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Nov. 9th, 2005 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ann_leckieThe God of Au
It doesn't look like I've gotten much farther than the last post, but this is one of those situations in which word count doesn't actually measure progress. I've been going over section two and fixing it up--adding some things, taking away other things--and I feel like I've actually gotten some work done.
I had a sort of low moment the other day. Two people on my f-list have sold stories to the spring 2006 issue of Subterranean. My first thought was "Hurray!" and my second thought was, "Hey, I've got a ms in that slushpile..."
So that part of my brain that tells me discouraging things starts up. "This means you haven't sold the story. How could you think it would sell anyway?" And normally I'd just ignore that and send the poor rejected baby right back out the door, but since I haven't actually gotten a rejection, I couldn't do that, could I?
Of course, the rational part of me was saying, "First of all, just because Scalzi has bought two or three stories already doesn't mean he's got the whole issue bought and planned. You might still be in the running after all, and it was a good story." I got a very nice autoreply back from submitting that outlined just when was the earliest we could expect to hear, and the latest as well, and I really, really appreciate that because it keeps me from having any excuse to wonder day to day just what's happening to my story and will I hear tomorrow???
And frankly, my mother brought me up to respect the Awesome Power of the Editor. If he wants to scatter mss on his floor and then wait to see which ones his cat throws up on and buy those, that's perfectly within his rights. If he wants to buy a few stories now (and considering who he bought them from, I have no doubts they're excellent and am totally unsurprised that they would have grabbed him right off the bat) and then think about the others some more, or even buy them all earlier than advertised, that's more than reasonable. I have no cause to complain about anything.
And I should sure as hell stop kicking myself and telling myself that my story was no good. That sort of thing just won't do. Such were the arguments of my rational side.
So the rational and the irrational parts were poking at each other all morning. The rational part won a sort of provisional victory, and I'm feeling much better now. But the power of the irrational side is strong. I must be vigilant!
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4,947 / 22,000 (22.5%) |
It doesn't look like I've gotten much farther than the last post, but this is one of those situations in which word count doesn't actually measure progress. I've been going over section two and fixing it up--adding some things, taking away other things--and I feel like I've actually gotten some work done.
I had a sort of low moment the other day. Two people on my f-list have sold stories to the spring 2006 issue of Subterranean. My first thought was "Hurray!" and my second thought was, "Hey, I've got a ms in that slushpile..."
So that part of my brain that tells me discouraging things starts up. "This means you haven't sold the story. How could you think it would sell anyway?" And normally I'd just ignore that and send the poor rejected baby right back out the door, but since I haven't actually gotten a rejection, I couldn't do that, could I?
Of course, the rational part of me was saying, "First of all, just because Scalzi has bought two or three stories already doesn't mean he's got the whole issue bought and planned. You might still be in the running after all, and it was a good story." I got a very nice autoreply back from submitting that outlined just when was the earliest we could expect to hear, and the latest as well, and I really, really appreciate that because it keeps me from having any excuse to wonder day to day just what's happening to my story and will I hear tomorrow???
And frankly, my mother brought me up to respect the Awesome Power of the Editor. If he wants to scatter mss on his floor and then wait to see which ones his cat throws up on and buy those, that's perfectly within his rights. If he wants to buy a few stories now (and considering who he bought them from, I have no doubts they're excellent and am totally unsurprised that they would have grabbed him right off the bat) and then think about the others some more, or even buy them all earlier than advertised, that's more than reasonable. I have no cause to complain about anything.
And I should sure as hell stop kicking myself and telling myself that my story was no good. That sort of thing just won't do. Such were the arguments of my rational side.
So the rational and the irrational parts were poking at each other all morning. The rational part won a sort of provisional victory, and I'm feeling much better now. But the power of the irrational side is strong. I must be vigilant!