Gawd. That tension of having writing projects in different realms and because sharing FEELS SO GOOD the blog/newsletter stuff always kind of bumps the not public stuff. This is a thing I've been trying to navigate for years with my novel writing versus my little creative non-fiction pieces, essays, commentaries and the occasional poem. Also, creating a sense of genuine connection in online spaces—STORY OF MY LIFE.
If anything, connecting with you on there is super fun and I'm excited to see what you end up sharing in 2023. :)
Part of the problem is this whole rights thing, and selling rights, and first rights, and it's just ridiculous. Some magazines are even specifying now that they consider posting a story to Patreon for fans behind a paywall counts as first rights. So nothing I post here can be sold unless it's as a reprint, which sell for a lot less and I'd still have to take it down from here for the duration of it being posted somewhere else. Basically the streams cannot cross, and that's all of a sudden a lot of work.
The other part of the problem is the connection part. I want to make stuff readers find awesome. What is that? If I can't sustain making stories for two different venues, what can I make that readers will also love to have in their inbox? That will take less time than a story? How can I know what they would enjoy when busy people have no free time to connect and tell me?
And also if I save all my stories for publication, will my readers even read my stuff if it means click on links and potentially buying a magazine instead of just getting it nice and conveniently in their inbox?
So many questions!! Not sure of any answers quite yet.
Original content! YES! I find the deadlines expected of writers to be ridiculous sometimes—a 2500 word submission in two weeks? Two weeks to write something totally new, revise it, edit it, and submit it? Ummmmmmmm....
And when I write something I really love, I don't want to just sit on it in a file in the hopes that maybe I'll find a magazine that will want to publish it one day.
1000% agree! To have the time to really think through what I want to say about the story's theme and how to say it in a way that is still a story feels like it takes forever. And then you need time between drafting and revising--where is that supposed to come in and how do you juggle not working in a completely linear way?
I also have that same feeling about writing something I really love and the realities of Publishing it in a Market. I read Douglas Smith's Playing the Short Game and he relates: "Those two sales came fifteen and seventeen years respectively after I wrote the stories and after (wait for it) sixty-five and sixty-four rejections respectively." Just yikes. I've only got so many years left, and do I want to spend time I could be writing on putting together 65 submissions so the world gets to see 1 story? Uuuuuuuugh.
Uuuuugh! I also dislike how self-published works are seen as less good. I self promote all my art and get reproductions made on my own and no one has ever made cutesy comments about my art because I don't have a gallery relationship...but when it comes to writing? It's like it doesn't count if it's self published.
The stigma is better than it was 10 years ago, but it's still there. Which just boggles my mind when you think that stuff on Twitter is used on major networks as news now. And I think there is still a huge perceived difference between someone who self publishes on a blog and someone who self publishes selling books on Amazon. Like someone buying my writing is more legitimizing of my writerhood? authorship?.....than someone reading it. Which, I guess, should be less of a surprise. But is still just wrong.
I struggle with this right alongside you. Add in that I am a freelance blog writer with deadlines...I love that part of my job, don't get me wrong, but I wish I could "cross the streams" more often than we're allowed. I love how honest you've been. Keep being you!
💖💖💖 Thank you!! I'm also learning that different things take different amounts of time to write, and there's just no getting around that. An essay is focused on one idea, and if the idea is small enough, the essay is pretty short and easy to write--I can have a rough draft in an afternoon. But the complexity of a story doesn't even compare. It takes so much more time to get all the pieces of a story in place. I'm trying not to get TOO frustrated that flinging a good essay out into the world is very different from getting a good story done.
I hope you get to cross the streams more often too! I am excited to have more fun at Lake Lemonseed.... 😊
Gawd. That tension of having writing projects in different realms and because sharing FEELS SO GOOD the blog/newsletter stuff always kind of bumps the not public stuff. This is a thing I've been trying to navigate for years with my novel writing versus my little creative non-fiction pieces, essays, commentaries and the occasional poem. Also, creating a sense of genuine connection in online spaces—STORY OF MY LIFE.
If anything, connecting with you on there is super fun and I'm excited to see what you end up sharing in 2023. :)
Part of the problem is this whole rights thing, and selling rights, and first rights, and it's just ridiculous. Some magazines are even specifying now that they consider posting a story to Patreon for fans behind a paywall counts as first rights. So nothing I post here can be sold unless it's as a reprint, which sell for a lot less and I'd still have to take it down from here for the duration of it being posted somewhere else. Basically the streams cannot cross, and that's all of a sudden a lot of work.
The other part of the problem is the connection part. I want to make stuff readers find awesome. What is that? If I can't sustain making stories for two different venues, what can I make that readers will also love to have in their inbox? That will take less time than a story? How can I know what they would enjoy when busy people have no free time to connect and tell me?
And also if I save all my stories for publication, will my readers even read my stuff if it means click on links and potentially buying a magazine instead of just getting it nice and conveniently in their inbox?
So many questions!! Not sure of any answers quite yet.
Original content! YES! I find the deadlines expected of writers to be ridiculous sometimes—a 2500 word submission in two weeks? Two weeks to write something totally new, revise it, edit it, and submit it? Ummmmmmmm....
And when I write something I really love, I don't want to just sit on it in a file in the hopes that maybe I'll find a magazine that will want to publish it one day.
It is so much to navigate, for sure. :P
1000% agree! To have the time to really think through what I want to say about the story's theme and how to say it in a way that is still a story feels like it takes forever. And then you need time between drafting and revising--where is that supposed to come in and how do you juggle not working in a completely linear way?
I also have that same feeling about writing something I really love and the realities of Publishing it in a Market. I read Douglas Smith's Playing the Short Game and he relates: "Those two sales came fifteen and seventeen years respectively after I wrote the stories and after (wait for it) sixty-five and sixty-four rejections respectively." Just yikes. I've only got so many years left, and do I want to spend time I could be writing on putting together 65 submissions so the world gets to see 1 story? Uuuuuuuugh.
Uuuuugh! I also dislike how self-published works are seen as less good. I self promote all my art and get reproductions made on my own and no one has ever made cutesy comments about my art because I don't have a gallery relationship...but when it comes to writing? It's like it doesn't count if it's self published.
The stigma is better than it was 10 years ago, but it's still there. Which just boggles my mind when you think that stuff on Twitter is used on major networks as news now. And I think there is still a huge perceived difference between someone who self publishes on a blog and someone who self publishes selling books on Amazon. Like someone buying my writing is more legitimizing of my writerhood? authorship?.....than someone reading it. Which, I guess, should be less of a surprise. But is still just wrong.
Once again, Capitalism is The Worst.
I struggle with this right alongside you. Add in that I am a freelance blog writer with deadlines...I love that part of my job, don't get me wrong, but I wish I could "cross the streams" more often than we're allowed. I love how honest you've been. Keep being you!
💖💖💖 Thank you!! I'm also learning that different things take different amounts of time to write, and there's just no getting around that. An essay is focused on one idea, and if the idea is small enough, the essay is pretty short and easy to write--I can have a rough draft in an afternoon. But the complexity of a story doesn't even compare. It takes so much more time to get all the pieces of a story in place. I'm trying not to get TOO frustrated that flinging a good essay out into the world is very different from getting a good story done.
I hope you get to cross the streams more often too! I am excited to have more fun at Lake Lemonseed.... 😊