Writing Progress! With Statistics!
I finished up the emo epilogue-y romance story on Saturday, with light edits on Sunday, and submitted it; alas, I am pretty sure it is not suitable for that anthology, but I will let the editor decide. I am pleased that some version of it is finally complete, and assuming it's rejected, I can fancy it up a bit later for some other anthology, or put on my website or something.
On Sunday, I also wrote a story from scratch, a submission for that other August 1 deadline I wasn't sure I would make. It's a smidge over 1700 words, and unlike the Emo Epiloguey Romance, it is definitely erotica, which is good because that was what the editor asked for.
If I count the three "flash" stories, all of them under 1000 words, then those two stories were the ninth and tenth ones I've submitted in 2013. (Note that of those ten, two included material written prior to 2013, which I reworked.)
I track my net wordcount at the end of each day, so big chunks that were cut out in editing may or may not make it into the totals, depending on when the cuts happened; and sometimes, if I write a lot but also delete a lot, the net appears negligible. Also, if I've been doing a lot of edits, sometimes I just estimate, as in "about 300 words added." All that said, I put together the numbers as best as I could from my tracking sheet, and my total wordcount for 2013 so far is 16,403. It doesn't sound like much, does it? Particularly from a novelist's point of view. But they were good words, and they comprise a lot of stories.
If, by some miracle, I sold them all, I will have made $425.00, assuming I'm remembering all the pay rates correctly. Anyway, it is extremely unlikely that all of them will sell, given that I think at least three of them are longshots for those particular anthologies. But that wasn't the point. The point was for me to write regularly again, and I've done it! Go me!
And if some of them do sell, I can update the Publications page on my website, which is always a good thing. That was also a strong motivator for this project.
I have three more dated calls for submissions that I want to try for: September 1, September 30, and December 1. September 30 needs to be mailed to the UK, so it really needs to be done by September 20th or so. I'm giving September 30 priority over September 1 because it pays more. If I finish and submit for two of those three calls, that will give me a nice, round, twelve stories for the year, and I will be well-pleased.
On Sunday, I also wrote a story from scratch, a submission for that other August 1 deadline I wasn't sure I would make. It's a smidge over 1700 words, and unlike the Emo Epiloguey Romance, it is definitely erotica, which is good because that was what the editor asked for.
If I count the three "flash" stories, all of them under 1000 words, then those two stories were the ninth and tenth ones I've submitted in 2013. (Note that of those ten, two included material written prior to 2013, which I reworked.)
I track my net wordcount at the end of each day, so big chunks that were cut out in editing may or may not make it into the totals, depending on when the cuts happened; and sometimes, if I write a lot but also delete a lot, the net appears negligible. Also, if I've been doing a lot of edits, sometimes I just estimate, as in "about 300 words added." All that said, I put together the numbers as best as I could from my tracking sheet, and my total wordcount for 2013 so far is 16,403. It doesn't sound like much, does it? Particularly from a novelist's point of view. But they were good words, and they comprise a lot of stories.
If, by some miracle, I sold them all, I will have made $425.00, assuming I'm remembering all the pay rates correctly. Anyway, it is extremely unlikely that all of them will sell, given that I think at least three of them are longshots for those particular anthologies. But that wasn't the point. The point was for me to write regularly again, and I've done it! Go me!
And if some of them do sell, I can update the Publications page on my website, which is always a good thing. That was also a strong motivator for this project.
I have three more dated calls for submissions that I want to try for: September 1, September 30, and December 1. September 30 needs to be mailed to the UK, so it really needs to be done by September 20th or so. I'm giving September 30 priority over September 1 because it pays more. If I finish and submit for two of those three calls, that will give me a nice, round, twelve stories for the year, and I will be well-pleased.