11.16.2007
So I've finally sent off the last of my November submissions.
Last, ahem, assuming I don't actually finish any more stories which I'm not on track to do. Yeah, super productive, this guy.
What I've decided is the following. I sent Skin to Interzone. It seems like as good a fit as I can imagine with any of my stories. They like stories with more of a sci-fi bent than I usually imbue mine with but Skin has a fair amount of both science and world explanation. This is a relatively new one for me with no rejections as of yet. If you want to know what it's about, go here.
Rebellion got sent off to Abyss & Apex because it's not so sci-fi-y and more personality based. I don't know that they'll like it any more than anyone else but, what the hell, right?
Both stories went through another revision each before being sent out. It's a pain in the ass to do but I always find myself freaking out before I hit the send button that there's a typo or that I get really heavy handed or blah, blah, blah...
So you know what I mean.
The way I usually fix this is by reading it over one more time and change wording or rewrite a few paragraphs or just look for a way to lower the over all word count. Actually, the last one makes sense.
I tend to get really really wordy when I write. I explain how someone gets from the kitchen to the dining room table and, let's face it, that's fucking boring, my friends. So I try to look for anyway to scrap say 200-500 words if possible. That has the effect of removing all that useless description and sort of streamlines the whole damn thing.
Obviously, that's not always possible.
But Skin saw its word count drop by about 250 words. And Rebellion dropped by a whole 500. Actually, Rebellion was seriously reworked in parts and for the better. The whole thing just works better and I think I've got some nicer imagery in there that gives the whole thing a much better feel. Plus, I changed the whole intro. It was a press conference scene and it just sort of dragged down the piece.
So I tried something.
Just out of curiosity, I removed all of the description and made it basically into a monologue. Strangely, it really worked. At least, I think it did. We'll see when Abyss & Apex gets back to me.
So, that makes four stories out for rejection. Two have been out for 53 days at this point and I'm awaiting their rejection any day now. Rebellion has been out for 14 days and Skin just got sent out today.
So... we shall see.