Category: Musings

Musings

Weekly Musing: I Have a Theme

DH Hanni

Apparently I have a dwindling supply of stories in my arsenal. In response to this surprising shortage, I’ve been working on new material. This is good as it gives my brain a break from my novel as I let it stew but also because it allows me to explore new ideas. One plan I had was to take a look at some unfinished stories, see what might be worth is saving, and finishing them. Another plan, one that I’ve embraced, was to take a look at markets with some kind of theme.

It was this week I realized what the appeal of themed magazine issues or anthologies is to me. They’re an opportunity to test and stretch my creativity but in a way it feels like some of the work has partially been done for me. For whatever reason, it’s difficult for me to come up with short story ideas on my own. Ideas for novels are really easy. Perhaps they gum up my head so much that there isn’t any room left to dream up short stories.

Having a theme or prompt for short stories seems to activate something in my brain. Somehow, some way, I get inspired. It’s as if the creativity light bulb pops on. Maybe this harkens to my school days when I enjoyed writing essays and papers. The teacher was giving us direction and I responded well to that. So I guess it makes sense that train of thought would transfer over to creative writing. The challenge of it is far harder, though. Unlike school, I don’t have anything already studied or known.

Something I think is important for a writer is to stretch their limits and write in a different genre. For me, following genre-specific theme helps narrow down to me what to focus on. Even if the theme isn’t genre specific, for example the theme of Nature, that is still something to help get my brain thinking. I enjoy the challenge of it because I force myself to go away from what I’m comfortable with but also to see if I can come up with a twist.

Since I’m not a genius nor am I a Renaissance woman, the other appeal of themed short stories is I usually have to do some kind of research. I don’t have to go into anything hugely in depth; mostly I stick to a quick Wikipedia search and a few other places. Too much research overwhelms me and unless I’m doing a novel, there isn’t too much of a need to go into any kind of depth. For example, a recent story I wrote was for an anthology with the theme of the 1939’s World’s Fair. They were specifically looking for stories that developed the idea of what the future would look like. Although the story was (nicely) rejected, it was fun gathering research since I didn’t know anything about the World’s Fair. The great thing about the internet is the ease of access to information including images. I’m thankful for whoever digitized images from the 1939’s World’s Fair because it was those images which inspired me.

While on the subject of research for these short stories, I love seeing that marriage of various avenues come together to help me write a short story. The research leads to image searches which then allow me to brainstorm ideas. While I’m brainstorming and writing, I try to find an appropriate music playlist or two to help put me in the right frame of mind.

Another benefit of writing to a theme is if the story gets rejected for its original target, the story is now available to submit elsewhere. Instant problem solve. Plus it also means that more markets are open to me which means I have more chances of having a story picked up for publication.

I love the fun and unique challenges themed short story writing brings to me. Even if my attempt isn’t successfully executed, it’s worth the risk. Not only does it stave off boredom and complacency (ha, like that could ever happen to me but I digress), it helps flex my creative muscles in areas I normally wouldn’t think of. In a way it is a ‘safe’ risk, a way to dip one’s toes into a different pool which could possibly lead to a different artistic path. And sometimes a theme can give me an excuse to explore an emotion or different side of me I normally might be too tentative to try.

Musings

Weekly Musing: To Fee Or Not to Fee?

DH Hanni

A goal of mine this year was to submit more of my work. That means finding markets for stories already in my arsenal and finding themes which spark a story. So far this approach has produced positive results as a couple of my stories have been accepted for publication. Neither are a paying markets and in fact, out of the 7 stories total I’ve had accepted, only 2 have offered compensation. This got me thinking not so much about the enormous difficulty in being compensated for your work but about some of the hoops I was unaware a writer sometimes has to jump through. If you are a writer who desires to become published there are an overwhelming amount of options. From online and print literary magazines to anthologies to contests to posting stories and chapter excerpts on your own website, one question each author should ask himself is: To fee or not to fee?

The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is whether or not it is worth submitting to an outfit which charges a fee. Some magazines and many contests change what is usually referred to as a reading fee although sometimes it’ll be listed as an entry fee. What reading fee means is you, the writer, pays a fee to the literary magazine or whoever is running the contest. The fee is supposed to help cover the cost of the time spent reading and evaluating entries. A lot of magazines are run by one person. Same with contests which usually have a guest judge deciding the winners. Most fees are in the fairly affordable and modest range of $5 to $10 although some can be up to $20 or more; a price which causes some of us to heavily consider if entering is worth it.

With hundreds, if not thousands, of publishing opportunities out in the world, even shelling out money for a fee reading fees here and there adds up. That being said, there are loads of opportunities to get published which don’t cost anything. Anthologies provide a great, free opportunity to get paid for your work. Not generally a huge sum and the amounts vary based on the publisher and the type of contract they offer. A publisher can either pay a flat fee for the story or offer royalties. Royalties are where whatever profits are leftover from the publisher deducting their costs, whatever money is leftover is split between the authors. In other words, you get a set percentage based on sales of the anthology. When this money is paid out and for how long depends on the publisher.

To be clear, reading or entry fees apply mostly to literary magazines and contests. If you are submitting a story to an anthology, there shouldn’t be a fee charged for anything and you should be getting compensated for your work unless the anthology is for charity. By default, a reputable publisher should already have the funding in place to produce the anthology. This means paying for the cover design, staff time to review entries, and printing costs. Under no circumstances should an author be asked to contribute money in order to be published in an anthology.

Another free option is to submit work to literary magazines and contests which don’t charge any kind of reading fee. In these cases, especially with literary magazines, if you aren’t paying a fee, chances are you won’t be compensated other than a contributor’s copy (applies to print outfits) if selected. Contests are tricky because many well-known competitions like Writer’s Digest’s, offer prizes which far exceed the cost of the entry fee. That being said, many contests don’t charge any kind of fee and still offer prizes.

So is charging a reading fee fair and ethical? After all the person running a literary magazine or contest do it because want to support writers by publishing their work. Oftentimes it is one person, perhaps a small group, which read and review stories, maintains the website, and physically put together the magazine. A lot of work and I’m sure they would like to be paid for their efforts. However, is it fair to ask writers, who spend hours, days, weeks, and years to pay a reading fee? After all, for many of us it would be great to start getting paid for that work rather than shelling out money. Is it ethical to charge a reading fee and tell writers that in exchange for their fee, they now get a year subscription to said outfit regardless if they get published or not.

I don’t know what the answer is. This is something I waffle back and forth on when I’m searching for markets for my stories. One rule I have is if a reading fee is requested, then the compensation should be at least a contributor copy, preferably some monetary payment which exceeds the amount of the reading fee. Another rule I have is if entering a contest then the cash prizes should be significantly more than the entry fee.

I think the biggest challenge facing writers is where to find low cost opportunities which allow a writer to gain not only exposure, but to be fairly compensated. There are several sites a writer can search for opportunities: Ralan.com (great for sci-fi and fantasy writers), Duotrope (there is a monthly fee to access the site), Submission Grinder, and other sites can help point you in the direction. Only you can decide if you want to fee or not to fee in your writing career.

Musings

Weekly Musing: WIP Update

DH Hanni

Since last November 1st I’ve been consumed by writing the rough draft of a novel I’ve had in my head for years. More than once I’ve attempted to write it but with disastrous results. A lot of what I considered to be past failures was due to not having enough confidence in my abilities as well as being intimidated by the story itself.

Feeling slightly more comfortable in my abilities and with the idea that the rough draft is going to be a mess, I took the plunge. I knew the novel would not be done in 50,000 words nor would it be it completed in November. That was okay. At first I thought it would be done by the end of December but well, December being what it is, I missed that deadline. So then I pushed my deadline out to the end of January. But January 31st came and I was still nowhere near being done. Finally, I set an absolute deadline of February 28th. No matter where I was at I would call it good for now and set it aside to marinate.

Writing is hard work both mentally and physically. It may seem like easy work. After all it’s just pen to paper or fingers on a keyboard, but when I say it is physically demanding it’s the sore wrists and fingertips. It’s the sore back and shoulders from sitting in a chair, no matter how comfortable it is, for hours at a time. It’s the blurry vision from staring at paper or a screen.

Mentally, and yes, emotionally, writing, especially a rough draft of a novel is trying. I prepared as best I could before November but even that wasn’t good enough. What seemed to be like a simple scene, something I thought I could write in a day or two, often snowballed into several days. It felt like there was no end in sight. Emotionally it’s taxing to do justice to the characters. To try to put myself in their shoes and see life as they do is exhausting and frustrating. In a good way.

The biggest thing that slowed me down was about midway through January I had a plot epiphany. It was a biggie, too. So big that it essentially rendered worthless most of the middle section I’d already written. However, in terms of the overall story, it worked a lot better. It was great but also disheartening to think of countless hours, numerous days, and thousands of words already written as useless. It also meant there would now be hours, days, and thousands of words needed to redo the new middle section. It took me a few days to be okay with the idea that no, those weren’t wasted days and words. If I hadn’t done those I wouldn’t have been able to get to a better plot.

It was at this time, too, fatigue started becoming an issue. My mind was becoming saturated. I also began doubting if it was all worth it. I knew all the glaring errors with the story as it stood. I knew there would be a lot of additional research which will likely change the story further. With all of this floating in my head, motivation to just finish the damn thing got more difficult. To help with story fatigue I started taking some days off and tried to work on a short story. That seemed to help some but when I came back to my WIP, I simply didn’t have much left in the gas tank.

Even though February 28th came and I hadn’t completely finished the rough draft (it has a beginning, middle, and end at least), I was okay with that. At this point, it is over 155,000 words. Bloated but a fair amount of that will be excised due to it not working with the new middle. There are also a lot of redundancies due to how I approached writing it.

Now I let it sit for a few months while I work on other things before beginning the even slower revision process. I also learned that no matter how well prepared you are before tackling that rough draft the unexpected will pop up to mess with your plans. It’s not a quick or easy road in writing.