Operation Short Blitz

Primary Objective: To master the art and craft of short-form storytelling.

Secondary Objective: To achieve name recognition in the speculative fiction field through publication in the major short story magazines.

For some time, I’ve wanted to branch out and learn how to write well in short form.  I’ve written several novels, and I feel I have a pretty good understanding of that form, but short stories have always eluded me.  I want to turn that around and really gain a degree of proficiency with short fiction, so that it’s not a big blind spot for me and that I can really master that aspect of storytelling.

My purpose in doing this isn’t to make money, though I certainly hope to make something (I write for a living, after all).  Rather, it’s to expand my storytelling capabilities and build a name for myself.  Most working SF writers have a short story component to their careers, so I figure it’s time to work on my own.

Since prestige is more important than money, I’m going to focus on getting published in the major magazines, and won’t self-publish unless either the story fails to sell anywhere (at which point I may just trunk it) or the first publication rights have already been exercised.  I do expect to self-publish my stories eventually, but not until I’ve gotten as much mileage out of them as I can.

Strategic Outline:

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) keeps a list of qualifying markets for membership, which is useful for picking out the best magazines to submit to.  If I can get my stories published in these magazines, which pay the highest rates and have the widest circulation within the field, I figure that Operation Short Blitz can definitely be considered a success.

In addition to the SFWA qualifying markets, there are a number of semi-professional markets that would be good to submit to as well.  I’ve heard that Ralan.com is a good site for finding those, as well as Duotrope (though the site now requires a subscription).  I won’t submit to the semi-pros until I’ve exhausted the professional markets first, though.

Even if I seriously doubt that a story is good enough to get picked up by the best markets in the field, I’ll still start at the top and work my way down.  I remember hearing that the editor of Analog (or was it Asimov’s?) once got really mad at a writer who told him that he didn’t have a story that was good enough for his magazine, since that writer was basically trying to do his job for him, and writing his own rejections instead of giving his stories a chance.  That isn’t going to be me.

(Although, there are some markets like Tor.com that have ridiculously long response times.  For those, I suppose it’s better to wait until I’ve really got a zinger of a story to send them, since I can only send one submission to a place at a time.)

I fully expect to get rejected by everybody, multiple times for multiple stories.  That’s okay–it’s all part of the process.  I’ll probably get a sidebar widget or something to track my progress, with total rejections as a prominent stat.  Maybe when I hit 500 or 1,000 or something, I’ll do something special.  It’s a milestone of progress, or at least of effort, so I definitely plan to own it as such.

Even though my goals aren’t financial, I probably won’t submit to markets that only pay in contributor copies (or don’t pay at all, for that matter).  Those publications aren’t really going to help me make a name for myself, and if I wanted to write for exposure, I could just as easily publish my stories myself.  There’s no sense in writing for exposure unless you’re the one who has the control.

Of course, I’m going to have to write a lot in order to have a lot to submit.  My goal for now is to write at least two short stories per month, preferably one every week.  I figure that’s a good balance to strike between this and my other writing projects.  My novels and novellas still take priority, but I’ll make time for Operation Short Blitz as well.  Besides, sometimes it helps to take a break and work on something that you can start and finish quickly.

For fun, I’ll post a quick summary of each story I write, with the word count, genre, how long it took me to write, and what my thoughts are on it.  If you guys can keep me honest and make sure I don’t slack too much, that would be awesome.  I won’t be posting them, though, or really any excerpts either, since I need to keep the first publication rights in order to sell them (almost no-one takes reprints, unfortunately).

Logistical Considerations:

In order to do this as efficiently as possible, I’ve put together a spreadsheet of all of the magazines I hope to submit to, ranking them in order of preference and listing all of the relevant information about them.  This information includes:

• Name of the publication.
• Word count requirements.
• Genre qualifications.
• Payment rates.
• Expected response time.
• Name(s) of the editor(s).
• Link to their guidelines.
• Link to their submission system.
• Whether they accept reprints.
• Whether they accept multiple/simultaneous submissions.
• Whether they’re a SFWA qualifying market.
• The length of any exclusivity period in their contracts.

In addition to everything listed above, I’ll also keep a column for each story I’ve written, to indicate which markets I’ve sent them to and any result.  I’ll keep things color coded for convenience: red = standard form rejection, yellow = personalized rejection, green = currently on submission, blue = published, white = haven’t submitted yet, and gray = doesn’t qualify for submission.

Basically, it looks something like this:

Whenever I write a new story, I’ll list it in a new column on the spreadsheet, gray out any markets that I don’t plan to send it to, and immediately send it out on submission, starting with the market at the top and working my way down.  If it goes through all the markets and doesn’t get picked up by any of them, then I’ll either trunk it or self-publish, but not until I’ve gone through all the markets first.

I’ve got to admit, one of the big motivations for me is this spreadsheet.  There’s something about having all of my stories organized and color coded in a place where I can see them all that makes me want to write more of them.  What can I say?  I’m a nerd.

Tactics:

For the duration of this operation, I’m going to adhere strictly to Heinlein’s rules, which are:

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put what you write on the market.
5. You must keep it on the market until it has been sold.

No matter how great the temptation, I will not revise a story after it’s finished.  If it’s broken, I’ll just trunk it and write something else, or rewrite it from scratch.  If I workshop it, I’ll do it the way Dean Wesley Smith advises, which is to workshop it after you’ve sent it out, in order to learn how you can improve on the next one.

The reasons for this are twofold.  First, a lot of writers I whom respect (especially short story writers) swear by Heinlein’s rules, so I plan to try them out and see just how well they work for me.  Second, I don’t want to become a master reviser or editor, I want to become a master writer.  I wrote almost all of my college essays the night before they were due, and could easily pound out an A+ essay on a first draft by the end of my college career.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if short stories are similar.

Since I have a lot of other writing projects to deal with, I’ll probably limit myself to two or three days at most for each story.  I average around 2,500 words a day when I’m on project, so if it takes me a week to write a 5,000 word short story, I’m probably doing something wrong.

Like I said above, my goal is to write at least two stories per month, preferably one per week.  I usually take Sundays off, so I figure that Friday/Saturday would be a good time to work on a short story.  It’s at the end of the week, so it won’t interrupt my normal work flow too much, and gives me a chance for a nice break.  If I don’t finish it in one weekend, I can put it off until the next one.  I’ll try that out and see how it goes.

Of course, the only way to get great at writing short stories is to read a lot of them too.  I already subscribe to Escape Pod and the Clarkesworld podcast, and just signed up for Daily Science Fiction as well.  If any of you guys have good recommendations for short stories or magazines, let me know–I’m definitely interested in reading as much great stuff as I can.  And of course, I’ll still keep working at the slushpile for Leading Edge.

That just about does it, I think.  This is definitely uncharted territory for me, so I expect I’ll be learning a lot of great stuff along the way.  For now, though, this is how I plan to go about doing it.  It will probably take a couple of years before Operation Short Blitz really comes to fruition, but I plan to stick with it until it does.

Wish me luck!  And if you want to join me by doing something similar, let me know how it goes!