Writing Prompt: Tuesday August 21, 2012

Every Tuesday and Friday, I'll be posting one or more writing prompts as possible starting points for stories or poems. I'll be mixing this up as much as possible and will sometimes utilize quotes, photos, music, and anything else I can think of which might help get your creative inspiration going.

Here's today's writing prompt:

Photo by Elena Lagaria

I hope that it inspires some of you to write something amazing. If you end up writing something based on this prompt and it gets published somewhere (including your blog or personal website) please stop by and leave a comment so I can see what you came up with.

Come back on Friday for another Writing Prompt.

Monday Motivation: Take Your Shot!

You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
- Wayne Gretzky

Oh, come on. You knew I'd have to sneak some hockey in here sometime, right?

This is a great quote, though, to think of when you consider submitting stories/novels/poems/articles for publication. If you don't try, if you self-reject either by not sending your work out at all or skip sending your work to high-end markets because you feel like you're not at "their level", then you're "missing" those shots. Maybe you would get rejected. Heck, at least in the world of pro spec-fic short fiction markets, probably you're going to get rejected. Some of these places get a hundred or more submissions for every one slot available in their publication.

Yes, your chance may be small. But unless you go ahead and submit, you've got no chance of getting that publication credit. And (at least metaphorically, if not mathematically) even a small chance is infinitely greater than no chance.

Blog Update: Interviews/Guest Posts and an Early-September Hiatus

I'm still looking for future interviewees and guest posters. However, I'm planning on taking a short blogging hiatus around the beginning of September. So, I'm not planning to have any interviews or guest posts until Sunday September 16th which gives plenty of time for us to coordinate if you are interested. So, if this is something you would like to do, please contact me.

Thanks!

Link of the Week: Printable Calendars

This week's Link of the Week is for the site where I go to get my printable calendars. Yes, I probably could whip something up in Excel for this, but I like the ease of just going out to the My Boat Club site once a month and printing the current month's calendar.

I always print mine out landscape to have the biggest boxes available for use. Here's the link to the calendar for September, if you want to try printing one out for next month.

Once you've been using the calendars and checking off boxes for a while, you might end up having something that looks sort of like this:

The site is free, though they ask for a small donation via Paypal if you use the site regularly but it is -- as the site says -- strictly an on-your-honor thing. There's no registration, etc.

Writing Prompt: Friday August 17, 2012

Every Tuesday and Friday, I'll be posting one or more writing prompts as possible starting points for stories or poems. Sometimes when I'm having trouble getting started on a particular day, I'll look for a writing prompt to help get my imagination going. This has helped me keep up my routine of writing every day.

For the prompts on this site, I'll be mixing this up as much as possible and will sometimes utilize quotes, photos, music, and anything else I can think of which might help get your creative inspiration going.

Today's writing prompt is this article about eBay banning the sale of all magic, including potions, curses, and hexes. How desperate must someone be to buy a mail-order curse? (Hat tip to L. Lambert Lawson who noted that this would make a cool writing prompt.)

I hope this prompt inspires some of you to write something amazing. If you end up writing a story, poem, or anything else based on this prompt and it gets published somewhere (including your blog or personal website) please stop by and leave a comment so I can see what you came up with.

Come back on Tuesday for another Writing Prompt.

Upcoming Deadlines: THEMA and Arcane II

One of the tools I've used sometimes to help myself get started on writing is writing towards prompts or themes for upcoming publications, either anthologies or themed issues of periodicals. Below you will find information about two such calls for submissions.

The journal THEMA (as the names suggests) specializes in themed issues. The theme which is coming up soonest for them is "Eyeglasses are needed." This submission call runs through November 1st, 2012. They pay a flat rate of $25 for stories over 1,000 words and a flat rate of $10 for poems and stories of 1,000 words of fewer.

The second submission call for this week is for the Arcane II anthology. This is an anthology of horror, dark fantasy, and weird fiction short stories. This submission call runs through September 30th, 2012. They pay 1 cent per word plus a copy of the anthology. There is a cap of $50 on the payment.

As always, please make sure to read the linked guidelines pages closely to ensure that you understand details of the submission guidelines, terms, payment information, etc.

Stop back next Thursday for more Upcoming Deadlines!

Three Benefits Of Using Duotrope

The Duotrope website went through a major overhaul earlier today, which seems to make this a prime opportunity to discuss the site. If you submit short fiction or poetry to periodicals/anthologies and you're not already using Duotrope, there's a very good chance that you could benefit from using the site.

Duotrope is a free site; they ask for donations to help keep it that way. I have happily donated in the past and plan to do so again in the future. You do have to register to access some of the features of the site, but since it's free to try, though, you can get a good feel for its value to you before making any financial committment.

And now, three benefits of using Duotrope:

1. Market research and submission tracking. This is what I'd call the "core competency" of Duotrope. You can use Duotrope to research markets which might be interested in publishing things which you have written. You can also track your submissions on the site; this allows you to easily avoid submitting two stories at the same time to a market which doesn't allow for this, submitting the same poem a market has already rejected to them again, etc. Now, I do suggest that people have some kind of backup of this submission tracking data external to Duotrope, just in case something should happen and the service should be temporarily or permanently unavailable. But as a day-to-day resource, I find it very easy to use.
2. Keeping track of upcoming deadlines. Duotrope has a Theme and Deadline Calendar feature which can help you keep track not just of themed deadlines like those I write about every Thursday but also when submission windows are closing for other publications.
3. Spotting signs that a market might be having difficulty. Admittedly, this one involves making some educated guesses. But there's a lot of information around the response time statistics of markets which can be viewed on Duotrope. Often, before I submit to an unfamiliar market, I will look at the "Response Times" section of the market's Duotrope page and also click on the link on that market's page titled "View report of recent responses from this market." Between those two sets of data, I can see if it looks like the market has been doing a poor job of responding to recent submissions and that does sometimes influence my decision of which markets to prioritize.

If you already use Duotrope and have a favorite feature which I didn't call out, give it a mention in the comments below. I'd be happy to learn more about how to use the site.