Loose Threads #4

The Spaces Afforded

Her thread crossed mine, pulled it taut for a fleeting moment, and then it slipped away.

Before I saw anything else, I saw the way she folded her arms, hugging herself. Her arms cinched her t-shirt. The red t-shirt was too big for her skinny frame. The older woman moved through the flow of shoppers like a pebble in the spaces afforded her. She knew how not to be seen, how not to take up too much space-- not to make any sudden movements.

He was all sudden movements, in the parking lot. His words and gestures seeming to take up twice the space afforded his person, equally skinny and old. She handed him a box of ramen noodles. He threw it to the far end of the truck bed. She set down more bags. He pushed his way out from behind the cart, yanked down the tailgate, insistent on loading the groceries the right way: his way: fast enough to be done and on to somewhere else he'd rather be, something else he'd rather be doing.

He passed her pack after pack of soda from the bottom rack of the shopping cart, mindful then--perhaps that she couldn't bend down or lift from so low, of her person, the space she ought to be afforded. He was mindful the way you are when you're mad but the other person isn't, when you try not hurt them with your actions, despite your words. When you can't look at them, because you know you hurt them despite your actions.

He was on his phone as he returned the cart, already elsewhere. She waited for him by the truck, arms folded. Hugging herself.

2015 Writing Goals

 

As promised, my tl;dr 2015 writing goals:

• 10 tokens
• 2 pro
• 4 subs

My longer read 2015 goals: Write productively by focusing on length and using past experience to set realistic goals. Write broader by putting more effort into other genres I write. Write smarter by implementing what I learned from that Kameron Hurley article.

Write Productively

The novelette has always been my sweet spot even though the market doesn't care for it very much, and vice versa for shorts. I'm focusing on length because I've noticed I have a habit of just writing until a story ends--shorts turn out to be novelettes and novelettes end up having only enough story for shorts, ideas that were too big and plots that cover too much grow unwieldy and difficult. All because I didn't plan and commit to what I wanted a story to be in terms of length and scope. This is counterproductive and results in disappointment and discouragement. At this stage in my journey, I've reached the happy middle on the scale of pantser to plotter.

Write Broader

Writing more poetry last year was a spontaneous why-not sort of thing. I didn't think I was very skilled at it, not the non-rhyming, non-meter, 'serious' kind anyways. But then I started subbing pieces and getting positive feedback. I have been exclusively researching and working to publish sci-fi prose fiction. It's the genre my ideas most readily spring from. I speak the language, so to speak. But that's not all I read or write. Just as I took my poetry more seriously to encouraging results, I'm going to give the other genres a chance to flourish.

Write Smarter

"It's the difference between knowing what I'm doing and doing what I know." That means understanding how I'm able to do it, and it isn't magic. It's replicable, which is the exact opposite of what I have always tried to do. Nothing new must resemble that previous story or else I was being lazy, unimaginative, and cheating. That has led to variety in my bibliography, yes, but also a lot of incomplete works, inconsistency, and long periods of unproductiveness. Here's the link again for why it is okay to be a little formulaic. By plugging new story ideas into existing formulas, by doing what I have already done and not always trying something new from scratch, I know in finer, more tangible detail the contours of similar stories, why having my protagonist make a poor choice is essential here, how allowing others to help her there will be critical later, what skipping this and elaborating on that will do to the feel and structure of the plot. By knowing those peaks and troughs, pitfalls, and yes, cheats, I can work more efficiently and with the most effective techniques to help the story shine.

So those are my aspirations for writing in 2015. Overall, I aspire to be very strategic in playing to my strengths as much as to the market. We'll see how it goes!

What are your aspirations? Comment or link below.

2014 In Review

So, last year I posted my writing goals for 2014. How did I do? What will I do differently this year? Lets get to it!

I had four areas I wanted to push myself on: submissions, revisions, pro-level pieces, and token pieces just to keep in the habit of writing. Here's how close I came to reaching my goals:

• Subs - 80%
• Revisions - 10%
• Pro - 25%
• Token - 112%
• New Pieces Overall - 83%

Not bad. I did a lot more token writing and that was mostly poetry, some of which turned out to be good enough to sub. I've revised that goal upwards this year.

Speaking of subs, I only counted new submissions, as opposed to resubmitting the same piece different places, so I did a lot more subbing than the number reflects. Still, I came up a hair short, so I'm revising that goal down. I realize that I am very picky about what I sub, so even if I wrote more, I may not feel confident sending everything out.

The pro number seems okay, until you realize I only set out to write 4 such pieces. These pieces have always taken me a long time to write. I had hoped to push myself to go faster, but the stories fought me all the way. Needless to say, I'm revising the goal down for this year.

Revisions. When I made this category, I thought I would be dusting off old pieces, spit-shining and firing them off. Yeah, no. I focused my time and energy on new pieces. This goal is going away entirely. Rather, my goal is to write more saleable pieces which, naturally, will have been revised and polished as needed.

Overall, I'd say I did okay and ended the year on an encoraging note, which I'll get into in my 2015 goals post.

How'd you do?

photo credit: Gina Fairchild

Loose Threads #3

Look 'Em In the Eye


He probably felt like the master of his domain. A big guy, he'd probably always taken up space, owned it, felt secure. Then she walked out as he was going in.

Gray hair in a no-nonsense bun, broad shouldered, tall in stature and poise. She looked at him, not up or down but straight in the eye.

He flinched.

She didn't.

"Excuse me," she said, and was on her way, leaving him to sort of shuffle aside and into the building, not quite as sure of himself.

Girl, Where You At: 2014 Writing Goals

So, I read an article on the CritiqueCircle blog about meaningful ways to set realistic goals and track progress. As I was in a more productive place, mentally and emotionally, I felt like giving it a try.

I had to look at my past performance honestly to understand what I could achieve in the span of a year. Outliers, like that time I knocked out 16k in 6 days, didn't count. More recently, I was doing the same wordcount in about 30 days, on average, consistently. These were stories I had no intention of putting on track to publication, so I was freewheeling it and not taking the time to make a good first draft.

I had to set milestones. So, no vague by-end-of-year-kazzam goals that I  could choose to do whenever and however. What could I do in one month--how many pieces could I productively work on at the same time? What should I have done in 3 months? Every 3 months? Where could I push myself and where would I need slack?

I had to decide what areas of my writing I would focus on and which had to take a backseat. Since I wanted to get in the habit of being a prolific, published short story author, that meant no long works and no reviving old works.

I had to commit. That's where this post comes in. I'm 3 months into the year and doing better than projected in some areas while in others I'm way behind or doing nothing. It has helped in the past to make my goals known to a writer friend--sometimes known as an accountability buddy. I hope making my goals public (ha! Like anyone's reading this!) will add a bit more incentive to try harder.

So here are those goals. (If you do the math, you'll note I gave myself at least 2 months' padding, and I should be working on 3 pieces at a time):

2014

• 4 for-publication pieces
• 8 token pieces
• 10 pieces polished
• 5 unique pieces subbed

Every 3 Months

•  1 for-pub piece
•  3 tokens (max)
•  3 polished
•  1 subbed

Every Month

• 1 token completed
• 1 act (or a third) of for-pub completed
• 1 polished

Now you know where I'm at. Now you (yes, you!) can nudge me on how it's coming along. I ain't scairt.

Loose Threads #2

Birthday Snack

Just inside, there's a shopping cart nearly emptied of marked down sweets. Chocolate cookies and cupcakes with white frosting and colorful sprinkes.

We move on, picking items, ticking them, making our way around the store until the last stop. In the freezer section, mini towers of boxed canned soda line the aisle. Atop one tower, a pack of those marked down cupcakes. Someone picked them up on their way in and here decided against it at the last moment.

I wonder why until I turn and face the freezer across from it. Layer cake with white frosting and colorful sprinkles on top. Just one box missing from the pile. "Perfect for birthdays!"

What to do After a Story Goes Bust

Expecting one of those 'Keep Calm' images?

Stay productive.

After being out of the loop for a good long while, I am researching short fiction markets, places where my completed stories can find a home. Before, this meant marking favorites on Duotrope. (You more seasoned authors are now looking upon me with incredulity.) This time, I'm keeping an Excel doc with all the relevant details and notes on my impressions of the publication plus which of my stories might fit in there.

Running a search on Duotrope can only tell you so much about a publication. To get a better feel, I, of course, must read the stories published there. Sometimes I’ll get through 2 and know it’s not right for me. Other times I’ll recline in my seat at my computer and realize I’ve just gone through 6 in one sitting—even if the magazine still isn’t right for my story. I did find some potential homes for my current manuscript, but I found many more great stories.

And that's the upside to this tedious task: I am reading more short fiction and rediscovering what I love so much about genre. So, before I go back to being productive, I'll leave you with three stories that appealed to me on different levels—psychological and emotional, enigmatic and probing, fun and adventurous.

Clarkesworld Magazine
(To See the Other) Whole Against the Sky by E. Catherine Tobler (I listened to the podcast version.)
Aquatica by Maggie Clark

Apex Magazine
Weaving Dreams by Mary Robinette Kowal

RaNoWriFo

#amwriting

It's the second biennial Random Novelette Writing Fortnight(!), in which I write a 20-25k novelette in two weeks.

Why a fortnight? Because it's half a month. Why a novelette? Because it's half a novel. Why biennial? Because I was too lazy to do one last year.

And now that I've announced it, there's no wussing out. See you in two weeks.

Update: For chuckles, here's proof an unedited excerpt from the novelette I wrote two years ago:

The king made good on his threat and called off the official search. Not one Eleamite soldier, guard, or knight was to look for Gwendolyn. This, he thought, would work to discourage Giovanni and his only help, Armand. But true to his word, Giovanni did not return. The three moons passed, then four and five. The heat of summer waned in September, and the cool of fall swept through in October. The leaves faded and shriveled, and the king seemed to do the same under the inquiring masses. His anxious subjects, and ally nations, wanted to know why there had been no wedding, why there was no word of a future heir, why the events of the prophesies had suddenly come to a halt. Had they misinterpreted the texts? Worse, had they been misled? The rumors spread, and the king, once such a visible force in the kingdom, retreated, for he had no answers. Scarcely did he leave the palace grounds. Scarcer did he leave his chambers until he was bed-ridden with stress, broken under the strain.

Image: Copyright 2012 Gina Fairchild

Loose Threads

Where did she go?

 

We'd pulled into the dollar store, shopped, and pulled out again.

 

Did she have family? Did they know where she was?

 

This was downtown, in the middle of stores and traffic. I imagined she had a few dollars and change in hand. Perhaps, she was getting something to eat—or maybe something to relieve her pain.

 

She wore a marshmallow type coat, brown. Nothing covered her silver hair. It was getting late. It was getting chilly.

 

I had seen her slowly crossing a gravel lot, far in the distance. Then she was gone. Her thread crossed mine, pulled it taut for a fleeting moment, and then it slipped away.

 

 

Image: Copyright 2012 Gina Fairchild 

Don't Read the Books

Don’t Read the Books is my very first published story, ever. I’m not getting paid, but I’m still proud of this milestone. I’m proud of the work I put into it and the work I got out of it. I’m proud of myself and the finished product. A big thanks goes to my critters over at CritiqueCircle.com.

But what is Don’t Read the Books?

It’s a humorous science fiction short story about a little old lady named Edwina Hoffman. She's determined to break the golden rule at The Hoffman Printing Press Museum & Library. Hence, the title.

Beyond that, it’s about a world where all printed text, including books, have gone completely digital with the advent of e-paper. Hence, the printing press museum & library.

And underneath it all, it’s the result of my spending a lot of time contemplating the changing tides of the traditional versus e-book market.

Do read Don't Read the Books at Larks Fiction Magazine, and leave a comment if you enjoyed it!

Hello Multiverse

So, you found me. Welcome to my blog. So glad you could drop by. Leave a friendly hello in the comments section, if you’re friendly and would like to say hello. 

Unless you weren’t looking for me. In that case, let me back up and say: Hello! I’m Gina Fairchild, writer. This is where other writers, readers, and curious persons can find and learn more about me. Feel free to peruse the links in the sidebar to that end.

Unless you’re not sure how you wound up here, are certainly not interested, and would very much like to know where the exit is, please. In that case, I can’t help you. How do you think I got stuck writing for this blog? (If you do find the exit, point me in its general direction. I have no idea what I’m doing!)

Anyways, welcome. Welcome one and all.