Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

I'm Alive

That's official, by the way. Had the annual physical today and my doctor was pleased with some progress on some outstanding issues. (grin)

Two Thoughts on Writers and Writing

Three, actually if you count the nice piece I read the other day and failed to record the URL asking the question about whether you want to write or be a writer. (triple-word-score-grin)

Ken Schneyer talks about the mixed emotions we can have about the Jealousy - Envy - Regret of our writing and the success of others. In particular, he addressed the question of regret over not starting earlier. I think, though, that everyone's mileage is different. In my case:

I "could" have started submitting stories in 1976. Well, no I couldn't -- I had notes and ideas, but no writing.

I "could" have submitted stories in 1985, but they were pretty raw. In 1990 I started writing a novel -- that one isn't done but it spawned my 29th century and half my stories. In 1997 I started on a tear -- and when I discovered that writers were worried about word count, I checked and this second "novel" was three-quarters done... at 1.5 million words.

I started submitting with a 5000 word story in June 2002. It helped get me in Clarion and finally sold six years later on its 11th outing.

Yeah, I could've started earlier, but it wouldn't have been the same.

Then Tobias Buckell wrote on milestones versus goals. Or the difference over which things you can and cannot control.

If you're a writer -- or want to be -- you should read these two pieces.

Which Brings Us To...

Assuming my stats are right, my 388th submission today is my 300th commercial submission and the 30th in the month since my sabbatical began. All I can control is what I write and taking charge of sending it out.

Still have 24 stories out in the world tonight. Better than lottery tickets. (double-edged-grin)

And the Velveeta? That was lunch. The cheese, that is, in a tomato sandwich. Mmm... summer.

Dr. Phil

Sabbatical 1.31 Report -- July 2011 (and into August)

A six-month sabbatical should have six months in it, but I didn't actually know that July was the first month until very late -- Tuesday 26 July 2011 to be exact. And no sooner had I officially started my self-imposed sabbatical, then I had to spend a lot of time in a chair with my left leg propped up. Great. Today, in fact, is the first time I've been in my office since the 26th.

Now from the title of this post, I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that I think that writing and submitting is a competitive action. Editors are going to buy what editors are going to buy. They may be buying from people they know, they may be buying stories that resonate with what they want for their publication and this particular issue. Rejection is just part of the game. I recently had a novella rejected in part because the market already had a couple of novellas bought and didn't need another one. Had I submitted at a different time, who knows? So I'm not really competing against "you".

But I have been productive.

Being Prepared

Knowing that I'd be doing a lot of sitting, and not planning to spend 7-10 days just watching TV, I updated my flash drives from my main Sony at home, then brought out SUMMER, the tiny Fujitsu U810 UMPC (Ultra Miniature PC), USB numeric keypad and Microsoft LED travel mouse.

SUMMER (Fujitsu U810) versus WINTER (Fujitsu 1510D) -- same specs, different size

Once I'd downloaded a couple hundred meg and got connected to the wireless HP Deskjet 6980, I was in business. Mostly.

See, as a Very Large Person, I don't have a lap, so I can't sit with a laptop balanced on said nonexistent lap. I could put a laptop on the "arm table" next to me, but not with my leg propped up. So, it's hold the U810 in my left hand and type with one finger on the small keyboard. Needless to say, I was not writing much in the way of new stories, but with a mouse and an arrow keypad, I could do cover letters, editing, etc.

You Can't Sell Stories Unless You Submit

From Friday July 29th to today Tuesday August 9th, I shipped 18 stories to 18 markets -- submissions #360 to #377. Two markets had fast turnarounds and have already rejected, plus the five I had out prior to the binge, means that I have 21 stories out in the wild right now.

That should be a record. I think once I had 19 stories out at once.

In addition, the two recently rejected markets have 7 day delays before next submissions built in, which will soon be expiring. I've got one window closing on the 15th if I can get a new story written in time -- and I should be able to start devoting some real Time In Chair on that project Real Soon Now -- another closing on the 31st, and a couple of markets opening up on the 1st. So I'm not done yet.

To put this in perspective, I have 71 stories in my Invenstory which have shipped a total of 377 times now. 15 have been published, with 1 reprint. 21 of 56 stories means that 37.5% of my Invenstory is out to market right now. And of the 25 remaining stories, well, 3 are tied up with an outfit that may or may not ever get around to publishing them -- see The Lost Stories -- and some of the rest either are awaiting a rewrite or aren't worth rewriting.

So I'm pretty happy with all the productivity. And as markets reject (or buy) and reopen, the stories will churn through all the places they need to go.

But having some time to sit down and plot this out, reject all the market submission guidelines and get the stories in order, this has been golden. It would've been done eventually, but this has sped up the process immensely. Go me.

Oh, and for the record. Of the 18 submissions I've just made, exactly two of them have been mailed. All the rest have been e-subs.

Dr. Phil

The Online Stampede Continues

I missed it elsewhere, but saw on the new March 2011 Ansible that Analog is now accepting electronic submissions. Revised guidelines are here and the new E-sub web address is here. Analog is accepting .DOC files. Pity, because there are too many versions of .DOC specs -- I still write in Microsoft Word 95, but most people don't have the Word 6.0/95 converter installed -- and I much prefer to submit in Rich Text .RTF. As with the also Dell owned Asimov's, Analog is using the Clarkesworld style E-sub system, which continues as a growing industry standard.

Analog joins the growing list of formerly hardcopy only submission sites, such as Asimov's and WOTF. This pretty much leaves only F&SF as the only major which still requires hardcopy subs -- as pointed out in previous comments on these changes, this is not a slam against Gordon Van Gelder, just a comment. Two of the Big Three of SF. Welcome to 2011.

Dr. Phil

It's July 1st!

That means it's the first day of classes for the WMU Summer-II Session and at noon, the first day of my PHYS-2070 University Physics II / Electricity & Magnetism (w/ calculus) class. Summer classes mean double-length 100 minutes, so we did the Introduction to Dr. Phil, the Good News / Bad News of going from student friendly first semester Mechanics to less previous experience E&M. (grin) Also the 14 page syllabus. And the tale of Electricity & Magnetism is the Triumph of 19th century Physics -- plus Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Yup, effectively the first two days of class. (summer-class-grin)

It's July 1st!

And Redstone Science Fiction is back open to submissions for fifteen days -- for those of you who care about such things.

It's July 1st!

And except for a few roof cap shingles -- or whatever they're called -- that they were short, we just about have a new roof on our house. Yay new roof. Details to follow.

It's July 1st!

And on the Tor.com email newsletter, they had this amusing comment:

Fun factoid: the epic Isner-Mahut tennis match at Wimbledon lasted longer than all three Lord of the Rings theatrical releases; by the time Isner won, after eleven hours and five minutes of play, they were just twenty minutes short of lasting as long as the special editions. That's some serious warrior spirit.

It's July 1st!

Oh, and it's Canada Day. Happy Canada Day, Canada!

Dr. Phil