Writerly Progress Report

Wow, it's been quite a while since I last wrote a blog post! What can I say, this whole child-rearing thing? Kind of time consuming. Who'd have thought? 

Well, fortunately The Babe is now officially a toddler, and I'm starting to get more writing time again, but the last year hasn't been a total loss, writing-wise. An old piece in Finnish "Kylmempi kuin jää" (Colder than Ice) earned an Atorox nomination, which was fantastic, and I was on my first writing panel talking about writing and publishing short stories in a foreign language at Joctocon. (A nice, cozy event that wasn't at all terrifying even for somebody as nervous about public speaking as I am.)

 Around Easter I did some slush reading for the 2018 Nova writing competition. I know everyone says slush reading is an important learning experience for a writer, but they're absolutely right. I learned a lot, and it was fun. I absolutely recommend it. If you're worried about the commitment and time management like I was, a competition is pretty much an ideal solution, because it's a limited amount of work (134 short stories in this case, over about two months) with a clear deadline, and you get extra XP for time invested since there are other slush readers and you get to compare notes (there were four of us for the Nova competition). I'll do a post about the experience  later on in more detail if you want to know more.

I also took part in a very useful writing workshop hosted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Finland. It was given by Reetta Vuokko-Syrjänen, a very talented writer (she won second place in the 2017 Portti writing competition, among other things) who is also a fantastic teacher and a very nice person, so do grab the chance to learn from her if you can. The workshop was titled "The Story is Broken," and Reetta did a very brave thing: instead of going the expected theory + exercise route, she shared an old story of hers from back from when she was starting out, something that clearly showed huge potential but illustrated a lot of those not-quite-rookie mistakes that the intermediate writer will run into. She then took a problem based learning type approach to fixing those issues, and she rewrote the story, showing us the power of editing in action. And the best thing? I actually managed to edit a story that's been giving me trouble all year and sent it to the Portti competition.

I haven't written much else, only a few flash fiction pieces, but I've been thinking about a book project more and more, so a lot of world-building and prep work. 

And I've read a lot. Yes, even the Proust Project is nearing completion, only one volume to go! I've burned through the backlog of books in my TBR pile and also explored some books with nontraditional structures. I'm especially into Japanese authors at the moment. (If you don't know about Osamu Dazai, go read No Longer Human right now, it's mind-blowing!)

So, that's what I've been up to. I love fall, it always feels like a time of new beginnings and possibilities, so I'm going to take full advantage of all that positive energy. Hope you're having a nice productive September, too.

Writerly Progress Report

So, what's new on the writing front? Well, I was supposed to get a few English short stories done over the holidays, but spent them recuperating on the couch instead. I did find the energy to submit a few older pieces and sent a story to the Writers of the Future contest, gathered a bunch of rejections for a flash piece, and got an acceptance for a short story I submitted to an anthology called Mrs Rochester's Attic, yay! And I am feeling a bit better, so hopefully I can get the revisions I was planning to do over the holidays done in the next few weeks, maybe even finish the short story I've been wanting to write. 

Lying on the couch wasn't all bad: I did figure out how to fix the opening of a story that's been sitting in my virtual drawer for six months. The trouble is that I actually pretty much love the opening as it is, but it just doesn't fit the story (the tone is wrong and there's too much flash and humour and action considering what comes next), but now I have an idea on how to tone it down without losing the strong character voice that prompted me to write the story in the first place. 

For the last few weeks I've been busy with edits for the Finnish Gothic anthology piece. I really enjoyed working with the editors and I feel the story is much stronger now that I've finished. We'll see if there will be another round of edits, or maybe just some minor tweaks. Either way, it's been a great learning experience. I also got the edits for the Nova competition piece. There will apparently be an anthology at some point, but the edits don't need to be done for months so that's on the back burner for now. Last weekend I scrambled to finish a story for my Finnish critique group and managed to get it done the night before the deadline, so I'm pretty happy with that. 

I also wrote the article for the English edition of the Cosmos Pen magazine I talked about earlier and found out some of my drabbles got accepted for publication in the mag also. If you're going to Worldcon, they'll be handing out copies of the magazine there, so do check it out if you're interested. My article is a travel guide type thing called "Weird Finland: A Guide to Peculiar Places." (Working title, haven't got the edits back for that one yet.) I'm not sure if the magazine will be available electronically also, but I'll link to it if it is. 

That's pretty much it for now. Hopefully I'll get a few stories in English done soon. I haven't submitted anything to Critters in ages...

The Old Year and the New

2016 is gone, welcome to 2017, everyone! The world is kind of scary right now, and about to get scarier after Trump steps into office. And it's not just the US: the same political climate is palpable in Europe, and there are lots of important elections coming up this year, most notably the French presidential election and the German parliamentary election. (Read more here, for example.) Let's hope it all turns out better than expected.

Moving on to happier things, on the writing front 2016 was a busy year for me. I published some drabbles, but no short stories. That doesn't mean I wasn't writing. I did write five or six stories in English and about the same in Finnish. Two of the Finnish stories won awards ("Kylmempi kuin jää"/ honourable mention in the Portti competition and "Vedenneito"/2nd place in the Nova competition). Another story "Kun nokkoset kukkivat" was accepted to the Finnish anthology of Gothic stories. I also submitted stories to the Genreblender competition and Lumen ja jään antologia, both in Finnish., and some drabbles and a story to the English edition of Cosmos Pen, the magazine my writers' association publishes.

I didn't submit that many English pieces in 2016, but I've got about three making the rounds right now, one of which is currently being held for further consideration. I also took part in the Apex flash fiction competition. There are about three more stories that I should finish editing so I could send them out. I also participated in two online writing courses from the University of Iowa, so those cut into my writing time a bit but were extremely valuable, craft-wise. There's a story opening I did for the class that I'd like to develop further, hopefully soonish so I'll have something to submit to Critters.

Even though I didn't publish much, I feel that something has changed about my writing. I've started getting personal rejections from the pro mags, which is a good sign, and the placing-in-competitions thing is also encouraging. I guess I'm levelling up, as Cat Rambo put it.  Mind you, I'm nowhere near to where I want to be. I'm Bambi, just learning to stand up on the ice, while my favourite authors are the ones gliding by, doing triple axels while juggling seven flaming daggers at the same time. Lots of work ahead, but it's nice to see that I'm making some progress.

What about 2017? Well, my goal is still the same: to write something good enough to be published in a pro mag. My favourites of the SFWA eligible markets are Shimmer, Apex, and Clarkesworld, so I decided to start reading them regularly to get a better feel for what the editors are looking for, and hey, reading more great short stories? That's a win-win, anyway you look at it. I'm also planning to get a subscription to Portti, the major Finnish science fiction magazine. I'm still carrying on with my critique groups this year, of course, and I'll probably participate in the 2017 How Writers Write Fiction course, too.

And 2017 can't be all bad; Worldcon will be in Helsinki this year, that's exciting! I'm also looking forwards to playing the new Mass Effect and Persona games and seeing the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

So, happy New Year. Hopefully the world will be a little bit brighter in an year's time.

Editing, Editing . . .

So, what's new on the writing front? Well, I've been quite busy. I submitted short stories in Finnish to the Gothic anthology and the Genreblender competition, the deadlines of which were both at the end of October. I revised a  fantasy story for Critters and will hopefully get it done soon so I can send it out. I also have another short and a few flash fiction pieces that need a polish and can go out on submissions soon. There's also a novella length work that needs major revisions, but I think that one will have to wait until I finish the other projects.

The How Writers Write Fiction: Storied Women MOOC is finishing this week, and I'll have a bit more writing time. I wrote about 1-2k words per week for the writing exercises, and now I'm left with a handful of story seeds that might grow into something interesting with a bit more work.

I'm also helping with the English issue of Cosmos Pen, the magazine published by our local spec fic writers' association,  for Worldcon 2017. I  pitched a few ideas for articles and submitted a bunch of drabbles. I'm planning to submit a short story also, but that one needs a bit more work before it's ready. I also offered to do  some translating if needed.

The deadline for the science fiction anthology Lumen ja jään tarinoita is at the end of November, and I decided to give it another go. My first attempt ended up in the Portti competition, because even I could see that it wasn't really what the anthologist was looking for. Hard science fiction is a challenge for me, but if you stay in your comfort zone, how will you grow? So yeah, I'm not giving up yet. The only problem is that I won't get a chance to get any critiques on the piece because of the deadline. The annual Apex flash fiction competition, 250 words on Valentine's day weirdness, is also closing on November 30th, so hopefully I'll come up with something for that one, too.

And there were the good news from the Nova writing competition, in which I won second place. Very glad to have made the grade.

Writerly Progress Report

Time for another progress report: what I did this summer, the writing edition. 

I wrote a story in Finnish for the Gothic Fiction anthology and another in English, a bonkers science fiction adventure story that's so out there that I'm not sure I'll ever submit it anywhere. I'll send it to Critters, though. I've got another story outlined and a few more that are in the idea stage. There's another Finnish anthology coming up that's all about crossed genres, so I'll probably try to get something done for that one. Deadline's the end of October. It might mean shoving the English stories on a back burner for a while, which is too bad. 

I also edited the Finnish story I tried to write for the hard science fiction anthology and sent it to the Portti competition. Because, let's face it, it's not hard science fiction. To thine own self be true, I guess. Speaking of competitions, one of my stories made the second round of the Nova writing competition, yay! The winners will be announced in October, but just getting this far shows progress, so I'm pretty happy however it turns out.

I'm also sending out a few English stories, and waiting to hear about those.

I sold some drabbles to SpeckLit, and all of those came out in July. 

On the self-improvement front, I completed K. M. Weiland's course on character arcs and I'm actively participating in the MOOC from University of Iowa on writing about death and disaster. I also read a few writing books and learned about deep point of view. And I managed to read a few more books on my Science Fiction Classics reading list. The Classics list is stalling, because Proust. The first few hundred pages of Sodom and Gomorrah feel like being at a dull dinner party where you don't know anyone and just sit there, listening to mean people gossip about strangers.

I'm also beta-reading a fellow Critter's novel, which is very interesting. I'm learning a lot from doing it, and getting to read a cool story, too. I'm trying to do one critique per week in addition to that, just to keep my ratio up, in case I want to submit something before I finish the book. (Because you get the credit at the end for RFDRs, "Request For Dedicated Readers.") Oh, and I'm also still in the Finnish critique group, of course.

That's all for now. More later. This writing thing's a marathon, not a race, as Chuck Wendig is fond of pointing out.  

Writerly Progress Report

                      

So, anything new on the writing front? Not much. Finally finished that troublesome short story after I decided to just write an hour a day until it was done. The problem was that I knew the beginning and the ending, but the middle? No idea. Now I've got something, don't know if it's any good or not. Hopefully I'll get some feedback soon from my Critter pals.

I've got two new stories in English that I'm submitting, but no takers so far. The other one's too much of a romance to work as a sci-fi adventure, and not explicit enough to submit to romance anthologies. Romance is probably better as a side plot, not the main one, for the speculative fiction markets. I also submitted four Finnish pieces to the Nova competition, and I'm waiting to hear about one English story.

May is a super busy month for me this year: I've got plans for every weekend, and a deadline coming up for the Finnish hard science fiction story I'm trying to write. It's a double deadline, for my critique group and a day-long writing course I signed up for. The deadline for the anthology is in November, so I'll have plenty of time to work on the piece, but the critiques are vital in terms of making the story work. I don't usually write hard science fiction, so that makes critiques even more important. June 3rd is the deadline for Specklit, but I'm afraid I'll have to skip this quarter, unless somebody has a time machine I can borrow. (I'll try, though.)

My editing pile is also growing. There's one story that I wrote for a circus-themed anthology, but guess what, the deadline for that is also May 31st. So that one might not make it, unless I just submit it as is, which I don't want to do. Another two stories have been through Critters, but both need major rewrites, so I haven't gotten around to them yet.

Adding to that the critiques for Critters and my Finnish critique group, I've got my hands full.  The book projects are on the back burner for now. I'm actually wondering if I should stick to short stories until I feel my writing is up to snuff, and then get on with the books, because I don't want to waste my time on a longer project if I'm not ready. But on the other hand, a book is a very different animal from a short story or even a novella, so I'll probably need to do a few practice ones anyway before I can write something worth reading (if ever).

On top of that, the day job is demanding its share of attention, so much that I rarely have energy for writing in the evenings. Thank the gods summer vacation is coming up soon.

With all this going on, I might need to skip a few blog posts to make this work.

See you on the other side.