Progress Report, in which I discover a new motivational trick

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Matthew S. Rotundo

Between projects, which means it’s time once again to catch up on correspondence, update the submissions database, and get some stories back in circulation.

It’s also time to decide what to work on next.  Many things come to mind, not all of them involving new stories.  For example, I need to 1) read for the Nebulas and Hugos; 2) get my website up and running (a goal of mine that keeps getting missed, for various reasons); or 3) clean my office (Gawd, is it a cluttered mess).

And yet, perversely enough, with all this stuff piling up, my muse has seen fit to drop a few story seeds in my brain.  If any of them take root, the office clutter will have to persist for a while longer.  Because if there’s one thing I try harder to weasel out of than writing, it’s cleaning. 

Hmmm.  Perhaps I’ve discovered a new motivational trick.

Write Club update:  A personalized bounce from IGMS, with a suggestion for a rewrite that I’ll have to mull.  Response time, one day.

Moving on . . .

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Reelin’ in the Year

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Matthew S. Rotundo

It’s time for my public self-abasement, also known as my annual year-in-review post.  Pardon me while I don sackcloth and ashes . . .

The Raw Data

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Progress Report, in which I paint myself into another corner

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Matthew S. Rotundo
For the last week of 2010, I did another 4400 words on "From Earth I Have Arisen."  Magic Meter?


First draft = done.  Finally.

Gawd, but this was a hard story to write–one of the toughest nuts I’ve ever had to crack.  And the rewrite doesn’t promise to be much of a picnic, either.

Then there’s the length.  At just over 40K, it’s technically a novel, according to SFWA rules.  But the reality is that it’s less than half the length of a salable novel, and far too long for the vast majority of short fiction venues.  Which makes it pretty much unmarketable.  So even if I can whip this thing into shape in the rewrite, I’ll have nowhere to send it.

Nice little corner I’ve painted myself into, yes?  Remind me again why I do this to myself.

More to say about this story, and about 2010 in general, but it’ll have to wait for another post.

Here’s a final snippet, for your amusement:

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