Tag: writing goals

Careful what you wish for: rejection slips

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I got a rejection slip today. That means I’m down to thirteen live submissions.

This slip was one of the nicer ones, I’ve must say, in that it included some feedback – fair and fairly positive – from the first readers, with comments like these below:

“[T]his is a complex idea. You’ve only barely touched the surface. The writing is solid and workmanlike, but because the central concept is so complex, you’ve been unable to offer much of characterisation, or setting, or colour.”

“This should be a novella-length piece, so you can do justice to the main concept. Accepting it in this form would be wrong for both you, and [our publication].”

Fair enough. Decent food for thought. It is a very stripped back story, one that I had worked on for a long time. The first versions were five or six thousand words long and really didn’t work so well. The final version is 1600. That’s barely more than flash fiction.

Perhaps this is a case for writing a longer version (again). I’ve done that before – my novel Rotations originated from a flash story, as did my forthcoming novel The Room (that flash story – “Don’t Sleep Downstairs” – is still available at Flashes In The Dark.

I had planned on writing a couple of short novels this year, amongst all the other stuff, and I am writing longer these days (that rejected story was written and rewritten quite some time ago).

Now that I think about it my latest novel – The Tunnel – was going to be a short novel (it went to over 60,000 words when I was expecting 25,000 – as I was getting into it I realised that it had to be bigger). I’m feeling more confident with longer forms these days (most of my current submissions are from 5000 to 20,000 words), a far cry from my period of focusing on flash fiction.

I guess that’s a project for later in the year – take that “solid and workmanlike” writing and develop the story with some characterisation, setting and colour. 🙂

In the meantime, the story is going back out to find a publisher who might like it in this form (I still think it works as is – a spare and stark piece). Then I’ll be back up to fourteen live submissions.

So I get the goofball award, but at least it got me writing with focus…

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

In my last post, I bleated on about my best story not even making the long list of a competition (when a slightly weaker story had made the shortlist in another round of the same contest). Well, it turns out I was reading the wrong list. I was reading the (just published) list for the just previous round of the contest, where I’d entered a much weaker story. In fact, they’d already been polite enough to personally email me and let me know that my (not especially very good) story for that round hadn’t made the finals (no surprise there).

This means three things. First: my current best story ever is theoretically still “live” – since it’s in the contest’s current round, not lost from the list they’d published.

Second: I was being a goofball and I need to keep better track of things.

Third: thinking I need to just write better is a great motivator. I completed a new story over the weekend, and have begun yet another one. Talk about motivated. I felt like I was writing with fire. Now I don’t know that either of these stories is better than that other one, but I raged into the writing of them and I think they’re up there with my best. Good enough, in fact, to enter into those next rounds of the contest, when those submissions open up.

300,000 words progress

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

At first I was going to give an update when I hit 75,000 words for the year. That’s a quarter of my goal. But that milestone passed a couple of weeks back. As of today I’m at a shade under 95,000, so will probably be a third of the way to my goal early next week.

It might sound like I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but I was making allowance for doing tutoring this year. I might not have made quite enough allowance. Tutoring is going to be one big giant tyrannosaur with teeth like stalagtites (and stalagmites). The paper’s structure has changed radically this year. Instead of the regular 4 assignments, with a three week turnaround, the paper now has nine assignment dates. Now those are smaller, certainly, some of them are much smaller, but there is much more regular on-going contact. That’s got to be good for the students and developing their writing, but for me it means that the blocks of time between the deadline dates are smaller and less free. I’m sure that it will be good for me: challenging and stimulating, rather than just cruising into it, but at the same time I’ll have to redraw the way I hit my own writing goals.

Speaking of goals, my first new novel for 2012 is up and available. The Tunnel is available immediately from Triple V Publishing as an ebook through Smashwords – here. It’s a sci-fi adventure story. I’ll blog about it more when it’s made it through to Kindle and B&N and so on, and when the print version is out.

Word counts, goals and publishing

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment


Around Christmas, following on from Jeff Ambrose I created a word count goal fro 2012. 300,000 words, from 300 available writing days. Just 1000 words a day. As I wrote rapidly for the first week, I realised that I needed to add a couple of things to keep myself going, focused and effective.

Firstly that 1000 words is a minimum. In the first couple of days – January 1st and 2nd – with no other commitments, family, work or otherwise, I wrote 5500 words each day. It would be simple to think that, well, that’s the first eleven days worth knocked off. Nah. Better to reset the counter each morning. So, it’s been a good first week (close to 20,000 words), but this week I’ll be shooting for 1000 words a day again. Each and every day. BTW, a writer friend did suggest I make sure I don’t burnout on that. Can’t see it, but I will monitor things, definitely.

Secondly (and this is for readers more than writers) that’s got to be 300,000 publishable words. Not just spouting, not just rushing to wear out a keyboard. I saw that writing volume is one thing, publishing is another. So that’s my promise. There will be good stuff coming out. Not to say that it’s going to be perfect and nuanced and highly literary – these days I’m more of a pulp writer (though I do tutor in literary craft, and have written and had published numerous literary stories) – but it will be entertaining and readable and compelling.

I have several stories scheduled for publication in various print and online journals, which amounts to arout 50,000 words (as well as several reprints, but I think I should do this without relying on reprints). I have another 60,000ish out on submission to publishers, with another big story heading out this week. If those get rejections all around then I will indie publish them. I feel in good shape.

I will also have to create time for editing, revision, proofreading, reading other writers, editing anthologies, etc.

The year that was… a reflection on publications

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment


A banner year for me, even though I didn’t quite reach some personal goals, I have redefined and taken some new and very positive directions with writing and finding a readership. This year I published 21 new stories and 4 new poems, as well as having 5 stories reprinted (last year, 2010, I had 59 publications, without counting reprints, including a few poems). Fewer flash fiction pieces – I’ve been writing much longer now. This year I’ve written a 95,000 word novel, four novelettes, and numerous long stories. Many of these have been published (including the novel – more on that next week). I’ve been indie-publishing many of my previously-published stories, as well as some new stories, through Triple V Publishing, and will look to continue that next year (as part of my goals for 2012). A couple of highlights were getting published in a New Zealand literary magazine (Takahe) and in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Many of my publications were with the ever-friendly Static Movement, and I’m also in the process of editing three anthologies for them too.

Next year – onwards, less making music, less TV, less goofing off, more novels, more long stories and more writing. I have 5 acceptances for new stories coming out in 2012, as well as another 4 reprints.

By the way, the picture here is for the Static Movement anthologyAlternate Dimensions, that includes my story “Imaginary Maid Forgets She is Late for a Banquet”.

Momentum

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

A couple of days ago I posted about my word-count goals for 2012. Funny thing about going public with goals – it boosts your incentive. My goal is 300,000 words written next year. That’s about 1000 words a day for every writing day I have available. Yesterday: 2000. Today: 2000. How about that? I’m surprised. It’s a while since I’ve written so much without actually being on a writing retreat. Is that sustainable? I’d hope so, but I’m not going to burn myself out. I guess a revised plan is to still head for 300,000 next year, but revise in July. If I’ve hit 300,000 by then, I won’t be kicking back and playing on the beach for the rest of the year. I’ll be fixing on writing another… well who knows right now?

Meanwhile, I’m still putting up previously published and new stories with Triple V Publishing – I’ve just published Big Banger Rentals under the byline Michael Shone. Dieselpunk. Adventure. Action. Priced at 99cents.