2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
- Stories in Progress – 2
- Submissions This Week – 1
- Submissions Currently Out – 3
- Rejections This Year – 6 (1 personal)
Are Drabbles a Long Shot?
I got a rejection and re-sent “Tom, Dick, and Derek” this week. It’s a drabble, and I’m still unsure whether it really has a chance at any publications that don’t specialize in super-short fiction. There are still a couple paying markets that I have lined up for it. If none of those pan out, I’ll see if there are any good non-paying drabble markets out there.
Critique Catch-Up
Critters has a policy requiring members to submit a critique approximately three out of every four weeks—a participation ratio of 75%—to ensure that each submitted story gets a good amount of feedback. I’ve been slacking lately, and my participation ratio has fallen to about 85%. Not a big deal, but I like to stay around 100% so I have a nice buffer.
I decided this week was as good a time as any to catch back up. As an added bonus, Critters offers one “Most Valuable Critter” token to the person who does the most critiquing in a week, so if I write several, I have a chance of getting that. The MVC token is used to send a story straight to the front of the queue (which normally takes 2-3 weeks).
Finishing “Bluefinch”
Speaking of the Critters queue, my story “The Bluefinch and the Chipmunk” reached the top and was sent out this week. I’ve already received a good number of critiques, and I expect a few more to trickle in by Wednesday, when the Critters week ends.
I’ve already begun synthesizing that feedback into changes I plan to make, so hopefully I can finish those final edits and send it out by the end of the week.
Unfortunately, between extra critiques and these edits, I have good reasons to put off “Red Eyes” for the week. I’ll get back to it next week.
Goals for Next Week
- Get my Critters ratio back up to 100%
- Edit and submit “Bluefinch”
Words Deferred 