June Report, and, er, Other Reports

[ken_schneyer]

Yeah, I know, I haven't done a monthly progress report since February. I'd like to claim that I didn't have time because of All the Writing I was doing, but actually I was ashamed that I was getting so little done. (I actually predicted this in my  report for February, but that didn't make it feel any better...)  But the Kickstarter project has given me new life, and my June productivity kicked butt.

So now I'll give the reports for each of the last four months:

New Words of Fiction Written

• March:     3,800
   
• April:       6,300
   
• May:        3,200
   
• June:    17,200
   

Offers of Publication Received:

• March: 1
   
• April:    0
   
• May:     0
   
• June:   0
   

The March acceptance was "Conflagration," to the Newport Review. (Still hasn't become available online yet, but it'll happen any day now.) So it's been a slow time (especially compared to December-through-March, when I had one acceptance per month), but thes things take time. Good news is, my ratio of personal-to-form rejections during March-through-June has been 2:1, which is pretty good.

Current Stats

• 23 first drafts currently in progress. 1
   
• 5 first drafts currently "ripening" before second draft. 2
   
• 4 second drafts currently in progress
   
• 0 second drafts currently in the hands of "trusted readers."
   
• 5 third drafts currently in progress.3
   
• 0 third drafts currently awaiting polishing.
   
• 0 fourth drafts in currently in progress.
   
• 1 rewrite in progress of stories previously sent out, based on comments from friends.
   
• 2 rewrites (at request of editors) currently in progress.
   
• 8 stories currently submitted to markets
   
• 950 words in shortest story currently submitted.
   
• 6,000 words in longest story currently submitted.
   
• Longest current wait without response: 185 days.
   

1 I always have a lot of first drafts "in progress," until one of them really grabs me and I work on it obsessively. In recent months, though, I've gotten a few thousand words into each of several stories that then lost steam. Am getting frustrated.
2 I employ a six-week "ripening" period for first drafts.
3All that's keeping me from sending these stories out are things I know how to fix.