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Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts

Monday, July 20, 2020

39 rejections and 11 pending, Wulf Moon workshop, and upcoming deadlines

Hello everyone. I hope life and your creative pursuits are going well. My goal of 100 rejections in 2020 is still underway. Not sure I'll make it, but we'll see. Current stats are 39 rejections (24 short stories; 14 flash, 1 poem) and 11 pending (9 short stories, 2 flash stories, 1 poems).

I took a wonderful online workshop from Wulf Moon over the weekend. I love that so much is available online now! Since I almost never travel to the USA. Moon went over all the essentials for a prize-winning story and provided plenty of motivation. Great class with practical handouts and exercises. 4 hours was not enough. Recommended. He's teaching it again in November: How to Write Winning Stories that Take the Gold! And he's also teaching a new class in October: The Secrets of a Howling Good Plot.

I am about to join a writing sprint with a fellow Super Secrets challenge member. We're aiming to write something fresh for the Third Flatiron story call. We'll either be using a writing prompt from Super Secrets or a prompt idea I have from the Clarion West workshop I attended.

That's all the news for now. I updated the deadlines list below. Please do let me know if there is anything missing from the list. I'm always looking for more places to submit (though I try to aim at 5 cents a word or above). Currently a speculative short story focus here, though I try to mention opportunities for poetry and may be gradually adding on more general/literary publications.

All the best with life and creativity!

R.J.K. Lee


Submission Deadlines Coming Up in July, August, and September 

7/1-7/31, Mysterion, ~9000 words, 8¢/word, Genre: speculative that engages with Christianity

7/1-8/1, Third Flatiron, 1500-3000 words, 8¢/word, Theme: Brain Games Stories to Astonish, Genre: SF/F/H/steampunk/cyberpunk/myth/satire

8/1-8/2, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, 1000-40000 words (shorter preferred), 6¢/word (reprints 2¢/word), Genre: F/SF, Poetry ($1/line, ~40 lines, reprints 50¢/word), Articles (2-6¢/word, reprints 1-4¢/word), Note: great feedback provided if requested in cover letter

8/1-8/7, Fantasy Magazine, ~7500 words, 8¢/word, Genre: Fantasy/Dark Fantasy, Poetry ($40/poem, send up to 6)

8/15 (or until filled), No Police = Know Future, ~4000 words. 8¢/word. Theme: SF stories that give potential (and hopefully positive) futures that involve alternatives to modern day policing. 

8/15-30 (tentative), Cast of Wonders (Flash Fiction Contest), ~1500 words, 8¢/word, Genre: any YA, Note: good feedback provided last time I submitted, https://www.castofwonders.org/submissions/

8/24-8/28, Fireside Summer 2021 Issue, ~3000 words, 12.5¢/word, Genre: Any (English or Spanish) 

9/4, On the Premises Short Story Contest 36, 1000-5000 words, prize money (1st $220, 2nd $160, 3rd $120, HM $60), Theme: Smell, Genre: any except children’s and gross horror, https://onthepremises.com/current-contest/

9/1-9/30 PodCastle, ~6000 words (3000-4500 best), 8¢/word, Genre: Fantasy, Simultaneous OK, Reprints ($100 for >1500 words, $20 for flash)

7/1-9/30, WotF Q4, ~17000 words (aim for 3000-10,000), 8¢/word, prize money (1st $1000, 2nd $750, 3rd $500, annual grand $5000, plus Hollywood workshop; semi-finalists get feedback), Genre: F/SF, Note: contest for new writers w/o 4+ pro-level publications; the forum is very helpful, especially the Super Secrets thread; free workshop available on website


Submission Deadlines and Windows in October and Beyond

8/10-10/11 Dream Foundry Contest, Words ~10,000, prize (1st $1000, 2nd $500, 3rd $200), Note: contest for new writers (have published 4000 words or less, earned $320 or less from those words and never been nominated for a major award)

11/1 WEIRD CHRISTMAS Flash Fiction Contest - 3rd annual; SpecFic/sf/f/h/humor/weird (flash). Words: <350. Fee: $0. Prizes: 1st=$50; 2nd=$25 10+ HMs=$5; + pub & podcast. Reprints: query. Note: will accept narrative poetry, multiple entries okay. Judge: Craig "Kringle" Brewer. E-subs: EMAIL ONLY. Contact: Craig "Kringle" Brewer (QS). Results & PubDate:: 7 December 2020

10/15-11/2, PseudoPod (General Submissions), 1500-6000 words (4500 best), 8¢/word, Genre: any horror, Reprints OK 

9/15-11/15, Lamplight Magazine, ~7000 words, 3¢/word, Genre: Dark/Literary

11/30: Cast of Wonders (General Submissions), ~6000 words (best 3000-4500 or flash <1000), 8¢/word, Genre: any YA, Note: good feedback provided last time I submitted

12/1 Worldbuilding Fantasy Anthology, 3500-7000 or 9000-15,000 words, flat payment (short $100; novella $200), Theme: Politics as Conflict. Genre: any Fantasy (PG-13)

11/30-12/4, Fireside (Autumn 2021 Issue), ~3000 words, 12.5¢/word, Genre: Any (English or Spanish) 

7/1/2020-2/28/2021, Upon a Once Time, 1000-3000 words, 8¢/word, Theme: Mashup of two fairytales, Genre: SF/Fantasy/Grimdark/New Weird/Dying Earth/genre-bending

7/1/2020-2/28/2021, The Wild Hunt: Stories of the Chase, 1000-3000 words, 8¢/word, Theme: Wild Hunt (folklore, myths, drama), Genre: SF/Fantasy/Grimdark/New Weird/Dying Earth/genre-bending



Publications Open for Submission (No Specified Deadline; Pay 1-4 Cents/Word)

Dark Moon Digest, 1500-7000 words, 3¢/word, Genre: Horror (complex, creepy, like Twilight Zone or Black Mirror


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Thursday, June 18, 2020

Recent Learning and Upcoming Submission Deadlines

First, the learning! I am thinking about making an actual website after I took a 1-2 hour webinar with Mary Buckham in which she discussed Primal Branding. That is something I should really work on as I draw closer to a successful publication. Her webinar was well-organized and I'll probably take one from her again.

I also recently took a class with Jonathan Maberry called Writing Fight and Action Scenes. It was fantastic and I may talk about that more in another post. Very inspiring and I would recommend any talks or classes with him. It was about $25 for the Action Scenes class.

I've also attended some talks with Dave Farland and guests as part of his Apex Group, and that has been eye-opening indeed. Pairing that with the group and the classes, it has been worth the entry cost. I got some good inspiration from some Word Sprints there, too.

I have been keeping up with the Super Secrets Challenge Group, meeting the goals of one new flash every month based on Wulf Moon's KYD exercise and two new shorts stories every quarter. We've been going through some discussion and exercises on dialogue recently. You can check them out here: http://forum.writersofthefuture.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7600&start=2970


As for upcoming submissions, Writers of the Future prep first. Since I kept up with my goals, I received some fantastic feedback from Wulf Moon on the story that I'm planning to submit to Writers of the Future for the 3rd Quarter of 2020. It's due to be submitted by the end of June, so now I'm working through Moon's advice to bring the whole story up another level. I would be surprised if this one doesn't at least snag me another Honorable Mention, but I'm going to work hard to push it past even that.

In addition to the usual WotF stories, I'm revising and reviewing a few pieces to submit to several submission windows. I decided to list them below in case any other writers happen to check the blog and need a reminder to get to submitting. I'll add and update here or in future posts.


10 Upcoming Submission Windows and Publications

Fireside Fiction, deadline 6/19 at 6pm EST. Words: ~3000. Pay: 12.5 cents/word. Looking for: any genre; particularly seeking stories that engage with the transformational with body focus, the repurposing of technology, trauma and how it changes connection, and cyberpunk or cyberpunk-adjacent '15-minute into the future' dystopias. https://firesidefiction.com/submissions

Cast of Wonders, window 6/15-6/30. Words: ~6000. Pay: 8 cents/word. Theme: Lifelines for Banned Books Week (9/27-10/3); books that help us get through isolation. Books can be any one-way communication (box of letters, podcast, skywriting, anything recipient can’t easily reply to). Isolation can be physical or social (astronaut in spaceship alone, person in place where no speaks their language, someone in prison). Don’t have to have happy ending but must end on hopeful note. YA audience. 

Writers of the Future, deadline 6/30. Words 3000-17,000 (personally I recommend under 10k). See website for details. If you are a new writer with no more than three publications or so, definitely submit to this contest every quarter. https://www.writersofthefuture.com/enter-writer-contest/

The Binge Watching Cure III, deadline 7/1. Words: varies 100-25k. Pay: $100. Theme: sci-fi    http://bingewatchingcure.com/submissions/

Augur, window 6/15-7/15. Words ~5000. Pay 8 cents/word. Submit up to 2 short stories per window, or 4 across genres and poetry of 5 pages or less with 5 poems or 10 pages total per window. Genre/Theme: Multiplicity of Futures (afrofuturism, soft scifi, scifi fabulism, Indigenous futurity, hopepunk, dystopia, utopia, post-apoc, solarpunk, scifi-realism, Canadian scifi, ecofiction, hopeful futures; trauma/oppression beside hope/better futures). Not interested in pandemic fiction or hard scifi, mostly want human/character-driven narratives. Always interested in dreamy realism, slipstream, fabulism, magical realism, literary speculative. Best submission defies categories; something too spec or not spec enough for other magazines. http://www.augurmag.com/submissions/

Dreamforge, window: 7/1-7/15. Words 100-15,000 (under 5000 best). Pay 4-8 cents/word. Genre: SF and Fantasy (no horror). Theme: “Hope of the Big Idea,” meaning stories that call upon powerful new visions of how life could be shaped for the better either through technological or social change, or both. Seeking: More flash fiction between 500 and 1500 words. I’d like to feature more authors, especially talented beginners. https://dreamforgemagazine.com/call-for-submissions/

Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, window: 7/1-7/2 (1st and 2nd of every month), Words: 1000 and up (shorter better). Pay: 6 cents/word. Genre: SF and Fantasy (no horror).   https://cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com/submissions/

Dark Matter, window: open since 6/1. Words: 1000-5000. Pay: 8 cents/word. Genre: science-fiction. https://darkmattermagazine.com/submission-guidelines/

Hybrid Fiction, window: on hiatus until July. Words: 500-5000. Pay: 6 cents/word.  Genre: all submissions must be speculative hybrid/cross-genre (any blend of 2+ genres such as dark fantasy, steampunk western, historical fantasy, weird western, crime fantasy, etc.).  https://www.hybridfiction.net/submissions

Amazing Stories Anthology: No Police = Know Future, deadline: 8/15 (or until filled). Words: ~4000. Pay: 8 cents/word. Theme: SF stories that give potential (and hopefully positive) futures that involve alternatives to modern day policing. https://submission.amazingstoriesmag.com/no-police/


That's all for now. I'll try to share lots more in July.

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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

POV exercise on "Being the Stranger" (Exercise 9 Part 2 from Steering the Craft)

Finally, an update to the blog. I've been busy with stuff (day job, family life, hobbies, so on and so forth). I must learn to consistently manage all of that better in order to make more updates on this blog. We're shooting for weekly updates here. C'mon.

Anyway, on to the post at hand. We're nearing the end of Steering the Craft. Four more exercises to go then we'll have one complete run-through posted on this blog. Finished this one last week so I might as well post it for interested readers.



Exercise 9 Part 2: Being the Stranger
[Directions]
Write a narrative of 200-600 words, a scene involving at least two people and some kind of action or event.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

A Pure Dialogue Exercise from Steering the Craft (Exercise 9, Part 1)



I'll be back with more later for Exercise 7 and 8 (which, along with novel progress, has kept me busy). For now, a quick one from Exercise 9, Part 1: Telling It Slant.

Part One: A & B
(Note that the assignment is quoted from page 119-120 of Steering the Craft by Ursula K Le Guin)
The goal of this exercise is to tell a story and present two characters through dialogue alone.
Write a page or two – word count would be misleading, as dialogue leaves a lot of unfilled lines -  a page or two of pure dialogue.
Write it like a play, with A and B as the characters’ names. No stage directions. No description of the characters. Nothing but what A says and B says. Everything the reader knows about who they are, where they are, and what’s going on, comes through what they say.
Note: A& B is not an exercise in writing a short story. It’s an exercise in one of the elements of storytelling. You may, in fact, come out with a quite satisfactory little playlet or performance piece, but the technique is not one to use much or often in narrative prose.

Note on the story: while A is a completely new character, B is actually based on a character from a work-in-progress. Rather unfair to the A bloke. Aw well. Comments welcome as always.
I always found writing pure dialogue a lot of fun and it leaves a lot of loose ends or open space from which to write a fuller story from. And there was some great explanation of this and the focus of this chapter (telling a story indirectly) in Steering the Craft - recommended.
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Saturday, January 31, 2015

Steering the Craft, Exercise 7, POV: The Decadent Serpent

Time to dive into Exercise 7: POV (page 91 of Steering the Craft)

To sum-up from the previous post:
200-350 words narrative sketch, event with 4+ people, little or no dialogue
Part 1.1: limited third person, 1st POV
Part 1.2: limited third person, 2nd POV
Part 2: detached narrator
Part 3: observer narrator, an onlooker POV told in first or third person
Part 4: involved author

I wanted to work with something completely new for this exercise. My brainstorm went with a weird sci-fi missing person story, but I'm going to come back to that on my second run through this. I put more energy into my second brainstorm. The first two POVs (part 1.1 and part 1.2) are done enough to post. The rest will follow later this week. As always, comments welcome. Enjoy!


The Decadent Serpent

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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Steering the Craft, Exercise 7: POV

Been feeling exhausted due to my day job I guess (perhaps fighting off the hint of sickness as well?), and gotten distracted by several reads (this week I've been focused on The Scar by China Mieville, The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti, Ebb Tide by Thad Wind, and my listen to The Scar by Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko - all great reads, will try to give them decent reviews when I finish them up) - I suppose I should get a Goodreads widget on this blog - but I am looking forward to getting a draft done for the next Steering The Craft exercise. I really like the next one: it has the writer write the same scene from several different POVs. Certainly could be used as an excellent brainstorming method, or character/setting/scene development technique, to use on current works-in-progress (which I admit is exactly what I've been using pretty much all of these exercises for thus far), but I decided to make up something completely new for this exercise. Was thinking something in the horror genre, but it looks like it may end up more odd sci-fi than anything dark or horrific. There's still time for it to warp though, so we'll have to wait and see. Tomorrow night should lend me plenty of writing time to make up for a busy week.

For now, the details on the exercise (there was a lot more detail on the POVs in the book that I would recommend reading - I found them all very concise and understandable explanations and examples):

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Saturday, January 24, 2015

Steering The Craft: Exercise 4, Part 3: Structural Repetition

I almost decided not to post part three of exercise four, or at least write an entirely new one for posting, as it contains possible minor spoilers of the series-in-progress, but the details may change a great deal, and hell, if it happens to stir up interest in any of you readers, I would love to know what begs more focus in your opinion and why. I'm sure this is an exercise I'll be repeating many times.
Anyhoo, onwards, to the content.

Exercise Four, Part Three: Structural Repetition

Assignment (quoted directly from the book): write a short narrative (350-1000 words) in which something is said or done, and then something is said or done that echoes or repeats it, perhaps in a different context, or by different people, or on a different scale. This can be a complete story, if you like, or a fragment of narrative.

*Note: I didn't stay within the assignment's word count. In fact, the draft below is in two parts and each part is about 1500 words or so. Each part contains two different characters echoing the other's situation. Let me know how it works for you. Who knows, the day in this exercise could be developed into a short story placed between the two planned books that have been written in an almost complete first draft.
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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Issues with Present Tense

I usually post quotes that strike me on my Goodreads account when I update the page number I've reached in a particular book I'm enjoying, usually just to remind myself to go back and read it at a later point, but I always get annoyed by the word limit. Seeing as such just happened with my read of Steering The Craft, I might as well start posting more quote on my revived blog.

Here's a fairly short quote regarding Ursula K Le Guin's opinion on the present tense. This is from an extended opinion section of Chapter Six (yes, this post is likely leading into a pending post of Exercise 6) - I really like how Le Guin made the decision to separate her opinion into sections, so as not to preclude discussion of the chapter focus (like say how Sol Stein on writing certainly does...) but still allow herself to share what she's found true over the years. Anyway, the quote to consider:

"[...] A narrow focus isn't more immediate: it merely leaves out more. By avoiding temporal context and historical trajectory, present-tense narrative simplifies the world [...] This avoidance of complexity leads away from inwardness, either of the characters' or the author's mind. So it may gain vividness, clarity, a linear simplicity, at the cost of a great deal else - including real, felt immediacy.
"Neither Schwartz nor I argue with the maxim 'Show, don't tell' if it means that it's better to narrate through examples not generalities, to be vivid not vague. But we both question the maxim when it's extended to mean: List actions and objects, but don't interpret, lest you be seen as judgmental; don't show emotion, lest you be seen as unsophisticated; keep your voice impersonal, lest you risk a genuinely immediate relationship to your reader.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Steering The Craft: Exercise 5: Chastity

Well, Exercise Four Part Three is proving quite useful for diving deeper into the world of my novel, revealing the name of a character's persona I suppose was already being fleshed out, but the piece is also now 2500 words and who knows if it will end up being shared here or not. In the meantime, enjoy a quick read through of the straightforward exercise below. It contains a completely new story to develop. Yeah! And eww, get off me adverb clumped with adjective. I mean to say, it contains a story that shines and glitters and glows. Or rather, it falls into a jungle.


Exercise Five: Chastity
Assignment: write a paragraph to a page (200 – 350 words) of descriptive narrative prose without adjectives or adverbs. No dialogue. The point is to give a vivid description of a scene or an action, using only verbs, nouns, pronouns, and articles. Adverbs of time (then, next, later, etc.) may be necessary, but be sparing. Be chaste.
Critiquing: would the piece be improved by the addition of an adjective or adverb here and there, or is it satisfactory without?

Guiredin stomped through the mud. The door clicked as his child closed it. They had said their farewells over a meal: they tore bread off in chunks and swished milk down after it then Guiredin clamped a hand on Melite’s shoulder and nodded. Melite smiled and hefted a bucket from the floor. Guiredin  jerked his jacket on and clambered onto his ride. The beast snorted, the beast shook its hair, and the beast tested its rider’s balance. Guiredin shrugged, let his beast warm up, and watched Melite walk into the barn.

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Monday, January 19, 2015

Steering The Craft: Exercise 4, Part 3, Process Notes & Fantasy To Be Read Link

Well, Exercise 4 Part 3 of Steering The Craft is taking a whole lot longer than expected. I ended up deciding it would be about the city's Remembrance Day and the visiting father's. which of course meant I needed to do the exercise twice, two characters each time, in order to have four vital characters involved with about 500 words for each one, with it all connected as two parts within a 2000 word story, so I went ahead and stuck it in a new Scrivener project and am just about finished with the draft - it's looking like another 2-3 days.

In the meantime, I noticed a Jo Walton post on Tor.com titled Eight Books From the Last Decade that Made Me Excited About Fantasy. Glancing over the post, it would seem I haven't read any of them, though several are on my list or have been read about, and they sound interesting, especially the one "about having a really good meal in a wonderful restaurant". I guess I've been more focused on science-fiction, dark fantasy and horror reads, and need to round out this year with a bit more fantasy. Not that I need to increase the size of my to-read list, and I already have a ton of books sitting on my shelves waiting to be read (my Samuel Delany novel, The Fall of the Towers keeps giving me an orange lazy eye), but such is the reader's sad state.
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Saturday, January 17, 2015

Steering The Craft: Exercise 3, Parts 1 & 2

Exercise Three: Short and Long, Part One (from Steering The Craft)

Assignment: write a paragraph of narrative, 100-150 words, in sentences of seven or fewer words. No sentence fragments! Each must have a subject and a verb.

Part One, First Draft:
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Steering The Craft: Exercise 2

Exercise Two: I Am Garcia Marquez (from Steering the Craft)

Assignment: write a paragraph to a page (150-350 words) of narrative with no punctuation (and no paragraphs or other breaking devices)

Exercise One, First Draft:
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Steering The Craft: Exercise 1

A new year. 2014 was a mess with problems spilling over into the now, but I think I have finally reached a space from which I can get back into writing regularly and reach for that childhood dream/boon/curse, depending on how I feel like viewing writing. I tend to lean towards curse, but hey, let's not be negative.

Like I said, a new year, 2015, and things I are edging toward much, much better, which means, I might as well revive the writing blog - these figments certainly do die hard, don't they? *sigh*
I'd like to start this off with clear action. I've already finished 3 exercises from the current writing workshop book I'm reading through, and I'll go ahead post those here in separate posts, in case any readers surprise me and care to comment.
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