWriMo site, containing some special items for our winners from sponsors CreateSpace and Scrivener, along with advice on revision and next steps from published NaNoWriMo authors.
December 3: Rewrites begin.
It all starts very soon, brave writer! Here’s to a great month together!
So, fair warning: my blog posts will be even more sporadic than they have been of late but know it is for a good cause.
Jul
15
2009
Rejection notice
Way back in April I submitted a short story for consideration in an annually published anthology. Not only was editing down 18,000 words to 5,000 an exercise in both major and selective surgery, sending the story off was a huge risk. “What if I get told I’m not a good writer? Does that mean I have to stop?” and other pointless thoughts ran through my head as I dropped the envelope in the mail just in time to make the postmark deadline.
About a week after I sent off my little envelope I got a very nice acknowledgement e-mail. After that, I didn’t expect to get anything else. Truthfully, I didn’t expect to get selected for the anthology. And I didn’t. Around June 30th I got the following:
This email is to let you know that your story “In a Strange Land,” has not been chosen for Best Lesbian Erotica 2010.
Sometimes, a story can be worthy of publication and it doesn’t make the final roster for another reason: I might have received a large number of stories on a particular theme, or the work might be almost, but not quite there, and it needs another draft.
In other words, this is an “it’s not you, it’s me” email. And it’s no fun to get one of those, but don’t take it to heart (I know, it’s a rejection letter, and how can you not?) because the sheer number of manuscripts, as well as the quality and range of the work made it an extremely difficult, yet enjoyable task to winnow down the number to “Best Lesbian Erotica 2010.” Our judges commented on the quality of the work received, and spent considerable time choosing the final stories.
Submissions for BLE 2011 are open, and I hope to hear from you again.
As a “thank you” for your work and talent, Cleis Press would like to extend a 10% discount to you on copies of Best Lesbian Erotica 2010. [discount code info redacted; submit your own story and get rejected if you want a discount!]
I’ve enjoyed reading your work and wish you the best. Please keep writing.
Cordially,
Now, that last part about enjoying my work may be form letter bullshit but if it is, it’s certainly nice form letter bullshit.
I can’t decide if I want to try to submit this story to next year’s anthology, put it away, publish it on the fiction blog, or send it to another anthology’s open submission process. Whatever the case, I think this just proves that even a rejection can be encouraging.
