Retiring Stories
February 22, 1998
6:53 a.m.
 Lisa and Brigid and I went up to Indianapolis yesterday to see Ann-Marie Horcher and her daughter, Kate Alice. Ann-Marie came down from Michigan for family purposes, and had a few hours to spare! She has been a member of the Compuserve IMPs (a new writers group) for several years now, and is a wonderfully quirky writer. We had lunch and talked while Brigid and Kate Alice (and two cousins!) explored the Playland. We had a very nice time. Working today on the Resnick story. I want to finish the first draft today if at all possible. That would give me a week to go through it and make it presentable before sending it away. Shouldn't be a problem. Let's see, I received a rejection from Gordon Van Gelder at F&SF, so the Accept-O-Matic also rises. The story in question is soon for the woodshed, I think. One question I sometimes get, in light of the Accept-O-matic and how often I get rejected, is whether I ever retire a story or not. People get the impression that ringing the AOM is the goal, here, rather than merely a measure of reality. The answer is, of course, yes, I retire stories. But I let them run them run their course in the professional markets (occasionally tweaking them in the process), and often send them to a few semi-pro markets also. For some reason, I actually have far less success in the semi-pro market than I do in the professional markets. But that is an aside. But one needs to eventually review the quality of their stories with a realistic eye. You know, one reason this thing has been rejected 15-20 times might be that it's not a very good story. :) But the fact is that I write a LOT of stories. The "a lot", is, of course, relative. I think I wrote 15-20 short stories in 1996. That total dropped to 10 or so in 1997, but then I wrote two novels in that time span, also. And did a second pass on one. The quote at the left is an important passage. It's one that I try to follow--but I fully admit can often get lost in the daily grind of trying to get things accomplished. If you haven't read "On Writing Well", I recommend it. Not merely for the technical advice, but for the tone it is written in. The author loves the process of writing. That fact bubbles up through its pages like Jed Clampett's black gold gurgling over his woodlands. It's a beautiful book.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"We're all working with the same words and the same principles. Where, then, is the edge? Ninety percent of the answer lies in the hard work of mastering the tools in this book. Add a few points for such natural gifts as a good ear, a sense of rhythm and a feeling for words. But the final advantage is the same one that applies in every other competitive venture. If you would like to write better than everybody else, you have to want to write better than everybody else. You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft. And you must be willing to defend what you've written against the various middlemen--editors, agents, and publishers--whose sights may be different from yours, or whose standards not as high. Too many writers are browbeaten into settling for less than their best." William Zinsser "On Writing Well" Harper Collins ISBN 0-06-273303-6 |
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