Where has the month gone? I've prepared a few story submissions and jotted down ideas, but haven't done anything writing-related otherwise. I've had a lot on my mind lately and have spent more time reading and watching movies rather than writing. A poor excuse, you might say, but I think I needed to take a break.

Pretty soon I'll be passing the 100 story rejections mark. I've been actively writing and submitting stories for over 3 years now and haven't sold a thing. Oh, I know it's a tough market these days and 3 years isn't that much, but you get to a certain point where you begin to wonder why you even bother when the rejections keep on coming and there's little in the way of positive reinforcement. It starts to feel like beating your head against a wall.

I can't say that I'll feel like giving up writing anytime soon, but at times like this I wonder what I'm doing wrong. Is it plot? Structure? Cardboard characters? Wooden dialogue? Rehashed ideas? All of the above? It could be just plain crappy writing, but I'm not certain about that because I'm beginning to get sick of the number of rejections saying "well-written, but..." I do pay attention to useful comments in rejection letters, but you can only make so many attempts at tweaking and revision before it begins to seem like a waste of time. Usually I just send the stories on to the next market in the list, figuring that if all a story needs are light revisions to make it saleable, an editor would make such a request rather than pass on it.

So where do I go from here? The obvious solution is to quit whining and write more. You can't really argue with that, so that'll be my task for March and beyond. Whether the sales come or not, that's completely outside my control. It doesn't pay to be impatient because you can wait decades or until the heat-death of the universe before making a sale, if ever! :P

All I can do is keep my nose to the grindstone and spin some yarns, doing what I can to craft each one better than the last.

That is all. Your regular programming shall resume shortly ;)

What I'm Reading:
Cell, Stephen King
Dogs in the Moonlight, Jay Lake
Writing the Other, Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (audiobook)