Need New Ideas for Stories

I’m writing short stories, as advised by some people at the Gateway Con who thought I’d written enough novels for now. The three short stories I have written (as opposed to the flash fiction or short essays) are from the Prodigies/Archetype universe*: “Tanabata”, “Hands”, and “Runesansu”. You can find them in these pages if you want a read.

I want to branch out on my writing — stay within the science fiction/fantasy, I think, except that there are certain topics I would like to stay away from:

Vampires
Werewolves
Alpha-freaking-male ANYTHING
Unbridled gore
Gratuitous sex
In-jokes **
The Adventures of Gary Stu
Fan Fic ***

This either means that I have to do new world-building or write short stories that don’t require world-building. I’ve been tempted to do new world-building because I haven’t done that for a while. I miss that immersive experience of creativity.

So if you have any inspirations …

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* One character connects the two sets of stories

**(see Ready Player One if you don’t know what I’m talking about)

*** I have nothing against fanfic; I just don’t write it.

Short Stories

I’m falling in love with short stories.

I’ve been playing with stories relating to the characters in Prodigies, because that’s what’s been close to my mind right now. I posted one of them, Hands, in this blog previously.

I don’t know how “marketable” they are, because they’re my writing, and I’m having trouble getting the novels accepted. They tend to tie in with my novels, which will be a great thing once I’m published (anthologies are nice bonuses to give people as an incentive to buy your work at conferences), and before then they’re stories I can try to publish.

Publishing short stories does not pay, for the most part. There’s a lot of competition, of course, and I’ve gotten more rejections than acceptances so far. I don’t know if anyone reads them besides the other people who are published in the journal or website. But getting published does give a little buzz of happiness.

Meanwhile, as a writer, I find that writing short stories gives me small doses of accomplishment — not as much as when I finish a novel, but enough to make me feel like writing again.

Odd Place

I’m in an odd place about my writing.

Weeks ago, I gave up the need to be published. Since then, I’ve been writing stories, submitting those and poetry to various outlets, where they may or may not get published, may or may not get any readership if they’re published.

I’ve gotten a few more rejections from agents for Apocalypse. It doesn’t bother me much.

It seems to me that I poured myself into my writing because I wanted recognition. I wanted readers. I wanted to get a shiny star for publishing.

I had an empty checkmark on my bucket list.

Now that I have gotten runner up on a fiction contest and about to see some flash fiction in publication, I’ve checked that box.

My one worry is that I don’t feel as possessed about writing. No dreams of being published dangled before my head like the proverbial carrot. I could never quite reach it. I feel like maybe I’m slowly giving up, and I don’t know if I want to do that.

I guess seeing how this evolves will be another adventure.

Sleepy Sunday — and boy, do I need it! I spent the better part of the week running from here to there, with a long train ride taking longer than expected, no time to compress before the semester started, and with two computers (home and work) to be repaired, I got through that admirably.

As I sit here in front of my new computer with horribly coffee that we ourselves did not roast, I think the secret to my calm about writing lately has three sources:

Living as if I’ve already been published (which I have, if you include short stories and flash fiction;
Making sure I have a lot (queries, submissions and the like) out there;
Not writing novels for a while (although I’m sending one to dev edit soon, the last of my backlog) and sticking with shorter writing.

Driving myself, I’ve noticed, doesn’t get me any closer to success, but it does make me grumpy. But at the same time, I can’t let it go completely.

Slowing Down

So, I’m taking the advice of an editor I met at Gateway Con and putting novels on the back burner until I get something on the track to publication. In their stead, I’ve been playing with short stories (my first love) and flash fiction. And submitting same.

I’ve gotten a lot of rejections, more rejections than acceptances. This is not unusual. I have lost count of the number of rejections from agents and publications. I’ve become somewhat serene about the whole thing, as I can always revise and try again and feel that hope.

Sometimes I feel like I’m not really a writer anymore because I’m missing the angst. That says something interesting about how society sees writers, or how writers see themselves. We have to be driven. We have to fail.

What if writing, rather than publishing, is the reason I write?

ENDEX (as they say at the end of a preparedness training exercise)

Another New York Hope in the books; I think the numbers go like this:

Three moulage artists

Ninety distinct moulage applications

Scenarios: Urban search and rescue, rural search and rescue, wilderness search and rescue, cityscape active shooter, swiftwater rescue

Injuries ranging from pneumothorax to head injuries minor and deadly, to impalements, open fractures, burns, intestinal evisceration, scrapes and bruises, and throw in a couple heart attacks and mentally disturbed roles.

Staff members — a surprising number I haven’t counted, but categories are coordinating staff, logistics, lane CEs (who run the scenarios), team CEs (who manage the student teams), safety staff, transportation and moulage.
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I slept for 12 hours last night. I’m hoping to get some brain cells free to write today as I wait for the train back home — and on the train back home, as I’ll have a lot of free time.

Right back to first day of classes.

Let me know, though, if you want to see more moulage pics.

Hurtling Headlong into the Heartland

I slept relatively well; I slept in late in my top bunk. I love sleeping in trains; the rocking of the train is soothing even when it sends me careening into the safety webbing. Waking up is a delicate process; using the toilet requires the other person steps out for a moment and pulling the beds back up requires some acrobatics.

As the train pulls out of Erie, Pennsylvania, I try to capture what I see, but things flash past me too quickly to capture it all. Warehouses tagged with spray paint, often artistically. Ailanthus, which can grow anywhere, lining the tracks. Old retired engines in a train graveyard. And then the country, where grapevines grow in endless rows and evening primrose lines the tracks.

The trip goes as fast as it needs to; we have another three and a half hours before we get to our destination. The rocking of the train lulls me into a trance. No worries; sometimes I just have to do nothing.

Bonus: Can anyone identify what song the title of this post comes from?

Time to Go

I’m heading out today for my moulage stint at New York Hope, housed at the New York State Preparedness Training Center, otherwise known as Disaster Disneyland. This is a wonderful opportunity to take a working vacation, as my husband and I take the train (California Zephyr; Lake Shore Limited) and get a sleeper car.

I will try to post on the trip, at least a little. Maybe some photographs. You’ve been on this trip with me before.

Writing vs being a writer

I ran into a quote from Alex Haley, author of Roots, that I wish I could find again. It pointed out that it was better to love writing than to love being a writer, because when you love being a writer, you’re in love with the trappings of fame and money.

And that’s what happened to me — I fell in love with chasing publication, with chasing a vision of fame. And, not finding it, I wanted to let my writing go.

I’m finally starting to get back into writing again. Just in time to go on a trip where I’m not going to get much done.

I’m still working on a short story, Hands, about one of my characters in Prodigies. It’s a background story, one of those “what influenced this character” ideas, but it also reflects some of today’s issues with white nationalism. I have the bare bones all written (ok, mostly written) and put together into a Word file, and I now have to smooth and develop and finesse it. A lot like sitting over a finished first draft of a novel, but shorter. I’ve already written another from Prodigies, although it’s more of a character sketch, called Tanabata.

Short stories aren’t as “sexy” as novels. They don’t become national best-sellers, and they don’t make money. But they get my name out there, and they can give little drops of affirmation.

I’m also packing up for a road trip — by train. It’s my annual moulage gig for New York Hope. I think I’ve mentioned this before. But train travel is fun for writing — either in the observation lounge where the scenery passes by, or in the sleeper car.

Moleskine+ vs Rocketbook — let’s see

I’ve been writing at best sporadically the past few days, experimenting with something that I really haven’t done much of, and that’s composing in a notebook.

I generally compose on the computer because my advisor for my dissertation program strongly encouraged this. I like composing on the computer because of my anal-retentive tendencies which get riled up by editing on paper. I hate scribbles. I hate white-out. I hate crossing things out neatly. And forget about pencils, because they smear. I want a pristine page with pretty handwriting, and I will tear out a page and rewrite if that’s what it takes. I waste a lot of time and a lot of paper.

Hence, my consumer experiment. I have a Moleskine+ pen I bought with a settlement from Barnes and Noble a few years ago. The original pen didn’t function well, so I just got a replacement that does work. This pen, plus a proprietary marked notebook from Moleskine, allows one to write while the camera in the pen records keystrokes, and these pages can be digitized through OCR and sent to Dropbox (or other places) to be repaired as needed — the OCR is not perfect, but it handles my idiosyncratic writing well.

So let me lay out the advantages and disadvantages of this:

Advantages:

The pen writes smooth as butter
The notebook is pretty
Will digitize several pages at a time.
Decent handwriting recognition
Relatively robust iPhone app

Disadvantages:

The pen requires charging
The notebooks cost $27 apiece; there are no cheaper options
Scribbles — even more disconcerting because they’re in a pretty notebook

I’m trying an alternative which is known as a Rocketbook, which set me back about $30. The notebook is also proprietary; but it is made of material that can be reused by either wiping or putting in the microwave (I’ve heard both). You write using an ordinary Flexion pen (An erasable/washable pen made by Pilot in many colors); other pens will become permanent. The magic is in the iPhone/Android app which does screen capture and digitizing.

The advantages and disadvantages (ahead of my trial) look like this:

Advantages (perceived):

Reusable, and therefore less expensive
Better designed for use as a tool and not a permanent record
Can use with more than one pen as long as it’s Flexion
Could make mistakes and erase using liquid

Disadvantages (perceived):

Flexion pens don’t write as solidly as other pens
Flexion pens can feel scratchy (at least on paper)
Scanning must be done one page at a time.

So I will be comparing both methods to see which works the best for my drafting on paper, and furthermore, to see if there’s advantages to drafting on paper such as enhanced creativity or the ability to jot random notes down.