With another year gone by, it’s time to take stocks, summarize what’ve learned in regards to my writing, and, hopefully, figure out how to push forward.
As always, it was a year with ups and downs. I landed my first publication at a professionally paying magazine, Grievous Angel Magazine (which sadly closed down later in the year). The story was accepted in late 2017, but a lot can happen between acceptance and publication, so I still count it as a major victory for 2018.
Even better, getting that pro publication allowed me to join the Codex Writing Group which has turned out to be the best decission I’ve ever made. That place is stacked with writers who’ve gone through the process I’m just starting, to become widely published, some of them even make a living as fiction writers (though, most of them leave the group by then, since it’s per definition meant for neo-pros, published authors who aren’t yet full time pros). And to think I almost missed out on all the information that place has to offer because I felt like a fluke for only having one pro publication and didn’t consider myself ready to join. Well, it turns out even writers with plenty of publications feel like this.
And then the downs came. After that one publication, it has been nothing but rejections. Of course, I’ve focused mostly on pro paying magazines, but I’ve also submitted way more than I did the previous couple of years. In fact, I’ve sent out more stories in 2018 than in 2015, 16, and 17 combined. So, yeah.
I also applied for positions as a slush reader with some pro magazines early in the year — without any luck. So, I’m pretty far from where I want to be as a writer (and reader too, apparently).
Actually, I’m at a pretty annoying place in my journey as a writer. I can spot which of my stories generally work well and which don’t, and I can spot the symptoms in those that don’t, mostly. I can see the screwed up pacing, the stilted writing, but I don’t know the root causes, and I don’t how to fix them.
I know that the fact that I’ve gotten better at spotting weaknesses in my stories means I’ve improved as a writer, but at the same time I can’t help getting frustrated by this. Even worse, though, after this had been going on for a couple of months, I realized I was starting to plateau. And that’s the one thing that I can’t have happen, if I’m ever going to be able to write on a professional level consistently.
Luckily, I now have a pretty good network of fellow writers who can help me out. The number one advice I keep getting from them for learning the craft of writing fiction is to read a lot of stories in depth and critique them, which is basically what I’ve been doing with my short story recommendations. (The links are for the final reviews I end up with, but before that goes a lot of story critiquing).
And I’ve also solicited help from a couple of writers/editors who are helping me figure out what I need to work on the most to improve. So far, the feedback has been priceless.
So, despite ending 2018 in a low place writing-wise, I feel like I’ve improved a lot and that I’m on the right track for 2019. I’ve worked on my weaknesses consitently to the point where I need to figure out what my weaknesses are now. I’ve found like-minded writers to spare with. Now, I just need to land those publications.
Toby Backman 