Congratulations to Gloria Alden! Her short story, "Once Upon a Gnome," was accepted into the anthology, Strangely Funny.

WWK Blogger, Paula Gail Benson is featured this month at Bethlehem Writers Group's Roundtable online journal. Please check out her story and top ten list at http://bwgwritersroundtable.com. We thank the BWG for giving writers such as Paula this opportunity.

The second SinC Guppy anthology, Fish Nets, has been released by Wildside Press. WWK authors, Gloria Alden, Warren Bull, Kara Cerise and E. B. Davis have short stories in this volume, which can be bought at Wildside Press and the usual retailers. Read "the story behind the stories" on the May 1st blog.

June's Welcome Wednesday interviews start with Sasscer Hill on 6/5. Sasscer talks about her decision to abandon her series and start a new one. On 6/12, Linda Rodriguez tells us about her second Skeet Bannion novel, Every Broken Trust. Alyx Morgan gives us her final interview with novelist Simon Wood on 6/19, and WWK blogger Carla Damron discusses her social-work mystery series on 6/26. Drop in to learn about these authors and their work.

Upcoming Salad Bowl Saturdays include Gayle Carline on 6/22 and Vinnie Hansen on 6/29. If you are interested in being a guest blogger, send a message to Jim Jackson at jmj@jamesmjackson.com.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Dark night

I was so discouraged with my writing that my last blog was about sheep. Sheep are my respite. I had been struggling with two short stories, one that had been accepted and was back for a rewrite and the other that I couldn't quite jam into the call for manuscripts. I couldn't make it funny enough, and most of my readers didn't understand the basis of the story. Imagine Joseph's Technicolor Dream Coat set in the early colonial period on an island off the New England coast. Submission date was bearing down fast on me, so I made a few last minute fixes and sent it off with no hope for it. Too off the wall, too obscure. But done.
The second story was on my desk with notes from the editor. This time the story had more requested changes than I was willing to make. Police women in 1889? I don't think so. I have to figure out some way to satisfy the editors without making a mash up of my story. I can't change the weapons, since the story depends on the rifling marks on the bullets. Yes in 1889.
Under pressure from deadlines and not at all sure I could make either story work for the publications they were aimed at, I was beginning to wonder why I bothered. I could chuck both stories and start again.
I might just need to start something fresh to get out from under the burden of stories I couldn't seem to fix. Forget that I had deadlines and submit elsewhere. That would give me time to work through them more carefully.
Or maybe I needed to do something else like pay more attention to the sheep, write something new, take a cooking class. Or housework.
Or maybe I needed to suck it up and get back to work. I complained to all my on line buddies about how hard it was.
What keeps writers chugging along through the dark night of the writer's soul?





5 comments:

Gloria Alden said...

K.B. I don't know what keeps us going. Maybe it's because we have so many ideas for stories that need to come out. I do think taking a break like caring for sheep or knitting helps us to regroup much like a vacation from any hard job, and writing is hard work.

KB Inglee said...

Must be the big bucks.

Warren Bull said...

I've always thought it was slightly delusional thinking.

Kara Cerise said...

New ideas and answering, “what if” questions inspire me. I have to find out what happens.

When I get really discouraged and quit writing stories, they eventually show up as reoccurring dreams. So, I may as well write them down :)

E. B. Davis said...

When I run out of enthusiasm, it's time to do something else to recharge. Time away will either give you a new perspective or provide changes, or it will allow you to step away from a project and start something new. Either way, you win.