Today’s guest blogger is Michael Sean Morris, a writer I know from a historical fiction email list and the words and energy behind the informative and delightful Pop Culture Institute:
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Here is where I have no legitimate experience (i.e., getting published) but have the theory down. Besides, the only reason I haven’t been published is a) insecurity, and b) I never send anything out. Once I get those licked I’ll be set.
My God in all things literary, F. Scott Fitzgerald (hallowed be thy name), used to take two, and no more than three, days to write a single short story. In his opinion they could easily be overwritten. Once you have the idea, sketch it out in one go, then flesh it out the same way, either the same day or the following. Put it away for 24 hours, final draft and send, before you get cold feet.
Whether it was innate talent, the speed involved, or simply the massive number of submissions, he managed to publish regularly enough that by the 1930s Scribner’s and the Saturday Evening Post were asking him for stories. He used the short stories to explore themes in his novels, as a quick form of currency, and, I suspect, preferred short fiction because it was easier to focus on as his brain was pickling from bootleg hooch.
Having tried his techniques (minus the booze) I find there’s something in them. If it’s not your thing, don’t force it, but consider this. Many literary journals publish short stories. The pay isn’t great, but it’s a credit with terrific cachet, and often the stories in them are excerpts from a novel in process, a testing of the waters, if you will. In fact, I’ve decided to market my own Chapter One in this way, as it may lend the entire project a momentum and credibility it doesn’t currently have (since I’m one of those loser know-nothings without a paper for my education 
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I’ve always believed that writing short stories is excellent exercise for novelists: the form foces the writer to think about word choices, characterizations, descriptions, and flow in ways that longer works (which, let’s face it, allow us to become a little sloppy) simply don’t. Even reading a lot of short stories is a good mental exercise: it keeps the focus clear.
Whatever your inspiration, try something challenging in your writing today. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in About Writing, Creativity, Process Matters, Tools, Words on March 26th, 2009
There’s an ongoing and probably never-ending discussion on the Net about simultaneous submissions—sending your work to more than one publisher at a time. Should you wait the painfully long time it often takes to be rejected, or fling your submission out to the four winds and hope that someone, somewhere, will want it? But what if two “someones” should want it at once? Dilemmas, dilemmas, dilemmas.
When it’s a book, the line is pretty clear: send out multiple query letters, but once someone has asked for the full proposal (um, you do have a full proposal, right?), then give that editor the courtesy of not sending it out all over the place. Tell the publication that it has three months to decide, after which you’ll feel free to submit the proposal elsewhere. That’s pretty simple.
The complications come in when you’re talking about sending out articles, short stories, op-ed pieces, and so on.
Frankly, sending your work to multiple publications is absolutely fair and reasonable. Editors receive an incredible volume of submissions, do what they do more for love than money, and are absolutely unable to respond at the speed of light. That shouldn’t keep you from carrying on with your agenda.
Common courtesy applies. If your work is accepted somewhere, immediately notify the other publications with a simple note saying, “Please withdraw my story entitled ______. I apologize for any inconvenience.”
Do you tell them? That’s another gray area. Personally, I never mention that I’m sending multiple submissions; if something is accepted, I follow the procedure outlined above. Chances are, with the few slots available and the thousands of submissions the journal receives, it’s not as if there were going to be a bidding war on my bit of flash fiction!
The bottom line? Follow the golden rule, in this and all things, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in About Writing, Doing the Right Thing, Editors, Getting Published, Process Matters, Submissions, Words on March 24th, 2009
Sounds odd, perhaps, but if you have a few minutes, take the time and this opportunity to watch an author (and Pulitzer Prize winner) doing revisions.
I love how he starts with a postcard (and isn’t it true that many amazing stories come from such tiny moments of inspiration?), and it’s interesting to watch the story morph.
Learn from others, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in About Writing, Creativity, Process Matters, Words on March 19th, 2009
On one of the (far too many) discussion lists to which I belong, the talk has all been about the new Kindle and its capacity to read books aloud — and the subsequent response from the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union. Which has, naturally, re-ignited talk about audio books in general. And at least one person has spoken of them disparagingly, which is disappointing.
Don’t get me wrong: I love the printed word. I love books. I love the smell of them, the feel of them. I love used books, seeing where the previous owner has scrawled notes in the margins, underlined passages, found food for thought. I love my own library, the spines that promise so much wonder within, the old friends and familiar titles, the new ones I have yet to peruse. I love books.
But what are books? Paper and print and glue? Or ideas, stories, places you can travel, songs you can sing, concepts you can ponder, information you can integrate with your worldview?
At the end of the day, does it really matter if the enlightenment and pleasure come from ebooks, printed books, or audio books? I tend to think not. They’re all spokes in a wheel, starting from different places but reaching the same inner circle. Everyone wants to get there differently … but everyone wants to get there.
And maybe those of us who are really committed to (or stuck to!) one form of getting there need to challenge ourselves to try something different. Listen to a book in the car. Check out an ebook on the computer. You never know how much that might widen your horizons. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Books, Reading, Tools, Words on March 4th, 2009
