Adam Israel » statistics

Sparkpunk won’t stand for that crap anymore

Adam — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:03:07 +0000

I should have known I was in for a rough day when I woke up to rain. Not that rain is unusual, but I’d never seen it rain in Santa Monica before. It was a nice rain, though, the kind that you don’t mind walking to work in. After a weekend spent riding buses and enjoying the company of good friends (not that I’m complaining), I found myself in a deficit of spoons, though. If I were practical, I would have come back to the hotel right after work and gone straight to bed. Instead, I went for tea and wrote. A twitter conversation Friday night completely changed what I was planning to do for the 20spec anthology and I was eager to get started.

Project: Sparkpunk! Nikola Tesla, genius superhero, fights his power-hungry nemesis in a New York City where death looms overhead and one never knows when a giant fucking robot is going to get in your way.
New words written: 699
Reason for stopping: End of scene

There’s been an increase in media awareness of bullying lately, and more people have been coming out to share their stories of being bullied. I have my own tale to tell, in time, but until then, I leave you with this. I tend to be a fan of Eminem’s work and his poetical lyrics. The message in this is blunt, and not safe for work:

Travel ahoy

Adam — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:38:10 +0000

It’s a good feeling to put the word END after the last paragraph of a manuscript. This story was born week five of Clarion but I couldn’t make it work then. A little bit of time away and with four days of sporadic effort, it’s a story. Rough around the edges like any first draft but I expect those will be caught when I sent it to beta readers later this week. Shitty first draft or not, I’m pleased with how it’s turned out so far.

Project: Sex/magic story, now with more poly love, a plump dominatrix, a Chicago swinger’s club, and one pissed off magician, tentatively titled The Way Out is Through.
New words written: 484
Reason for stopping: End of story

Tomorrow is a travel day for me. Back to Santa Monica for a week of work and, with luck, more success in finding a room or apartment for rent. While I’m galavanting across the country, I’ll be outlining my story for the 20Spec anthology, which is open for submissions on October 11th. The plan is to get The Way Out is Through sent off to a couple of beta readers and then work on the first draft of my tale of Romani revenge, Eye of the People.

Armed with a palm full of spit and vigor

Adam — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 09:53:48 +0000

Project: Sex/magic story, now with more poly love, a plump dominatrix, a Chicago swinger’s club, and one pissed off magician.
New words written: 1,210
Reason for stopping: End of scene

One more scene left before I can make draft, so I’m on target to wrap this up by the end of the weekend. Today’s been upside down thanks to insomnia but I don’t mind the word count. It’ll be nice to get back to regular sleep schedule, though.

Back in the saddle, now with statistics

Adam — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:39:24 +0000

I’ve been a little slow getting back into the habit of writing new words since I’ve been back from Clarion. Besides catching up on ye olde day job, I’ve been working on revisions and submissions, organizing my inventory list, and other life issues.

Most of the stories in my backlog are either trunked, needing rewrites, or massive revision. Unfortunate, but them’s the breaks. Not including the current work(s) in progress, there are:

35 stories
110,418 words
3,150 average words/story
3 sold
7 trunked
1 blogged
11 needing revision
11 needing a rewrite
2 on submission

I have two new stories in the works. One in the planning/research phase, for the 20spec anthology. The other is one I started at Clarion, scratched, and reworked a few nights ago. With a fresh outline, I started rewriting it tonight. I’ve been calling this my Tantric sex/magic story, now with more poly love, a plump dominatrix, and a Chicago swinger’s club.

You know, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to pull these kind of numbers on a regular basis. One thing that Clarion taught us was to write cleaner first drafts in a shorter period of time. I’m still a slow writer, but I managed 800 words longhand, plus transcription and some editorial notes, in under two hours of actual work. I need to remind myself, from time to time, that it’s not the writing that’s hard. It’s the turning off distraction and, putting butt in chair and doing.

Week 2: A step slightly staggered

Adam — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:31:15 +0000

A new short story and a flash fiction drafted, and a second short story underway. Over 7,500 new words this year, with my average rising to 509 words/day. The Honorable Mention nod and a personal rejection also came in. The year is off to a good start.

I’m still struggling with revisions. I failed my weekly goals this week, getting almost no editing done nor my outline for the Dollhouse essay. The essay contest’s deadline has been extended by two weeks, so I’ve adjusted my goals to reflect that. What I think I need to do is set more specific revision goals. A page a day, maybe. I do well when I’m working against a deadline but I have way too many stories sitting neglected that don’t have a hard stop against them. I’m never going to get more submissions out the door if I don’t start revising on a regular basis.

2009 Submission Statistics

Adam — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:32:53 +0000

It wasn’t the best year writing-wise. Eight new stories, one of which was flash and four were “hint fiction”. Two stories from 2008 were edited repeatedly and eventually submitted, both to Writers of the Future. Fifteen submissions, thirteen rejections, and one rewrite request. If my Duotope statistics are accurate, nine were personal rejections (one from a pro market).

Could be worse. 2010 will be much better, though.