Buh-bye January

Some months have a greater impact than others. January is supposed to be one of those overlooked months. The holidays are over and spring is still feeling a long way off. It's a blah month. Usually. For some reason this January has seemed to go on forever--and not in a good way. I've covered for coworkers on vacation or sick leave, had a monster head cold and spent way too much of my free time volunteering. It's been a month that felt very much out of my control.

Not that I think I have a lot of control over any particular time period. But I usually have more control over how I spend my time during whatever time frame. The question is: Can I take back that control in February? I certainly hope so.

Last February I tackled a self-imposed challenge. The anti-NaNo challenge. Every other day, I responded to a prompt, like "Describe your antagonist's pet." The other days were for new plot ideas. I got some good stuff out of that month. And some not-so-good stuff. It spurred me on, though. Set up the year as a creative one.

So, what about this February? Rewriting MMG is a biggie for me this time around. Had a bit of an ah-ha moment about it yesterday morning--which was still January, I know. But because it was January, I didn't get a chance to do anything about it. My theory about February being different should mean that I do get a chance to tackle the ah-ha idea today.

Bret made me an offer about Apollo's Lyre that I may not be able to refuse. Instead of editting--and, therefore, having to deal with authors (what a weird bunch they are)--I might do a regular column. Hmm. Four or five issues a year. Could I be the next Miss Snark? Ms. Snippy? Maybe I could be the Not So Very Nice Editor. Any ideas? What kind of column would you like to read?

And here's to a happy, productive, creative February for all of us. Well, we already know that Jenny's going to be productive, but you know what I meant.

Intrusions

I'm a big one for lecturing people on not letting too much intrude on their writing time. Looks like I need to sit down and have a heart to heart with myself.

This is always a pretty slow week for me at work. We've done all the mid-month stuff and it's not yet time to gear up for end of month. So what to do today except, oh I don't know, write?

Except I have some other commitments to see to. So I've been reading submissions for Apollo's Lyre and responding. I am definitely seeing a trend. People submit, are accepted and immediately submit something else. Not a bad thing if second submission is as good or better than first (and that means you, Frank!), but if the first acceptance was pretty much because we had to have something to publish and said author's didn't exactly suck, well....the next one is never better, let me tell ya. I believe this is a similar phenomenon to the people who are rejected and immediately send in a different story with all the same flaws. Frustrating. And tiring.

And then I had some clean-up work to do for PPW. Submit my volunteer hours. Have a Sweet Success story published on the web because, somehow, it didn't get included in the November print edition. Apologize to person who achieved the success, profusely. Send out a reminder of the deadline for the January issue. And think about what my editorial will be for January. Should probably write a draft. Ain't gonna happen today.

I've said before, and I'll say again, the editing is rewarding work. We do put out some really useful information in the PPW NewsMagazine. And when I get a so-so submission to AL and give feedback to the author who then turns it into a great piece of short fiction, what a high! And I love when an awesome piece shows up out of nowhere. But editing is not my passion. That's my writing. And I need to remember to protect my passion.

I'll be finished with the other stuff in less than an hour (mainly because I'm not writing my editorial right now). That leaves two hours to work on Vesta before I go home. And, if I tape Chuck and Heroes, I'll have a couple more hours tonight.

Okay, I feel better now. I did my have-tos and can still get some want-tos done.

Lecture over.

September Goals

--Revise MMG, submit to DL and query at least 12 others [Phase 1 complete]
--Play with TNN a little more [did some mental work on it]
--Stay current on AL submission. [DONE]

I'm going to try Ali's weekly goal idea and see if it works for me. For this week, I will read through MMG and put it in order of Phase 1. And stay current on any submissions I get for AL or the PPW NewsMag. Oh, I have a PPW meeting tonight that I need to attend.

That's it.

Yikes!

Jenny pointed out that the end of the month is this Friday. Wow! That one just rushed right up and bit me. My goals didn't seem all that ambitious when I set them--they never do--but I don't see me finishing my revision of MMG by Friday. Especially since I've only finished step 1 of my homework assignment.

BUT I feel good about the manuscript. It's not the steaming pile I feared when I finished the initial revision and turned it over to The Group. So I got that going for me. And I talked with a couple people whose advice hasn't steered me wrong yet. They agree that sending something in the best possible shape a little later than expected is much much better than sending it out on time but needing work.

I did keep up with my AL submissions. Okay, I didn't get any until today, but still.... And I've been thinking about TNN, playing with a couple different scenarios in my head. Now they're in the crockpot. So, not so bad on August after all.

Time Off

I took a week after my feedback to be away from my writing. No working on MMG or on TNN or, as you may have noticed, the blog. I thought it would be hard, but it was fabulous. I must have needed it.

So what did I do?

I read, a lot. I watched the special edition Long Way Round DVDs. And then I read some more.

And after a week of forced distance from my writing in all its forms, I'm raring to go. You've gotta love that. So what are the goals for this month?

---Revise MMG after receiving feedback (Jenny, I acknowledge your opinion and, respectfully, diagree)
--Submit to at least 12 agents
--Write editorial for PPW NewsMag
--Complete Writer's Life for PPW NewsMag
--Write up mini-bio for PPW NewsMag
--Stay current on submissions to Apollo's Lyre

I detect a trend. I knew becoming editor of the NewsMag would impact my time, but that looks a little scary. I do, however, think it looks worse than it will be to execute. Look to future posts.

New AL Submission Trend

For almost a year, the number of submissions to Apollo's Lyre was low. And so was the quality of most of those submissions. I went to The Group on more than one occasion to beg for stories.

Within the last six weeks, I've received several really good submissions. A lovely trend to be sure. But there's a trend within the trend. Many of them are from overseas, particularly Israel. Which raises an interesting question: Why?

Bret, if you're out there, can you answer? Are we targeting this market?

And why is the writing so good? Or is it? Am I just impressed because the style is different from what I receive from 'local' writers? Or is there really a quality difference?

I'll leave that to you to decide when the next issue of Apollo's Lyre is published.

Rejection

I've had work rejected by magazines, agents, editors and contests. It hurts. "Don't take it personally" is much easier said than done. But it is part of the game.

Today I had to reject two submissions to Apollo's Lyre. It isn't all that much easier to be the rejector. Especially when I can see the hard work that went into the stories. Both were close. Just not close enough that a quick and dirty edit by me would fix them.

I have sometimes offered to give the author a full critique if they want. In one case the author rewrote based on my suggestions and made the story much stronger. He ended up thanking me publically. That is the exception, however. It takes a lot of time and effort to write a full critique of someone's work. And in all but that one case, I've either been ignored after the critique, received arguments or the rewrite doesn't improve on the original. I know it's frustrating for the author, but it's frustrating for this editor, too.

So, I think I'm done offering full critiques. This attitude is the rule rather than the exception among editors. But it feels like I'm failing the people who submit to AL.

Rejection sucks.