What Is a Story?

I read what I thought was a really useful article today.  It probably seems like common sense, but I seriously needed this kind of information when I started writing almost two years ago (and still need reminders of today).  I'd get comments on my stories like "This isn't a story," and I of course would get all indignant and mentally insist that a story is whatever I say it is.  It's totally true though: a story has to be more than just a beginning, middle, and end to work.  And as much as I hate it, it's not whatever I want it to be.  I don't get to just write whatever I want and let whatever happens happen, at least not if I want people to read it and actually like it.  Whether I like it or not, there is a "contract," though I don't necessarily like that term for it.  It's just a recognition that readers have certain expectations that you can't get away with neglecting, and I think this article does a great job of clearly describing what the most fundamental of those expectations are.

Third Six Months Statistics (Three Months Late...)

Yeah, so, I just barely realized that I never posted the results of the third six months of my foray into science fiction writing.  That would be referring to the period from November 2013 through April 2014....  It's been a busy summer.  But yeah, I haven't done so well at keeping up with things; not my writing, and much less my blogging about my writing.

So this should be fairly succinct:

From November 2013 through April 2014 I again only finished three more stories (see Second Six Months).  I submitted eleven times to nine markets (twice to Daily Science Fiction, twice to UFO Anthology, and once each to 713 Flash, Electric Spec, Escape Pod, Fantasy Scroll Mag, Nature Futures, Perihelion Science Fiction, and Plasma Frequency).  My submission to Perihelion Science Fiction, "Peanut Butter and Pork," was the only story that was accepted for publication.  Only one rejection included personalized comments (713 Flash).  The average response time for the third six months was 15 days (likely because since using The Grinder I've deliberately starting choosing markets with shorter response times).

Well, now that I look at it, that second half-year wasn't as bad as I thought it was.  Hopefully this next six months will see another publication or two (and a timely write-up...).