runaway writing

Last summer, when I ran my first 5K, I knew (as I was plodding along, surprised at myself) that I would somehow incorporate running into one of my Fathers and Sons stories. I wasn’t sure just how at the time, but I realized that this sport was going to take up a large part of my life, and I figured I ought to put the experience to work.

Fast forward to April. I completed the Trolley Run in Kansas City last month, and I finally felt I was ready to begin that running story. Now, there are a couple of things you need to know. First, unless a plot bursts fully formed in my mind (and I’m not sure that has ever happened), I tend to “accumulate” a story in pieces. Images present themselves. Bits of dialog. A theme that seems worthy of developing. I collect these bits and copy them into a file that seems suitable until the story itself begins to gel. When I reach some intangible tipping point, I generally start writing the first draft of the story, knowing that it will evolve from there, sometimes in far different directions than I ever imagined.

The second point is that the Trolley Run was a watershed for me in many ways. When I first began trotting around the dog park with my Border Collie a year ago, I couldn’t conceive the notion that I could run a quarter mile, much less the 3.1 miles of an entire 5K. But I thought that if I stuck with it, pushed myself farther, and kept my eyes on a goal, maybe, just maybe, I could do it. I set the Trolley Run this year as my goal. (I didn’t know at the time that it was 4 miles long, longer than a regular 5K.)

The running story continued to accumulate, and the general outline of the plot revealed itself to me. Basically, a son it taking up running, which is an activity his father doesn’t share, and though this is a good thing in general, it becomes another thing that divides the two. (My working title right now is “Runaway” with multiple possible meanings, of course.) I thought that the Trolley Run, which is an annual event of some renown here in Kansas City, would be a good setting for my running story. Thus I had to wait until I had done the Trolley Run before I began the story in earnest.

Well, I completed the Trolley Run, and last weekend I started on the story. Even though I’ve done a half dozen 5Ks and three 10Ks, and even though my afternoon runs are generally far longer than 4 miles, the Trolley Run had become my psychological barrier. Because it was the goal I had set for myself a year ago, it was far more meaningful for me to complete than any of the other runs I’ve done. Well, I burst through that barrier (at a pretty decent pace for my ability, even setting a PR), and while I’m not sure that’s given me any insight to my story, it’s given me the raw, real-world material I needed.

I had reached the tipping point. As I said, I started on “Runaway” over the weekend, and I think I made pretty good progress on it. I’ve mentioned here before that I really need to devote some effort to working out the timeline of these stories. Three generations of men, spanning a lot of years, but so many of the stories are particular moments in their lives, not sweeping themes. How old is the central character in each story? When was he born? When does it have to take place so that subsequent (and prior) moments fall in line properly? Does it make sense that he is this or that age when this or that happens? And so on.

Right now, I can write most of these stories without obsessing too much over that. But someone needs to tell me to buckle down and work out the timeline.

(I’m training now to run a half marathon in October. It’s my new psychological barrier. Yikes!)

oops!

Over the weekend, being pretty much snowed in, I devoted some time to finding likely markets for some of my stories and submitting them. Among them was what sounded like a good publication for my Fathers and Sons story “When we were young and life was full in us.” The publication had a themed issued coming up dealing with “Milestones” and my story certainly deals with one of those. So I made the submission, hopeful and even a bit confident.

Then I went to Duotrope’s Digest to record the submission. And I learned that I had already submitted that same story to that same magazine about two weeks ago. Oops. I don’t know if that’s going to annoy the editors or not.

always refining

My wife, who is discerning and who is my initial reader, had commented the other day that my Fathers and Sons story “The Lonely Road” isn’t so much about the relationship between a father and a son as it is between a husband and a wife. This is not a bad thing, of course. That is certainly worthy and fruitful subject matter. And while I do think the father son relationship is explored a bit there, between David feeling he has disappointed his father and David fearing he will disappoint his son, I can see that these are only tangential to the bigger plot. David is struggling with himself, and he, too, is lucky to have a discerning wife.

I think I mentioned here in a recent post that I’ve come to realize that my Fathers and Sons stories are pretty much actually chapters from what could be considered a slightly non-standard novel. They certainly all operate within the same fictional universe, and as I write them, I see the implications of them to each other. So I’m often going back to another of the stories to refine it now that I have a better picture of the universe they all exist in.

So these stories, which are intended to be able to stand alone, are also part of a bigger whole. And, for good or ill, that is how I comprehend them. I know what’s coming. I know what leads to any given point in each story. I know things the general reader does not, and so a general reader (even a certain discerning one who has read all of the stories in their clumsy draft form) can miss the overarching father and son relationship theme.

For example, in “The Lonely Road” I have David chastising himself for the “stupid thing” he has done. I think it’s pretty clear that this stupid thing is getting his girlfriend pregnant at 17 (and so David starts down the fatherhood road), but I have a whole story that recounts that incident: two healthy and excited teenagers at a quiet cabin in the Ozark forest. So I had that background in my mind as I wrote the later story. The reader, at this point, wouldn’t. (Though when the inevitable collection is published . . . ) And as much as I tried to hint at David’s relationship with his father in “The Lonely Road”, I did as well in that other story. (And it wasn’t easy fitting a father into a story about first-time sex between two kids, trust me.)

But I also have a whole story just discussing the importance of that cabin in the woods to the family. And a reader of “The Lonely Road” won’t know that at this point, but I do. This story does delve more deeply into the relationships between the two fathers and the two sons. But my point is (and I do have a point) that I need to be careful that I don’t assume that the reader knows as much as I do about the story, the characters, and their backgrounds.

“The Lonely Road” is published

A day earlier than expected, but just in time for Pi Day, my story “The Lonely Road” has come up at Penduline Press. It’s in Issue 8, and once again, it is accompanied by a photo that I grabbed randomly off the internet. (Really.)

“The Lonely Road”

And then, out of the blue, the acceptance came!

Over the weekend an email popped up in my box from Penduline Press. They’ve accepted my story “The Lonely Road” and it will be coming up on their site later this month!

I’m proud of this story. I think it may be the best realized of my Fathers and Sons stories. It’s one of those that I read through and can’t think of a single word I would change. Penduline Press had put out a call for stories with a theme of “Bound.” While I think themes can be helpful for targeting submissions, they are also generally vague enough to let anything or nothing apply. My story features a character who is struggling with some of the bonds in his life — at least that’s how I pitched it. And I guess the editors saw it that way too. This is the first of my Fathers and Sons stories to see print.

The stories in this cycle, however, have all been evolving as I’ve come to understand the universe they’re set in, so occasionally I will tinker with this or that detail in one of them to make it comply with the back story or some future event or character development or whatever. In a way, I imagine that whatever I’ve had to say about that universe in “The Lonely Road” is now carved in stone since it’s (going to be) in print. So it becomes the stillpoint in that universe, and however I tell the stories going forward will have to comply with whatever I’ve said in this story. Or not. I suppose I’m over stressing this.

I spent a good deal of time withdrawing the story from simultaneous submissions elsewhere. I hadn’t realized how many places I’d sent it.

Once the story is up, I’ll post a link.

thick skin report

I received a rejection email yesterday for a story I had forgotten I’d even submitted.

I’ve mentioned here once or twice that I had lost track of some of my submissions; I knew I had made them but I could find no evidence of them in my submission log at Duotrope’s Digest or on Submittable. Nor could I seem to find them in my sent email. Over the months, when a rejection came in that I couldn’t trace back to a submission, I figured it must have been one of the lost boys. And I assumed that they must have all been accounted for by now.

But then yesterday’s came in. It seems that back in April of 2012, I had submitted my Fathers and Sons story “The Death of Superman” to a lit mag that I thought was suitable. As it turned out, I had used the mag’s own online submission form and then, for whatever reason, I did not track it beyond that.

In any case, aside from a few submissions that I’ve never heard about again, this nine-month response time may be the longest I’ve ever waited. I don’t suppose I mind. That must have been submitted shortly after I “finished” the story, and I’ve tinkered with it quite a bit since then as the Fathers and Sons universe has become more clear to me.

So, onward!

thick skin report, again

Ouch! Twice in one week.

I received another rejection in the last two days. This one was for “The Lonely Road,” which is also one of my Fathers and Sons stories. This submission had not been to a themed issue of a publication but to an open call for “literary” stories. The target is more vague, so I’m excusing myself from too much anguish over this one.

That story is out at a few other places right now, so I keep at it.

I’ve also submitted a couple of my stories that have already been published to other mags with themes that seem to match what they are about. One of the mags specifically said it would accept reprints. The other didn’t say it would not accept them, but I made it clear in my submission email that my story was already published. In that latter case, the original magazine has since faded from the cybersphere, so the story is otherwise gone from the face of the earth.

We shall see.

thick-skin report

I received a rejection this week (so far only one). It was for “When we were young and life was full in us” which is one of my Fathers and Sons stories. I sent it to a parenting magazine that was looking for stories about teenagers. My story was clearly not what they were looking for because they sent their rejection email only two days after I had made the submission. I have another story that I’m tempted to send them. The worst that could happen is another rejection, right? I’ll let you know if I do it.

So, onward. I made another submission: a different story but to a different magazine that seems suitable for it. It’s so hard to judge these things, even when you read the stories they do accept. I guess it’s hard to be objective about your own work.

a “Lonely Road” rejection

Not long after I posted my last entry about having no news, I received a rejection in my email. It was for “The Lonely Road,” one of my Fathers and Sons stories that I’ve mentioned here once or twice. I’d sent it to a publication that had shown an interest in one of my other stories, and I thought it might fit with the theme they were pursuing, which was “doubt.” My protagonist is filled with self doubt, but I think they were more interested in religious doubt and losing the faith and all of that. I think I knew it was a stretch submission.

So I dutifully went to Duotrope’s Digest, where I record my submissions and their successes and found that “The Lonely Road” is out to four other publications right now. I hadn’t realized that. When did I ever get so ambitious?

So, onward, right?

Do you do anything different, better for tracking your submissions? I have no complaint about Duotrope, and the more reports I make there, the better their stats are for acceptance rates at publications. But I just wonder if there are alternatives.

that rejected feeling

I received one rejection this week (so far?). I had sent my Fathers and Sons story “Comfortable in his Skin” away to a magazine that was looking for pieces about “childhood.” Given the broad and vague nature of that call, I thought my story had a shot. It does deal with a pivotal moment in the childhood of one of my three characters.

My submission was only out for two months, but it seemed longer. It’s a quirky piece, and I’m not sure just what kind of market it is suited for. Perhaps if some mag puts out a call for stories dealing with skinny dipping, I’ll be set. Actually, I’m not sure that the story is ready. I think the writing is about as good as I can make it, but as I’ve said here before, the universe these stories take place in is still revealing itself to me, and since this story is supposed to be pivotal in the character’s life, much of what I later come to understand about that life may affect what I’ve already written there. So revisions and enhancements may be necessary. (I have another, bigger story called “Sins of the Father” that is this same way. Everything before and everything after in these characters’ lives channels through the events of that story, so it will never be “finished” until all of the other stories are first.)

No news yet on my other many submissions, though November 1 was the deadline for many of the submission periods at the various mags, so perhaps I’ll get some news in the days to come.

I keep on.