September report

[ken_schneyer]

Here (very late) are my monthly statistics for September

• 8,500 new words of fiction written this month. 1
   
• 23 first drafts currently in progress. 2
   
• 10 first draft currently "ripening" before second draft. 3
   
• 4 second drafts currently in progress
   
• 1 second draft currently in the hands of "trusted readers."
   
• 5 third drafts currently in progress.4
   
• 0 third drafts currently awaiting polishing.
   
• 0 fourth draft in currently in progress.
   
• 0 rewrites in progress of stories previously sent out, based on comments from friends.
   
• 1 story sent out to friends a second time, after rewriting based on their earlier comments.
   
• 2 rewrites (at request of editors) currently in progress.
   
• 9 stories currently submitted to markets5
   
• 980 words in shortest story currently submitted.
   
• 8,700 words in longest story currently submitted.
   
• 1 offer of publication received this month. 6
   
• Longest current wait without response: 223 days.
   

1 Better than the previous month, and actually better than usual, although the more spectacular work in June and July makes it look lackluster. October, by contrast, is going to crash & burn; real life (kids' head lice, sick cat, flooding basement, committee work, and, oh, yeah, my job) have been getting in the way.
2 I always have a lot of first drafts "in progress," until one of them really grabs me and I work on it obsessively. Right now there are two stories that are really "active."
3 I employ a six-week "ripening" period for first drafts. Most of these have been in the pile a lot longer than six weeks.
4*sigh*
5Two of these are stories that have already been published, but I'm now submitting to audio and/or non-English markets.
6Sale of "Tenure Track" to Cosmos Online.

I completed a revision and sent the story to friends for final comment, and now I'm working on another revision. A quick idea for a first draft came to me at the beginning of October, which was fun. But I'm determined to get rid of the backlog of revisions and send these stories out!

I still have one first draft from my Kickstarter project to complete.