Let's see if this works. [link]

Sure does! Wheee!

You didn't know you were Coming Soon, P-C?

I did know, but I didn't know my name was currently in an issue of Asimov's !

Honestly, I've gotten so many rejections lately, I'm really starting to ponder what a post-writing future would look like(of course, right after I spent money I can't get back on a workshop on Building Better Characters.)

I don't know if I would really stop, but it's getting harder and harder to get the optimism up to face those damn "submission managers" and every time I get back a no, the voice in my head that says "You don't have to do this," gets louder(of course, the world wouldn't blame me if I just sat around looking tragic for the rest of my days, only to pause to blurt out like a six-year-old "my legs don't work." so I don't even know if that's my inner voice or Ableism.) And are there really real-life Sue Hecks out there that read the "kinder, gentler" rejections and think "Woo hoo...they think looking at my work is a privilege!" because it really doesn't help me at all.

Asimov's rejected me too, recently, but at least that one made sense. I think that story is science-fictionish, but they don't. It's one thing to think "What the hell...aim high," not care about the result that much. It's the closest to SF that I've ever written except the one about what could happen if fun were a thing you could buy, but it's not what they had in mind. But most lit mags have these generic guidelines, blah, blah "fresh" "dynamic"..."Make us see life in a new way!" Which sounds good until you realize no mag would admit to publishing the same old crap.ETA: Sunil, that's great. I hear they pay well and promptly, which, although not my *motivation* for getting in, definitely helps. Hope it turns out that is true.

"Make us see life in a new way!"

Oh, no pressure. I'm unsure that anyone would want to see life the way I had in mind with this one story I was plotting out today.

An author friend once complained "I can't think of anything new!" I told her the only ones who had a good shot of thinking up something new were the cavefolk.

This story is bleak to the point of sickening. I don't know if I should give it a hopeful ending, or just stick with Life Is Unrelenting Horror and Misery. How Russian Novel can I go and still get published in an American market. Maybe go with ambiguously ominous and let the Reader decide if the happy couple survives.

Watching my friends become published authors isn't inspiring me to action like it should be.

Watching my friends become published authors isn't inspiring me to action like it should be.

wrod

Ok, maybe they don't quite say that, although I swear I read one that did, once, but they are all kinds of glittering generalities that don't really tell me what they are looking for, except preferred length, and, possibly"limited violence" or the ultimate "No, duh!" "No fanfic." I mean, I know they are trying to leave room to be blown away by something unanticipated, but I have no idea where to go next.

Yes, I read a lot of short stories, but they aren't great *guides" to markets. Like, if I notice a lot of divorced women in a mag, does it help or hurt to give my character a divorce? Should I write a single man by way of contrast?(Not to sound like a story generator...I do write about stuff I care about, but if I could make it more widely appealing, I certainly would.)

I thought I'd have a breakthrough and this would get easier, but even EQ didn't really open doors like I expected.