Aeryn Rudel's Blog, page 47

One-Hour Flash Success Stories

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, then you might have seen a series of posts called One-Hour Flash. These are flash fiction stories I’ve written in one hour as part of a writing exercise. The basic gist is that you get a prompt and then try to bang out the best story you can on that prompt in one hour. It’s a great little exercise/contest to do with your (closed) writing group, as it really forces you out of your comfort zone (always good for a writer). The One-Hour Flash s...

Submission Statement: April 2018

Although not as good as March, April was a solid month that featured a little but of everything. Lots of submissions, some rejections, an acceptance, and a few other bits and pieces.

April 2018 Report Card

Submissions Sent: 13 Rejections: 10 Acceptances: 3 Publications: 2

Thirteen submissions in April, and that’s very good production. It more than keeps me on pace for my goal of one hundred submissions for the year. I’m currently at forty-eight, so almost half-way there with eight months to...

A Week of Writing: 4/23/18 to 4/29/18

On more week of writing, editing, and submitting in the books.

Getting close to done(ish) on at least one big project.

The Novel

Solid production on the novel for the week, and I passed 80,000 words total. I’m at the climax of the story, and I’m looking at another 10,000 words to wrap up the first draft. I think 90,000 is a solid length for a horror novel, though it’ll likely boil down to 85,000 or so after my first pass and possibly a bit more once my beta readers are done chewing on it. Her...

Back to Basics: More Cover Letter Components

In Back to Basics: The Cover Letter, I presented an example of a basic cover letter with all the elements a publisher usually wants to see. But what if the publisher ask for something additional that deviates from that letter? What might those somethings be? I generally see three additional cover letter elements in publisher guidelines. Let’s take a look at them.

1) Short Bio

By far the most common cover letter addition. Usually, a publisher wants fifty (50) words or less. If you don’t have a...

A Day in the Life of a First Draft

As you know, writing requires extreme dedication to the craft, unswerving discipline, and nigh-supernatural resistance to distraction. To shed some light on this magical process, I present a semi-fictionalized account of a single day in in the creation of a first draft.

8:00 a.m.

Okay, at my desk bright an early, got my coffee, and I am ready to start writing!

I should check my email, though. Might be super important stuff in there. Ooh, maybe even an acceptance for one of my short story sub...

A Week of Writing: 4/16/18 to 4/22/18

Another week gone by, another week of of writing. More positive yardage and some decent progress on projects big and small.

The Novel

More production this week at a fairly respectable pace. I’m in the meat of the third act, and I’m looking at another 15,000 or so words to finish up this first draft. My best guesstimate is the draft will clock in somewhere just south of 90,000 words. Here’s how I did.

Date Day Words Written 4/16/2018 Monday 0 4/17/2018 Tuesday 2557 4/18/2018 Wednesday...

One-Hour Flash – Fuel for the Fire

Time to dust off another also-ran from the one-hour flash files. As usual, this is a story written in one hour based on a photo prompt for a contest/exercise. The time stamp on Word says I wrote this one in September of 2013. What you see below is more or less what I came up with in an hour five years ago, though I did clean it up a tad.

Today’s story is called “Fuel for the Fire.”

Fuel for the Fire

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Ashton had seen his share of forest fires, but he and the ten other volunteer firefighters f...

200 Rejections: An Analysis

I recently found myself wondering how many rejections I’ve received since I started using Duotrope (religiously) to track my submissions. So, uh, I went and looked . . .

I’ve received 218 rejections. Is that a lot? Maybe, but to me it (usually) just feels like my fair share. The inevitable result of nearly 300 submissions. It’s important to note I received rejections before Duotrope came into my life. Sadly, many of these literary fossils are lost to the ether in a now-defunct Hotmail account...

A Week of Writing: 4/9/18 to 4/15/18

One more week in the books. One more week of progress. One more week of writing.

The Novel

After less than ideal production the week before, I accomplished something resembling a respectable pace last week. Not where I wanted to be, but not bad. The good news is I passed 60,000 words, and I’m barreling toward the third act. I figure there’s probably between 25,000 and 30,000 words left to write (maybe a bit less). A first draft at the end of the month or early next is a distinct possibility.

...

Ranks of the Rejected: Avily Jerome (Havok Magazine)

Today it is my privilege to present an interview with Avily Jerome, the editor for Havok magazine. Avily is an accomplished editor and writer, and she has great advice for authors who want to publish in Havok (or publish in general). She also knows a thing or two about rejection and how to deal with the inevitable reality of “not for us.” My own association with Havok is pretty simple. They’ve published two of my stories, including one in the issue releasing today, which means I’ve twice had...