Five: Ah, ah, ah, FIVE Blog Posts!

So, earlier today (err, "mid-afternoon yesterday," by this point, I guess?) I tossed in my latest manuscript. It was a short piece for an anthology (5,000 words, almost right on the button!). I'll give more details when I'm in the clear to give more details, but for right now, what counts is that it's done, and it's time to switch gears again. The genre for this one is...pretty far away from the genre(s) I normally work in, so that was fun. I got to stretch my historian legs a wee little bit.

I talked about switching gears already, but it's true. It's hard to throw yourself headfirst into a setting, into a character, into a mood, just willy-nilly. I don't get all artsy-fartsy about it, I'm not a method actor or anything, heck, I don't even really think of myself as an "artist," for what it's worth. But it does require a certain type of creativity, what I do, stringing words together in such a fashion they drag someone into an imaginary place to watch some made-up action. And that's tough, sometimes. Going from genre to genre, voice to voice, can be jarring.

Right now, though? Right now I'm in the worst place. Limbo. I've got no gear to switch to.

I've got lots of stuff turned in, and I'm waiting to hear back from editors. THAT'S the most jarring thing, to me, shifting from high gear (I wrote 5,000 words in two nights, which is kind of what I've come to expect from myself) to neutral. I don't have another gig lined up! No contracts looming, no hard deadlines from an editor waiting around the corner.

I'm waiting to hear back from one (new) game company, after pitching to an open submission. I got shot down by them once before -- gasp, the horror! -- but I feel pretty positive about it, over all. I'm not crazy about their submission process (I only get 500 words to try and sell you on my 10,000 word story?! That's like getting graded on just 5% of a test!), but the editor I've been speaking with has been nice, and it's a game universe I know pretty well.

Another limbo-project is with an existing editor I know and like (and who I like to think enjoys working with me), but who's swamped right now, and the hypothetical project is kind of back-burner. So waiting to hear from them on the formal pitch.

Other than that, it's all stuff I've turned in -- first drafts -- waiting on editors. Waiting to hear back what they thought, waiting to see what changes need to be made, what changes they think should be made that maybe I can knife-fight over, and what things they like just fine. I luck out, most of the time, and it's far more "just fine" than anything else, and then a few "maybes" that, if I make a good case for it, get to stay. I don't get a lot of hard, red ink, changes made to my stuff. When I do, it tends to be just typos, basic stuff; I type like a mamajama, I spent enough years doing data entry work before spending enough years in academia before spending enough years as a writer, that I skate by with pretty few typos, but sometimes they still sneak in.

So mostly, my editing, return-the-draft, sort of process? It's pretty quick and painless, which is nice.

But, man. The waiting for it still stinks sometimes.

The good news? The good news is I've got my Patreon to keep me busy. Time to go see what flavor of short fiction my patrons want for this upcoming month, and that'll give me something to do, short-term. In the long term, I've always got Over The Stars to peck away at.

But, man, I just really like having a deadline, sometimes. A concrete end-zone, to make it feel like I'm not just moving the ball downfield forever, does me a lot of good.