Tag: Writing Style

Weekly Writing Update — November 15, 2023

Gandalf the Wizard from Fellowship of the Ring movie: text says: When you come back to finish your story after too long of a break. Text at bottom says: I have no memory of this place.
Image Source: https://www.autocrit.com/blog/12-writing-memes-brighten-monday/

Brandon Sanderson, the bestselling author, has a YouTube channel and one of the pieces of content that he posts to his channel is a short weekly update on the status of his writing projects. I’ve tried to do the same basic idea in the past on the blog, but let it slide because I could never replicate his process exactly . . . and I’m not nearly as consistent as I once was because of finishing the Ph.D. process along with the pandemic and other factors, I’ve moved away from blogging consistently. However, I’ve determined that is/was a bad move in that blogging helps to force me to be creative by making sure that I write creatively on at least a semi-regular schedule (or even, gasp 😱, a regular schedule). So, I’m going back to these weekly writing updates. I may use the same protocol that we use in our departmental meetings where if we’ve nothing to report on that week, we say “nothing to report,” or something similar, so if I’ve not made progress on a specific area from we to the next, don’t be surprised if there is a “nothing to report” or similar wording. The goal of this type of blog is to “encourage” me to focus on my writing as an avocation by cataloging a week’s worth of work (or to put it another way, to help me push forward on my writing goals one small step at a time and recording that journey weekly). I will generally focus on 3 main areas of writing: Short Project(s), Long Project(s), and Scholarly Project(s). There will likely be a 4th area every now and again called, Ideas, but I’m VERY good at generating ideas. For me, success (in writing) is moving a project beyond the idea phase into the drafting phase, finishing it, and get it published. While each “phase” is important (idea, drafting, finishing, submission/publication), I don’t consider a project a “success” until it is published.

Short Project = Project Uplift (Sci-Fi)

This is a project that I started seriously at the end of 2021 and worked on in 2022. I was able to do a rough draft that had 3 sections. When it came time for the working draft, I was only able to complete one section (the 1st section) of about 2500 words. I got stuck about halfway through the 2nd section at about 1500 words and finally put it away. This week, I completed a CHARACTER SKETCH for the main character/protagonist (currently named Vangelis). While the name might change, the character is locked in and should inform the next draft of the story. I did NOT have a character sketch while I was working on the working draft last year and it is possible that is why that draft faltered.

Also did some ruminating on the title. I’m not sure Uplift is the best title. In my story, “uplifting” has a definite meaning, but there is already a sci-fi concept of “uplifting” that is totally different from my usage of the word. I’m afraid editors/readers will confuse the already established use of “uplift” with my unique usage of it. It may be better to change the name of the project, but I’ve not yet come to a decision.

Long Project = Unhallowed Graphic Novel

This one was a bit of a mistake. I started writing two graphic novels based off the recent publications of two of my short stories (i.e., exercising my own copyrights by creating expanded derivative works on the short stories that I’ve already published). The two projects are Unhallowed and Childe Roland. I started Unhallowed, but put it down and started working on Childe Roland as I felt it would be the easiest of the two to adapt and as I’ve not adapted a completed story before/completed a full graphic novel (just one comic book story/issue), I wanted to something to practice with. However, when I grabbed the folders, I inadvertently grabbed the one for Unhallowed rather than Childe Roland. Rather than wait a week to go back and grab the correct folders, I just started on Unhallowed and will work on this one until completion.

I worked on a story map for issue 1 of the graphic novel (“The Warden”). This story map was fairly easy as it is mostly the short story adapted into 28-32 pages of comic book script. The challenge is going to come from mapping out the next 3 issues as I only have a vague idea where the story should go from there. I do want to include the main character’s (Arizona’s) backstory somewhere in the graphic novel, but I’m not quite sure where to put it. Feedback told me that the backstory slowed down the pace of short story, so I took it out. I’m thinking it needs to go in issue 2 or 3, but I’m not sure where to put it so that it doesn’t kill the flow of the story.

Scholarly Work

This week I made sure to complete a 150-250 word abstract for the Call for Papers for the Tennessee Philological Association as the deadline was November 18th. I try to attend their conference yearly–this year’s them is children’s literature–and this year I’d finally read a children’s book that I’d been wanting to purchase for a while now, The Girl with the Silver Eyes, a 1980s book about psychic powers. I created the rough draft for a paper about psychic powers in children’s literature. At the time of reading the book, I was also engrossed in a video game about psychic powers called Scarlet Nexus and I saw several overlapping similarities between the two mediums/stories. I’ve also seen/interacted with other psychic power stories over the years and it will be interesting to continue to develop this idea into a larger article should the conference paper prove viable.

Well that’s all that I have for this week. This was a productive week, and I was able to get a fair amount of writing done. I hope it continues! See you all next week.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • Read Skin Deep (Science Fiction) for Free at Aurora Wolf
  • Read Childe Roland (Fantasy) for Free at Electric Spec

Currently Working On (November 2023)

Creative

  • The Runner (2022 Revision) (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
    Status: Out to Publisher, Finalist in the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest, Finalist in LeVar Burton Reads Origins & Encounters Writing Contest
  • Science Fiction Story (1st Draft)
    Status: Section 1 of 3 completed
  • Fantasy Graphic Novel Story (1st Draft)
    Status: Prologue Completed

Scholarly 

  • Dissertation Completed
    Status: Published!
  • Unnamed Book Chapter
    Status: Out to Publisher!
  • Blood on the Shield: African American Trauma in Falcon and the Winter Soldier
    Status: Published!

Sold a Story! Unhallowed by Sidney Blaylock, Jr.

Image Source: https://www.wattpad.com/296700758-fantasy-sub-genre-guide-weird-west (link appears to be nonfunctional)

Hi Everyone!

Sorry that I’ve not posted since before the new year (Happy New Year, by the way), but one of my “unofficial New Year’s resolutions” was to restart the blog/return to writing the blog on a regular/semi-regular basis. I have a block of time that I can use to write this semester, so that is what I’m doing starting today. Of course, it helps when you have big, exciting news to share, so if you haven’t read the title, nor looked at the thumbnail, I sold a story! Woo Hoo!

Unhallowed

The story that I sold was Unhallowed, my “Weird Western” short story. Obviously, I can’t go into a lot of specifics (I do want readers to actually read the story and not be spoiled), but I will be doing an “Author’s Note” blog about it once the story releases (so of a “behind the scenes” look at the creation of the story–similar to what movies and video games do when their products finally release). However, if you’ve been a long time reader of the blog, you’ll know that there is a blog entry where I’ve talked about the general formation of the story.

What’s interesting about this story is that it is the first story that I completed under my new focus on the “Writing Process.” For the majority of my other stories before this one, I just sat down and wrote based on the idea that I had in my mind. For Unhallowed, I actually followed a process (idea formation, character sketch, rough draft, working draft, and revision). I usually “skimp” on the character sketch elements, but this time, I really dove in and created a strong backstory for the main character, Arizona.

Actually, this backstory, while allowing me to create a strong character, actually hindered my selling of the story. I included the backstory in flashback scenes (in italics to set them apart) and put these flashbacks in-between the “main” story narrative (so main story, backstory flashback, main story, back story flashback, main story). However, time and again I was told that the backstory slowed down the action. I think I received that comment from three different editors. I removed the last two very early in the submission process, but it was only after the 3rd editor mentioned that the backstory was slowing everything down that I grudgingly removed the last backstory section.

It sold on the very next submission! Goes to show you that a lot of times revision just comes down to listening to the feedback that you’ve been given and acting on it, even if it is “painful” to hear or goes against what you think/want for the piece.

Underdog Press

I sold Unhallowed to Underdog Press, for their anthology called, Underdogs Rise. I will go into more details about the press when it gets closer to time for the anthology to release, but a lot of people ask (in real life, at least), how they can support me or my work. The easiest answer is to buy a copy of the anthology (or magazine) that my stories appear. As a short story writer, I don’t earn royalties on my works, even if they appear in books like anthologies. For me, it is a one and done transaction. However, I need places to actually send my work to. That can only happen if you support these small presses by buying copies of the books/issues that my stories appear. If people don’t support small presses, then I don’t have anyone to buy my work and then I can’t be able to produce my stories (because if there’s no one to sell to, then what’s the point?).

So, please, Underdog Press is taking preorders on their anthology. You can either place a preorder with them for Underdogs Rise or purchase a copy when it releases, but this is the best way to support me as a writer until I start writing (and selling) novels and other long form work. Your support of the small press doesn’t just help me out, but it helps out all of the writers in this anthology as well. So please, consider preordering or purchasing a copy if you can. You don’t know how much of a help it is to us (non-Stephen King level writers) to have a consistent place to submit work to that we know will be available to us when we finish our next stories.

Thanks so much and have a great day!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (December 2022):

Creative

  • The Runner (2022 Revision) (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
    Status: In Revision
  • Unhallowed (2023 Revision) (Weird Western Story–4100 words)
    Status: Sold! Underdogs Rise Anthology for Underdog Press
  • Science Fiction Story
    Status: Section 1 of 3 completed

Scholarly 

  • Dissertation Completed
    Status: Editing (Dissertation Director’s Comments/College of Graduate Studies formatting rules).
  • Unnamed Book Chapter
    Status: Drafting
  • Blood on the Shield: African American Trauma in Falcon and the Winter Soldier
    Status: Accepted for Publication (Forthcoming)

July & August 2022 Writing Update

Images and Words drawn on green "blackboard" with white chalk. 1) Images of textbooks with an apple on. top. 2) Image of a paper airplane with dash lines out of its back to denote movement. 3) Works that say, "Back to School"
Image Source: https://cjuhsd.net/apps/news/article/1255546

I know that it is almost halfway through the month, but I got a wonderful comment on one of my previous Writing Update posts that indicated that these were helpful, so I really want to get back to/keep doing these. I’m sorry that I’m so erratic with these blog posts (both updates and other posts), but I’ve learned that Covid has been awful for my 1) work/life balance and 2) production. Brandon Sanderson, currently my favorite writer, has said that stress has a positive effect on his writing life. I’ve discovered that it is totally opposite for me. I’m far better when everything is stable and I have a routine. When I have a routine, I seem to be able to source “work” at work areas/times and “recreation” at non-work areas/times. When these two areas of my life are merged, I’ve discovered that too much of one area bleeds into the other area. This works both ways–I couldn’t get to sleep on Saturday night (July 9) because I was thinking about projects that I wanted to work on, and I also almost went to bed last night (July 10) after 1am-2am last night because I wanted to get up and work on this particular blog post (knowing that it was already midnight). Before Covid, this would have never been a thing–I would have written the blog at breakfast time or when I finished my “workday” (whatever those hours were). Anyway, you’re here for the writing stats, so here we go!

Creative Writing (July/August)

Citizen X: This one is a strange project. I worked on it through June and did approximately 1000-1600 words on in it by writing new material and then integrating material from older drafts that I felt was still relevant. However, I wasn’t having any fun with this story. I dreaded working on it. It was then I realized that it was character problem. I didn’t really enjoy the character–I wasn’t interested (i.e., I was bored) with reading about the character. I wasn’t having any “fun” writing about the character because I felt, based on a critique of the story, that I needed to get rid of the alternate reality version of Langston Hughes that I envisioned for this character. The reason why is that whole “this is a work of fiction and any character you see is not based on a real person — dead or alive” for films, television, and novels. I then created a bland character with a changed name. This caused massive problems because I did not enjoy the writing process with this bland character.

I “fixed” this problem by keeping the protagonist, but completely changed the way I thought of him. Rather than someone who was self-confident and a “poet,” (like Langston Hughes was) I re-imagined him as a youngster who was only doing what he was doing because of the death of a family member. I imagined the protagonist as a “reluctant hero,” taking up the mantle, not because he wanted to, but because he felt he had to do so, and that’s made a world of difference. I started a re-write (again). Even though this is probably the 3rd or 4th rewrite of the beginning of the story, I’m 600 words in and I like where this is going. My goal is 3 sections at approximately 1000 words each for a story of 3000 words (again, all approximately). I’m on track to finish it by August.

August Update: Yeah, August may be a little ambitious. I have several other writing projects (mostly academic) that are probably going to get in the way of me finishing by the end of August. Hopefully, I will be done with the story by September (Labor Day), which would be more fitting for the story actually, but I’m in the midst of a myriad of projects and I’m not sure how much work I’m going to be able to devote to Citizen X.

Other Projects: I’ve started other projects (all ones that I envision will be lead to a graphic novel), but I’ve not made much progress. I have a graphic novel adaptation of Sister Knight (no longer in print/available on the web) that I started ages ago called KnightWatch, but I don’t think I’m going to work on that one any time soon. I thought I would work on the graphic novel adaptation of WarLight as I started it in the Spring 2022 semester, but I’ve not yet got back to it. Lastly, I have a “new” story for a project that I’ve not written as a short story that is just called “Project Ranger.” I did some pre-writing Saturday (July 9) and I’m guessing that’s the one I’m going to work on. The problem is that I don’t know whether that should be a graphic novel or a screenplay as there is a lot of “movement” going on and graphic novels are all about static images that imply movement, while screenplays are all about movement on-screen leading to an emotional journey.

August Update: I’m probably going to have to “flip a coin” and just choose one of these three projects. I will probably do all of them (including “Project Ranger”) as graphic novels just because it is easier to do a “page” per day. A “page” for me, when I write comic scripts, consists of anywhere from 3-7 panels (paragraphs laying out description of setting/action, dialogue, and panel description). While I can sometimes be pretty intricate with those, doing a page doesn’t really take all that long (30 mins to hour–sometimes less). It’s just that at 90 pages or more, you’re looking at a 3 month creation time if you stick to 1 page a day). I currently have the most written on KnightWatch (approx 8-10 comic pages), WarLight has (2-3 comic pages, but as it is a “sequel” to one of my short stories, Sister Knight, I know these characters VERY well. “Project Ranger” is the most tentative of the three stories, but it is also one of the most dynamic. I really think that I have the protagonist “dialed in” on this one.

Academic Writing

Dissertation: This is where I’ve spent the bulk of my summer (rightly so!). I’d hoped to finish before the summer ended, but I’ve gone absolutely “bananas” on Chapter 2. I’d just intended to talk about Black Panther before moving on to other Afrofuturistic works, but when I got into Black Panther, I realized there was quite a bit to analyze. I decided to analyze the movie scene-by-scene. While this initially proved fruitful, there’s just so much that I want to say and so much that I’m finding to analyze, I’ve gotten “lost” in the Black Panther forest. My Chapter 2 is currently 18k words and climbing. I was at 15k words when I realized that I had a problem and I’m still writing.

August Update: I’ve decided that I’m going to do 2 more scenes. If I manage to finish up before 20k words, then great. However, if I go over 20k words, then I’m going to find a way to gracefully end the analysis of those 2 scenes and then send it to my dissertation director. I apparently need “help” and I’m going to ask him to help me in shaping this chapter, either by trimming it down, or by letting me know specific scenes that I may have missed and scenes that I may have included that could be “cut.” This is truly the “hold-up” on my dissertation. I’ve done way more that I probably should have in this chapter, and I’m not sure where to stop.

Other Projects: I have another writing project for UNA as well. I’m not sure that I can talk about it although it was a listed as a Call For Papers (CFP) a while back. I’ll just say that it covers Star Trek and leave it at that. I’ve been working on it, but I finally had a breakthrough. I need to go back and just re-outline some of the characters that I want to include. I think that’s the real issue–I’ve not really locked down which characters are the most important to analyze and I’ve been a little scattershot and all over the place. Once I lock down who’s going in and who’s not and the rationale for each, I think I’ll have a better, more consistent “argument” and the writing will go a lot faster.

August Update: Yeah, this is true, but I forgot about classes, syllabi, and being President of TPA (TN Philological Association) this year. As well as 1st year University of North Alabama (UNA) staff member. I’ve got a lot more commitments that I would really like, so time is of the essence. I have until Aug 31 to turn in the chapter, but that’s a lot closer than it seems, so I’m going to have to try to really make sure that this chapter is both good, but manageable as I don’t have time to be “perfect,” because I cannot deliver it late. I’m going to have to find a way to write smart, but not get too precious with it, something that I struggled with on Chapter 2 of my dissertation.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully, this will tide you over until my September update where I can hopefully give you good news on the status of some of these (many) projects.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (June 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • Citizen X (Alternate History Science Fiction Story)
    Status: Drafting–1000 words (approx)

Mini-Blog: May Update

May 2022 Calendar of the month
Image Source: https://www.wiki-calendar.com/may-calendars.html

So, this is just a quick blog to let everyone know that I’m still blogging. I just found that the between commuting, writing my dissertation, grading, and general everyday living, that I couldn’t keep up with the blog with any real consistency. I’ve just “trashed” a post that I was going to write last week about my writing. It wasn’t relevant anymore as I’ve actually managed to do some slight bit of writing now that I’ve finished teaching for this semester. I’m going to update everyone on where I am for the month of May 2022 and what my goals are–and hopefully, this will become a monthly feature of the blog.

Creative Writing

So, I’ve done very little on the creative writing front for the past 6 months (since about January) or so. That is, until the past week. I’ve done a fair bit in the past couple of days now that the stress of grading/teaching this past semester is over. One thing I have done is a fair bit of planning. I hope that all this planning will pay off over the course of this summer. I’ve also tried to come up with realistic goals/expectations. Yes, I have far more ideas than I have time, yet I want to do them all. I’m hopeful that working on 1 short story per semester will be a solid, achievable goal. Longer works may be included in the semesters that I’m “off” (summer breaks/winter breaks) and they may be worked on if I finish my story “early” (before the end of the semester), but right now, until I get some more stability (in terms of not having to commute so much), I don’t feel like I can commit to anything more and reasonably accomplish it as a goal. Some projects that I’m working towards for Summer Semester 2022:

  • Citizen X (Short Story_Alternate Timeline_Sci-Fi)
  • “Project Ranger” (Screenplay_Sci-Fi)
  • WarLight (Graphic Novel_Sci-Fi)

While there might be others, might primary goal is to finish Citizen X (1st), then WarLight (2nd), and “Project Ranger” (3rd). Most of my creative writing time this summer will go to the 1st and 2nd projects with the 3rd project only getting my time whenever I feel too emotionally drained to work on the other two. I also plan to use the Summer semester to plan for other upcoming projects that I want to work on in the future (character sketches, rough drafts, outlines, etc.–basically things that can be completed in an afternoon or two of work).

Dissertation

This is where I plan to devote the majority of my writing time this summer. While I wrote this semester, I found that the chapter that I’m working on was much longer and more complicated that I originally envisioned (it is already at 10,000 words and will probably be closer to 13-15K words when I finish it. As such, this what I will be working on for large stretches of my summer until it is finished. I’m going to be working on it as soon as I finish this blog entry, which is going to serve as a warm-up to it.

Work-Life Balance

So, my work-life balance has been out of whack for the past semester. I hope that now it will be better over the summer as I don’t have the long commute on multiple days. There are still some challenges that I have at the moment (which I’ll talk about next month–if there’s a resolution), but right now, I still don’t have my days fully back to where I can just focus on my writing (scholarly or creative). I still have some things that I need to take care of as I transition to 1) finishing out my PhD studies and 2) transitioning to my new job.

Publications

While I’ll likely do a full blog entry on this one, I wanted update readers who may not know:

The Independent is NOW published!

It is published in Mythic Magazine (February 2022). I only found about it about a week ago or I would have let everyone know sooner. I will update my “Signature line” to make it easy to find should you like to purchase a copy.

Please remember, while I don’t see any “direct” benefit from your purchase (i.e., I don’t get a royalty or anything like that), purchasing from these small presses help to keep them solvent and available to purchase and publish work from neophyte/journeyman writers like myself.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (April 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.

Mini-Post: Writing Update–Spring 2022

Hand holding a pen and writing in paper journal
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/cnn-underscored/creative-writing-bundle-review/index.html

This will be a shorter blog post, but (hopefully) one that will be a regular feature. I’ve been inspired recently to get back into writing creatively by the way Brandon Sanderson wrote through the pandemic. I’m trying to balance my creative writing, with my teaching, with my scholarship, and I am hoping to find some some sort of balance between these three elements of my writing life. Brandon is able to write prolifically and I’m not–I have to juggle too many competing interests on my time to do a weekly (even, monthly update), so I’m going to go for more realistic goals: Semester Goals. While I like monthly goals, I don’t work “monthly,” I work semester to semester, so this is where/how I’m going to focus these updates. Ideally, I’ll do 2 a semester, one at the beginning (my hopes/dreams for the semester in terms of the project(s)), and one at the end (what I was actually able to accomplish).

Spring 2022: Short Story & Dissertation

Creative Writing: Citizen X (short story–In Progress): This is a rewrite of a short story that I wrote a while back. I’m rewriting it because I think that it had promise, but that I didn’t understand the concept of “Alternate History” well enough. I also think the characterization was a bit off. I’m rewriting it in hopes that the new character that I created is strong enough to carry the story through to the end. I only started thinking about/working on the rewrite in late February/early March, so this has a way to go.

Scholarly Writing: Dissertation (Afrofuturism–In Progress): This is where most of my focus has been during this semester. I’ve been working on it on my “off days” from teaching and really trying to get it “finished” before summer, so that I can use the rest of the summer for editing, addressing any feedback, and defending the dissertation.

Scholarly Writing: Blood on the Shield: African American Trauma in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Conference Paper–Completed): This is a 10-11 page paper written for the 2022 TPA Conference. It has some good ideas that I’d like to expand out into a longer article, but I’m not sure that I have the time as I’m focused on the dissertation.

Scholarly Writing: Afrofuturism: The Power and Promise of Black Science Fiction (Presentation–Upcoming): This is a 90 minute talk that I’ve been asked to give at my current school for the university. I plan on discussing Afrofuturism and the ways in which it helps to have diverse voices in a traditionally non-diverse genre. This is coming up in the middle of April and is something that I hope will help me as I work on my dissertation.

In Closing

So that’s what I’m working on in terms of my writing this semester. While there might be other things/projects, they are pretty much on the back burner as these are the ones that I’m currently devoting my energy towards this semester. I’ll be back in a few weeks with a follow-up update at the end of the semester to see how well I’ve done with these projects. I intend to do another post shortly after to set my “goals” for writing for Summer 2022.

Have a great weekend!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (March 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION (Mythic Magazine)

Productivity and Me During the Covid Era

African American student with beard and glasses in front of a bookcase with a computer on his desk stares out the window in a distracted fashion.
Source: https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/student-stress

I watched with amazement at the announcement video by Brandon Sanderson on how he managed to spend his time during the Covid 19 pandemic. I’ve included the video link at the end of this section in case you’re curious, but suffice to say, Sanderson’s Kickstarter project, announced in the video, has become the #1 Most Funded Kickstarter OF ALL TIME! Already a number 1 bestselling author, I believe that his success came from the fact that he already has a very large audience for his works, he was able to actually “show” the fruits/efforts of his work (something that is highly dubious on Kickstarter/social funding sites), and because of the “limited” nature of announcements (i.e., some things he would try to make available later, but not sure how/when that might look like) he was able to capitalize on that you need to “act now” if you want to be sure to “get it/get in,” although the more cynical among us would say he was able to capitalize on FOMO–Fear of Missing Out, but that’s always something in a capitalistic society (I once bought a mediocre PS1 game once because it released while I was in the hospital and I knew that, at the time, production runs on games were limited and you often couldn’t find a “new” release 3-6 months down the road; I wouldn’t have bought it–based on the reviews–had I not already been a couple of weeks/a month behind the release “window” of the game). My point is that Brandon Sanderson used his time well and is now being rewarded justly for his efforts.

Home Life Interferes with Work Life

I cannot say the same.

I am not one of the writers who can dream of a big (or small) house, with a room overlooking a lake (or a garden) with a white picket fence. For me, that type of dream wouldn’t work.

Why, you might ask?

Well, the “Covid Years” have helped me to see that I’m a person that likes discreet settings and that my “work/life” balance is strong when I’m able to separate my life and life activities into units. Work = work, home = home, and mixing the two is NOT desirable for me. That’s one of the reasons why my blogging has become so sporadic and my blog has become such a low priority on my activities: I used to do the blog while at work as a way to “ease” myself into the “workday.” I didn’t have to worry about time as I knew the majority of it would be spent working on grading, working on developing lesson plans, working on administration of the class/school (answering emails, etc.).

However, during the “Covid years,” trying to manage this while at hope has shifted my strategies and I’m having to try to work around making sure I get the mail before people get into my mailbox (or spending the time to put up a locking mailbox), trying to do errands on 1-2 days before working, where I could spread those errands out over the course of the work week (5 days) and get 2x as much done in a week, just over a slightly longer timeframe. I even used to get up at 7am — 7:30am, so that I could get to school (and the graduate “office”) at about 10am even when I didn’t have a class. I would then work until lunch time, go home (apartment) and eat lunch, and then return to the workroom at about 2pm and work until dinnertime. Sometimes, although not always (about 2-3 nights a week), I’d even come back and work in the evenings (from 7-9 or 8-10) before going back to the apartment to do it all again–you can ask one of my grad. student friends as she had to come back to the “office” one evening to unlock the door after I’d accidentally locked my keys in the “office.” (Thank you! 🙏).

This is so not my life now. I struggle to get my afternoon session in on MWF and my morning session is often “shot” because that’s when I tend to need to run the errands that I used to get done M-F. It is a struggle to spend 1 hr on the blog, knowing that I need to get ready and go out so that I can get back and try to do work. Also, because I can’t spread out the work, I end up trying to get everything done in 1-2 hours and invariably everything takes longer than that to do and I just end up with incomplete tasks and high levels of frustration.

Writing: Forget about it! I’ve not written anything major in a while although I’ve tried (I’ve really tried!). Unlike Sanderson, I can’t write when I’m stressed. Writing is one of the 1st things to go. I need both stability and routine (outside the home) in order to write effectively (or even to write at all)

Work Life Interferes with Home Life

And that’s just how home life interferes with my own work life. I can’t tell you how having to work while at home is disruptive to my home life. I can’t actually enjoy anything that I do (TV, video games, reading, etc.) because of all the things that I feel that I should be doing because of my “work life” is bleeding into my “home life.”

I’m never able to “shut off” anymore–because I work at home much more than I used to, I feel obligated to try to get a ton of stuff done on my days at home, but I’m never able to accomplish as much as I intend to/set out to, and then when I stop in the evening to “rest,” I still have all the many things that I wasn’t able to finish “nagging” at me even as I’m trying to rest, recover, and prepare for the work day (which usually involves a substantial commute and teaching). I feel like I’ve been “on” now for the past year really–and having the dissertation makes it just that much worse.

Instead of, say, doing grades/lesson plans/classroom admin stuff in the mornings/afternoons, and then working on my dissertation from say, 7-9pm as would have while at MTSU before Covid, I find that I’m exhausted by 7-9 from running around all morning doing errands, eating lunch, trying to work on grades, etc. during the afternoon and not getting everything finished and then being too tired to do anything except go to bed or play a game to get ready for the next day’s commute/teaching load.

Even the weekends, which used to be my saving grace, don’t seem to work for me anymore. I spend the time doing way more than I used to, especially in the mornings as I’m trying to do all the “dissertation” work during the mornings that should have been spread out over the week and I find myself just as dissatisfied and overburdened on the weekends as I do during the week.

Next Steps

They say, the first step to solving a problem is recognizing that you have one. I need to find “spaces” outside my home where I can get work done. I tried adding an extra “commute day” up to where I work, but every time I did, (on Wednesdays) there was some sort of “traffic” issue that either cost me time or was dangerous due to other drivers. I’m going to investigate my local library branches–downtown has the most space, but you have to pay for parking and at $1 to $1.50 per hour, that gets expensive quickly! The branches have free parking, but they are much, much smaller and (knowing the demographics as I do since I’ve worked in every branch), their populations are much less likely to have been vaccinated so, for me, I feel the risk of Covid exposure goes way up going that route. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s (UTC’s) library would be an option, but because I’m no longer a student, again, I’d need to pay to park on a daily basis. I don’t really need wi-fi, as I already have the books and articles that I’m working with (& can print out what I need when I’m home), but I do need someplace that has a good (i.e. comfortable) table and chairs where I can spread out my materials and work–I used to have that in our graduate “office.” I may try to find a space on UTC’s campus that will allow me to do that, but again, parking will be the issue.

In Closing

So, I really just want to say thank you for reading this–this is just my way to try to come to terms with how Covid has affected my work/life balance and to consider how I, as a writer, need to try to inhabit a particular writing personae. I have said that I’m the opposite from Stephen King in that I “build up” my stories from the ground up while his process is to throw “everything” in and then begin to strip away elements. I see I’m also opposite of Brandon Sanderson in that he reacts to trauma by delving in his fiction. I react to trauma by delving into “other worlds” to escape the trauma, but not the worlds I create, but that others create. If I want to create my own “other worlds,” I need stability and routine, but most especially, I need that “work/life” balance.

While I wonder what it means that two of the most successful writers in the genre have patterns opposite what I have (does that mean I’ll never be successful/achieve bestseller status?), I do know that if I don’t find a way to create stability and routine in my life, I’m never going to produce anything in order to find out.

I need to find a solution to the problem that Covid has presented–preferably, without catching Covid while doing it, it I really want to produce the works that I say that I do! 😎

Have a great week!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (March 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION (Mythic Magazine)

Coming Soon: The Independent in Mythic Magazine

Mythic Magazine Cover: One spaceship coming toward the reader being fired on another spaceship from behind.
Source: https://www.mythicmag.com

So, I was wondering what the status was for Mythic Magazine after seeing that Duotrope re-listed the magazine and showing their status as “open” for accepting new stories. I cruised the site and was so pleasantly surprised when I saw the above image! Since the days of Dragonhawk, when I first saw the practiced used, I thought it was so cool to have authors names featured on the cover, letting readers know whose stories are inside. Now, while Dragonhawk was a fine story, for me, it marked my transition from writing and publishing as something of a “hobby” into more of an “avocation.” However, I was new enough and their were more seasoned writers, that I was just happy to have a story inside the magazine. I have to admit, however, their is a certain thrill when your name is featured on the cover!

Mythic Magazine Issue #19

Originally, I think my story was to appear in issue 18, but I more than okay with the delay as there was a period when I didn’t think it was going to appear in Mythic at all. For those who don’t know, over the holidays, the editor of Mythic decided to close the magazine. However, thanks to the alternative funding methods of Patreon and Kickstarter, it looks like Mythic is back on its feet and is moving to a monthly publishing format. As I’ve said in another blog post, I’m planning on also helping out by donating a portion of my earnings back to him by buying a subscription. In fact, Mythic’s plight was driven home to me, as a lowly writer, by this particular scenario. So much so, that I intend to do this from now on with ALL of my future publications. I do this with books, I almost always buy 1-3 copies of anthologies (even if I’m gifted one as part of my “fee”) to 1) make sure I have a copy of my publication but 2) to help out the author. I sometimes buy one for my mother who wants a copy and on occasion, I’ll buy a 3rd for someone who has expressed interest in my work. I sometimes only get 1-2 copies of a small press publication (usually for myself and my mother), but I really want to support small presses. While I’m still a student and much of my money goes for other things: mortgage, utilities, bills, etc., I now realize how important it is to support the arts in a way that makes sense for my limited budget. I can (and should) take the time to support those venues who have taken an interest in my works so that they too can survive and thrive.

The Old Inspiring the New

To be honest, even though I have what I feel is a good foundation for a story for Citizen X, my new story that I’m working on, I’ve not really been inspired to work on it nor do the hard work that has allowed my writing to get better, such as Character Sketches, going through a “Writing Cycle,” using a simple story map, etc. This is crucial for me to do the “deep thinking” about my stories that have allowed me to grow them into better stories. However, just from this one cover image alone, I now feel renewed as an “author” and I feel ready to dive in and do the hard work required to make this next story, Citizen X, a success. For me, I guess that’s the real power of publication. Not for the vanity of seeing ones work “in print,” but to remind and inspire you on to your next work–where you may do even better as you will be a more “experienced” artist.

Well, that’s all I have time for today. I’ll do another blog post when the issue is actually released celebrating the issue’s (and stories) release. Have a great day!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (January 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4400 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

Mini-Post: Citizen X

Black man in a suit and hat

Today’s blog is going to be a super short one–I wasn’t able to work on 3 full blog posts over the weekend. You can expect these mini-posts to pop up whenever circumstances prevent me from getting all 3 posts done over the weekend. The goal is to 1) continue to make sure that I write/create content for the blog even when I don’t have a whole lot of time and 2) to make sure I don’t have any long gaps where I’m not going months without posting because of . . . life and stuff. Now on to the topic!

Rewriting Citizen X

So, today’s mini-topic is that I’m in the process of rewriting an unpublished story that I’ve previously sent out, but haven’t had any luck with selling. The story, Citizen X, is a short story set in an Alternate World/Future. Without going into too much detail, civil liberties for American citizens have been seriously curtailed and America is controlled by a technologically advanced and repressive regime. Only a few dare to speak out, but most are silenced. However, one person, a mythical “Citizen X,” whose figure is hidden under a disguise and obscured from all tech./surveillance is able to speak out against the government.

Reception to Citizen X 1.0

When I sent it out, I got rejections, but not a whole lot of comments. However, the last submission to a market, while still a rejection, gave me really good feedback. Basically, they liked the character and felt the first 1/3 of the story (it is broken up into 3 parts) was really good, but they didn’t like the direction of parts 2 & 3. They also didn’t care for the use of real world names (even though it was supposed to be an alternate history story).

Working towards Citizen X 2.0

I’m rewriting the story. I planned out a new outline over the weekend. I’m keeping most of the 1st part, but will revise it so that it matches the newer sections. Will be completely rewriting sections 2 and 3 and will move it in more of a “what happens if the hero is followed back home by the antagonists” storyline. Now, not only is the protagonist in danger, but potentially family, friends, and neighbors. While I won’t post this on my Signature Feed until I finish it, this is the story I will be working on for the next month or two.

Well, that’s all I have time for as I have grading and assignment sheets to work on for my classes! Have a great day, everyone!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (January 2022):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    2022 Revision; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4400 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

State of Writing 2021 — Yearly Summary

Source: https://www.ayudainc.org/craft-research-paper/computer-history.asp

I got the idea for this blog post from a couple of different places. Two YouTube channels that I watch do “State of” videos to showcase their own interests: one writing, the other gaming. PlayStation also does a “State of Play” to showcase upcoming games, so I thought I’d use this forum to talk about the year that has passed in terms of my writing, especially since I had a 3 month long break from the blog. This won’t be in-depth, but will give a “snapshot” of the year that has just passed.

Stats

I sent out 3 stories last year: Unhallowed, The Independent, and The Runner. According to Duotrope, I sent out the stories a total of 12 times total for the year. Of the those 12 submissions, I had 1 Acceptance and 11 Rejections. However, this stat is a little misleading, as I will explain shortly. I didn’t jot it down, but I think the percentage of Acceptances to Rejections was (guesstimating) 7.21% or something similar (this is from memory–yes, I could do math and figure it out–my Mac’s calculator says 8.3% approximately, but it is obviously under 10%). Yet, even under a 1 in 10 chance, my average was STILL higher than the “average” of people submitting on Duotrope. This is why writing is so discouraging–in American Baseball, you’re a good “player” if you hit in the “250s” (2.5%), a great player if you hit in the 200s (280s-290s), and an exceptional player if you hit significantly over 300 (325-330s). That’s 3 hits out of every 10 swings. Now, compare that with writing where you’re getting 1 in 12 (less than 1 time for every 10 submissions) and that’s considered good. That’s why writing (& particularly publishing) is so demoralizing and why so many have left that traditional model for self-publishing. Okay, editorializing over.

Now let’s look at the individual stories:

Unhallowed

So, this is my Weird West fantasy story featuring an African American female bounty-hunter, Arizona. This story went out 7 times in 2021. While I did send it to 1 major market in 2021, for the most part, the rest were middle range markets. It was rejected all 7 times, but 1 market, Mythaxis, liked it and sent me a personal rejection letter. Basically, they felt it was too long for publication in their magazine. As a writer, I felt that, had the story been shorter, I would have had an excellent chance of getting it accepted for their publication. While they didn’t offer the option to revise and submit, I went through and I eliminated 2 of the 3 sections with backstory elements for the story (I felt I needed the first backstory section to explain the world/worldbuilding of the story as that’s where it all happens). I cut it down from 6, 600 words to 4, 400 words, and it is currently out to its next market with this trimmed down version of the story. If it gets accepted and published somewhere, my goal is to utilize the “origin” story to create a Graphic Novel/Comic Book adaptation of the story (for my longer, original vision).

The Independent

This one is a complicated one. This is my “Space Truckers” story. It only had 2 submissions for 2021. It was accepted by Mythic, a market I’d been trying to sell to for quite a while (at least since I started writing again “professionally” when I started blogging). I heard that I was accepted shortly before I started my new job as a Visiting Scholar in Residence. I was ecstatic! I signed the contract and focused on the job.

However, time went by and hadn’t heard anything. Then, a few days before Christmas, I got an email from the editor informing me that he was closing Mythic. The last issue was to be #17 and my story had been slated for #18. I was, of course, gutted, but also prosaic about it. The last thing I’d want is for someone to bankrupt themselves trying to fulfill a dream when it is obvious that the dream is “drowning them.” Something I learned during my time as a PhD student is: “if you’re in a hole, stop digging.” I wished the editor well and got on with my holidays, resolving to find a new market and send it out after the Christmas/New Year’s Holiday.

After the holidays had passed, I printed out a copy of the story, to do my new routing of an “Annual Revision Pass”over the story, when I got another email from the editor. He wanted to continue the publication (just in a smaller format), but wanted to know if I still wanted to publish the story in the magazine. Of course I did, so I agreed, and that’s where we are right now.

Last I saw, he was running subscriber drive/Patreon drive for the magazine. I don’t normally do this, but how about throwing him a few “bones” (slang for dollars) if you have any extra money. I’ll probably end up donating at least a part my own “fee” back to him for at least a 1 year subscription. Anyway, here’s a link to his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mythicsffmagazine/

The Runner

This is a new fantasy story that I finished this year. It is a story about a fictional human civilization on an island with creatures that the humans consider deities. This story was submitted to the LeVar Reads contest in August of 2021. I felt like the story had a good chance as it met all the requirements of the contest page and was really fun to write. Also, it didn’t have (or need) a complicated backstory to fill in the world, so I could just concentrate on the characters and the plot. This one was a MAJOR “almost” as I came very close with this one. There could only be 3 winners (a first place and two runners-up). Out of the 708 submissions to the contest, I made it to the FINAL round of 12. LeVar read those 12 stories (mine and 11 others) and made the final decision. I, unfortunately, wasn’t one of the eventual winners, but as the “rejection letter” proudly noted, my story made it the Top 2% of stories for this particular competition. Essentially, I was able to make it to the Olympics, but I wasn’t able to bring home a medal (to continue the sports metaphor from earlier). Still, my only goal for this competition was to have my story read by LeVar Burton and I accomplished this goal, so while I’m disappointed of course that I didn’t “win,” my story was good enough to do what I hoped it would: have a celebrity like LeVar at least read some of my work!

So that’s it. A fairly in-depth recap of my year in writing. I’m working on a new story now. Hopefully, I will be able to add it to the State of Writing 2022 summary next year!

Have a great one!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (October 2021):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4100 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–4400 words)
    2022 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

Acceptance! “The Independent” is Accepted for Publication!

The word "Writing" in various handwritten forms.
Image Source: https://www.contentcreatorz.com/short-story-writing-guide-three-steps-to-short-story-writing-success/

Hi Everyone!

This is just a short blog post to let everyone know (well, reiterate what the title already says) that my short story, The Independent, has been accepted for publication by a market! To say that I’m ecstatic would be an understatement! So, which market is it? Well, I’ll let everyone know once I’ve signed the contract and it gets closer to release. I’m so very excited by the chance to publish in this market, however, as it is one that I’ve been submitting to with my stories since I discovered them through Duotrope.

“Space Trucker” Story

Older readers here will remember that I’ve been working on this story for a while now. The genesis of it came about during my regular commutes from Chattanooga to Murfreesboro as I was beginning my PhD program at MTSU. I won’t go into too much detail as I’ve already written on it extensively and I’ve also devoted another full blog post on the genesis of the story. The short version is that there is a “truck rest area” on the drive up to MTSU, and I imagined what happened if there was a sci-fi version of that rest area in space. Along the way, the actual story has changed (quite dramatically) from the original idea, but the core idea and characters still remain.

So, What Happens Next?

So, the next step in the process is the contracts. The editor will send a contract, and I’ll sign it and send it back. I’ll also need to send a short bio as well. Usually, the editor will then compile the issue with the other stories, poems, features, and art. When it comes together, the editor will then send out “proofs/galleys” where the author has a chance to make corrections/changes (minor) to the story. Once that’s done, then I’ll probably be at a stage where I’ll be able to share more details about the market and I’ll have a better sense of when the issue will be coming out and I’ll publicize it here.

Happy Dance!

So, with that, I’ll close out for today! While I’ve done some grading, I’ve still got some more grading to do tonight, so I’ll go ahead and stop here. I’ll close with a gif of one of my favorite “happy dances” from The Peanuts. Enjoy and have a great day!

Image Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/thegifys-gifys-5xaOcLGvzHxDKjufnLW

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (October 2021):

  • The Runner (Fantasy Story–4000 words)
    Completed: 2021; Out to Market.
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story–6600 words)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story–4800 words)
    2021 Revision: ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story–3500 words)
    2021 Revision: Completed.
  • Project Wall (Science Fiction Story)
    In Progress–First Draft: 925 words (10/9)

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