A quick note: Last week I finished the first draft of my novel project, Saving Atlantis. Now I'll ignore it for a week or more and then go back, start at the beginning, and revise, rewrite, reconsider, and resolve at least one minor plot point that's hanging out there waiting for me to make up my mind.
I have other writing projects in mind to tend to for that week or so.
Now, to literary fiction.
I don't care for it much.
If you like literary fiction there are plenty of magazines that specialize in it. GlimmerTrain may be one of the best...and the most expensive. However, if you want to write it and sell it GlimmerTrain is also the best paying. I subscribed to their magazine for three months some years ago and read what they published, which is always a good idea for submitting to any venue.
But they declined all my attempts. Shucks. One attempt was later accepted by two other magazines. I submitted "Thanks, Winstons" to Page and Spine magazine. The editor, N.K. Wagner, suggested I submit it to The Storyteller magazine because The Storyteller had a subscription list of several thousand.
Regina Williams, the editor, accepted the piece. My submitted piece was about two hundred words over the limit. Regina told me with confidence that she could edit it down to the required length. She did. When I read her edited version I could not tell it from the original. I put the two side by side and then could tell where the cuts had been made.
I learned a lot about editing from that experience; I learned to recognize unnecessary sentences among other things. Regina has also advertised herself as a professional editor for authors that want to self-publish. She's not cheap, but an author will get value for the fee.
That was one of only two stories I've had published for which I received no payment. However, N.K. Wagner had told me that she wanted the story after The Storyteller's rights were up. She took it (they were still taking reprints then) and paid for that acceptance.
I prefer to write stories that have a clear conflict to be resolved. Literary fiction is not that. Really creative descriptive writing of settings, emphasizing details—sometimes really minute details—and setting mood is the point of literary fiction. Those are not my writing strengths. In fact, the major weakness in my fiction writing is description of setting details. My novel Prophecy of Honor has that weakness. It could be a thousand words longer with more good descriptive details of the settings, especially in the middle of the novel...I do pretty well at the beginning and with the battle scene at the end, but the middle of the story is lacking.
As I wrote, I don't care much for literary fiction. But I'm glad I read a bunch of it. It expanded my horizons and emphasized my weaknesses. And up to then I hadn't read any. There's now only one genre I haven't sampled and that is the Harlequin (or other publisher) Romance. I have read snippets and a few pages here and there, but not a whole book.
So, for those of you that read for pleasure, sample everything. Although my favorites since 1961 are science fiction and fantasy, during that time I have also read historical fiction; horror (lots of Stephen King) which is sort of a step child to fantasy; mystery fiction; sports fiction (Semi-Tough among others); plays by Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, and Shakespeare (I read The Tempest just for fun); Renaissance fiction; Victorian fiction; westerns; plus all the necessary reading to get an English Education degree in college and a full physical education major as well plus a psychology minor. Also, biographies and autobiographies and plain "mainstream" fiction like Forrest Gump, Catch 22, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and several others.
Okay, maybe I'm bragging just a little.
Oh, I forgot! Comic books for sure, but also the daily comic strips. Every day that it has been possible, which is just about every day.
So don't be too insistent on staying in your reading comfort zone. Venture into other genres. You might discover a new favorite or, at least, expand your horizons. You might even learn something.
Happy reading!
I have other writing projects in mind to tend to for that week or so.
Now, to literary fiction.
I don't care for it much.
If you like literary fiction there are plenty of magazines that specialize in it. GlimmerTrain may be one of the best...and the most expensive. However, if you want to write it and sell it GlimmerTrain is also the best paying. I subscribed to their magazine for three months some years ago and read what they published, which is always a good idea for submitting to any venue.
But they declined all my attempts. Shucks. One attempt was later accepted by two other magazines. I submitted "Thanks, Winstons" to Page and Spine magazine. The editor, N.K. Wagner, suggested I submit it to The Storyteller magazine because The Storyteller had a subscription list of several thousand.
Regina Williams, the editor, accepted the piece. My submitted piece was about two hundred words over the limit. Regina told me with confidence that she could edit it down to the required length. She did. When I read her edited version I could not tell it from the original. I put the two side by side and then could tell where the cuts had been made.
I learned a lot about editing from that experience; I learned to recognize unnecessary sentences among other things. Regina has also advertised herself as a professional editor for authors that want to self-publish. She's not cheap, but an author will get value for the fee.
That was one of only two stories I've had published for which I received no payment. However, N.K. Wagner had told me that she wanted the story after The Storyteller's rights were up. She took it (they were still taking reprints then) and paid for that acceptance.
I prefer to write stories that have a clear conflict to be resolved. Literary fiction is not that. Really creative descriptive writing of settings, emphasizing details—sometimes really minute details—and setting mood is the point of literary fiction. Those are not my writing strengths. In fact, the major weakness in my fiction writing is description of setting details. My novel Prophecy of Honor has that weakness. It could be a thousand words longer with more good descriptive details of the settings, especially in the middle of the novel...I do pretty well at the beginning and with the battle scene at the end, but the middle of the story is lacking.
As I wrote, I don't care much for literary fiction. But I'm glad I read a bunch of it. It expanded my horizons and emphasized my weaknesses. And up to then I hadn't read any. There's now only one genre I haven't sampled and that is the Harlequin (or other publisher) Romance. I have read snippets and a few pages here and there, but not a whole book.
So, for those of you that read for pleasure, sample everything. Although my favorites since 1961 are science fiction and fantasy, during that time I have also read historical fiction; horror (lots of Stephen King) which is sort of a step child to fantasy; mystery fiction; sports fiction (Semi-Tough among others); plays by Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, and Shakespeare (I read The Tempest just for fun); Renaissance fiction; Victorian fiction; westerns; plus all the necessary reading to get an English Education degree in college and a full physical education major as well plus a psychology minor. Also, biographies and autobiographies and plain "mainstream" fiction like Forrest Gump, Catch 22, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and several others.
Okay, maybe I'm bragging just a little.
Oh, I forgot! Comic books for sure, but also the daily comic strips. Every day that it has been possible, which is just about every day.
So don't be too insistent on staying in your reading comfort zone. Venture into other genres. You might discover a new favorite or, at least, expand your horizons. You might even learn something.
Happy reading!
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