R. Leib's Blog: Dream State - Posts Tagged "writer"

Actually it was a rejection. I had submitted a short story to a fantasy magazine that offered to critique submissions. When "Symbiont Dawn" came back, it was accompanied by two critiques. I learned a lot from both of them.

I had labored to find the precise word that meant exactly what I intended for every noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. The result was nearly unreadable and flowed like a fall down a flight of stairs. (I commend those two editors for making it all the way through.) Now I strive to express my ideas in easy to read sentences. I avoid long, prepositional phrase ladened run-on monstrosities. I now keep my adverbs and adjectives as terse as possible. I try to stay away from arcane words and references as much as I can. I make an effort to be satisfied just telling the story I came to tell.

The three secrets to making a work of fiction believable are: Research, Research, and Research. One of the editors was drawn to factual errors I had made in my story like a snake to a downed bird. If you are going to incorporate a detail into your writing, either know you are right, find out you are right, or obfuscate. Usually, being ambiguous is not as good as getting it right, but it will keep the detail crunchers off your back.

If you can find someone whose opinion you respect to honestly critique your writing, it will help you become a better writer.

As I write this, "Symbiont Dawn" is a number one rated short story on Helium.

After a year of working on it, I have taken a few weeks off "Tourist of Infinity". I needed a break. The novel has grown from an idea of which I was uncertain into something with a life of its own, but I think I have become too close to it. I need some distance. The stirrings inside me to return to working on it have started already. Once they accelerate to the point of irresistibility, I will surrender to them. My passion for the story will be reinvigorated, and I will be prepared for the hard work ahead.

In the meantime, I have been reading and reviewing. Ideas for other stories evolve inside my head all the time. But to have the struggle with a single body of thought ingrained into your daily life for such a long time, you need to let it percolate on its own for a little while, or your fervor for it sublimates and becomes stagnant.