State of Writing 2021 — Yearly Summary

Source: https://www.ayudainc.org/craft-research-paper/computer-history.asp

I got the idea for this blog post from a couple of different places. Two YouTube channels that I watch do “State of” videos to showcase their own interests: one writing, the other gaming. PlayStation also does a “State of Play” to showcase upcoming games, so I thought I’d use this forum to talk about the year that has passed in terms of my writing, especially since I had a 3 month long break from the blog. This won’t be in-depth, but will give a “snapshot” of the year that has just passed.

Stats

I sent out 3 stories last year: Unhallowed, The Independent, and The Runner. According to Duotrope, I sent out the stories a total of 12 times total for the year. Of the those 12 submissions, I had 1 Acceptance and 11 Rejections. However, this stat is a little misleading, as I will explain shortly. I didn’t jot it down, but I think the percentage of Acceptances to Rejections was (guesstimating) 7.21% or something similar (this is from memory–yes, I could do math and figure it out–my Mac’s calculator says 8.3% approximately, but it is obviously under 10%). Yet, even under a 1 in 10 chance, my average was STILL higher than the “average” of people submitting on Duotrope. This is why writing is so discouraging–in American Baseball, you’re a good “player” if you hit in the “250s” (2.5%), a great player if you hit in the 200s (280s-290s), and an exceptional player if you hit significantly over 300 (325-330s). That’s 3 hits out of every 10 swings. Now, compare that with writing where you’re getting 1 in 12 (less than 1 time for every 10 submissions) and that’s considered good. That’s why writing (& particularly publishing) is so demoralizing and why so many have left that traditional model for self-publishing. Okay, editorializing over.

Now let’s look at the individual stories:

Unhallowed

So, this is my Weird West fantasy story featuring an African American female bounty-hunter, Arizona. This story went out 7 times in 2021. While I did send it to 1 major market in 2021, for the most part, the rest were middle range markets. It was rejected all 7 times, but 1 market, Mythaxis, liked it and sent me a personal rejection letter. Basically, they felt it was too long for publication in their magazine. As a writer, I felt that, had the story been shorter, I would have had an excellent chance of getting it accepted for their publication. While they didn’t offer the option to revise and submit, I went through and I eliminated 2 of the 3 sections with backstory elements for the story (I felt I needed the first backstory section to explain the world/worldbuilding of the story as that’s where it all happens). I cut it down from 6, 600 words to 4, 400 words, and it is currently out to its next market with this trimmed down version of the story. If it gets accepted and published somewhere, my goal is to utilize the “origin” story to create a Graphic Novel/Comic Book adaptation of the story (for my longer, original vision).

The Independent

This one is a complicated one. This is my “Space Truckers” story. It only had 2 submissions for 2021. It was accepted by Mythic, a market I’d been trying to sell to for quite a while (at least since I started writing again “professionally” when I started blogging). I heard that I was accepted shortly before I started my new job as a Visiting Scholar in Residence. I was ecstatic! I signed the contract and focused on the job.

However, time went by and hadn’t heard anything. Then, a few days before Christmas, I got an email from the editor informing me that he was closing Mythic. The last issue was to be #17 and my story had been slated for #18. I was, of course, gutted, but also prosaic about it. The last thing I’d want is for someone to bankrupt themselves trying to fulfill a dream when it is obvious that the dream is “drowning them.” Something I learned during my time as a PhD student is: “if you’re in a hole, stop digging.” I wished the editor well and got on with my holidays, resolving to find a new market and send it out after the Christmas/New Year’s Holiday.

After the holidays had passed, I printed out a copy of the story, to do my new routing of an “Annual Revision Pass”over the story, when I got another email from the editor. He wanted to continue the publication (just in a smaller format), but wanted to know if I still wanted to publish the story in the magazine. Of course I did, so I agreed, and that’s where we are right now.

Last I saw, he was running subscriber drive/Patreon drive for the magazine. I don’t normally do this, but how about throwing him a few “bones” (slang for dollars) if you have any extra money. I’ll probably end up donating at least a part my own “fee” back to him for at least a 1 year subscription. Anyway, here’s a link to his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mythicsffmagazine/

The Runner

This is a new fantasy story that I finished this year. It is a story about a fictional human civilization on an island with creatures that the humans consider deities. This story was submitted to the LeVar Reads contest in August of 2021. I felt like the story had a good chance as it met all the requirements of the contest page and was really fun to write. Also, it didn’t have (or need) a complicated backstory to fill in the world, so I could just concentrate on the characters and the plot. This one was a MAJOR “almost” as I came very close with this one. There could only be 3 winners (a first place and two runners-up). Out of the 708 submissions to the contest, I made it to the FINAL round of 12. LeVar read those 12 stories (mine and 11 others) and made the final decision. I, unfortunately, wasn’t one of the eventual winners, but as the “rejection letter” proudly noted, my story made it the Top 2% of stories for this particular competition. Essentially, I was able to make it to the Olympics, but I wasn’t able to bring home a medal (to continue the sports metaphor from earlier). Still, my only goal for this competition was to have my story read by LeVar Burton and I accomplished this goal, so while I’m disappointed of course that I didn’t “win,” my story was good enough to do what I hoped it would: have a celebrity like LeVar at least read some of my work!

So that’s it. A fairly in-depth recap of my year in writing. I’m working on a new story now. Hopefully, I will be able to add it to the State of Writing 2022 summary next year!

Have a great one!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric SpecPurchase  HawkeMoon  on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase  Dragonhawk  on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  WarLight  on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  Ship of Shadows  on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  Faerie Knight  on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindleCurrently Working On (October 2021):The Runner (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4400 words)
2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
2021 Revision:  ACCEPTED   FOR PUBLICATION