To trunk or not to trunk?
...Although the trunk is extremely metaphorical here. More like "to release into the wild or not to release into the wild?"
Which is to say, I got the fairy tale story back on Tuesday. This was just its fourth rejection, but as it turns out there are not a lot of markets for novelette-length fairy tale stories that are a bit too grim for kiddies but not actually horror. I could try to change something about it--length seems like the obvious limiting factor--but oh my god I started writing this story in the Fall of 2007 and I don't want to mess with it anymore. Also, I rather like it the way it is, and I have no particular guarantee that hacking it down to short story length wouldn't wreck it, or would make it more appealing to editors.
What I am struggling with, I guess, is a sense that if I want to be a Real Writer, then I have An Obligation to exhaust every possible effort to get this story published somewhere, somewhere where I can point and say, look, they accepted my story! Now It Is Published! Under my real name, in a real market. And the thing about that is that the effort would last at least another two months and maybe years, and maybe still result in a decision, years from now, that the story is never going to get published.
The much easier course is to embrace the story's identity as fairy tale fan fiction and post it under my fic identity as fic. This would almost certainly mean more feedback from readers about the story and, given the markets I'm looking at where I could possibly submit it in its current state, potentially more readers period. And it would be much faster, and it would mean I could, after four years, be really actually done with this story.
...I think that summation makes it obvious which way I'm leaning, but I still feel bad about it. Or, well, Not Sufficiently Committed To Being A Real Writer. But, whatever. I have beaten myself with that stick too often. It's bound to break sooner or later.
Which is to say, I got the fairy tale story back on Tuesday. This was just its fourth rejection, but as it turns out there are not a lot of markets for novelette-length fairy tale stories that are a bit too grim for kiddies but not actually horror. I could try to change something about it--length seems like the obvious limiting factor--but oh my god I started writing this story in the Fall of 2007 and I don't want to mess with it anymore. Also, I rather like it the way it is, and I have no particular guarantee that hacking it down to short story length wouldn't wreck it, or would make it more appealing to editors.
What I am struggling with, I guess, is a sense that if I want to be a Real Writer, then I have An Obligation to exhaust every possible effort to get this story published somewhere, somewhere where I can point and say, look, they accepted my story! Now It Is Published! Under my real name, in a real market. And the thing about that is that the effort would last at least another two months and maybe years, and maybe still result in a decision, years from now, that the story is never going to get published.
The much easier course is to embrace the story's identity as fairy tale fan fiction and post it under my fic identity as fic. This would almost certainly mean more feedback from readers about the story and, given the markets I'm looking at where I could possibly submit it in its current state, potentially more readers period. And it would be much faster, and it would mean I could, after four years, be really actually done with this story.
...I think that summation makes it obvious which way I'm leaning, but I still feel bad about it. Or, well, Not Sufficiently Committed To Being A Real Writer. But, whatever. I have beaten myself with that stick too often. It's bound to break sooner or later.