Zompist Bboard Again

When the time comes for me, I'm seriously considering self-publishing.

Of course, once all the editing is done, I seem incapable of writing anything shorter than 100,000 words.

Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 10:26 am When the time comes for me, I'm seriously considering self-publishing.

Of course, once all the editing is done, I seem incapable of writing anything shorter than 100,000 words.

This post proves you are capable!

Ares Land wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:02 am Yeah, the lack of feedback comes with the territory, I'm afraid, and it's annoying.
I think the best idea is not to do like me and re-submit the story elsewhere and start working on another.

So you do resubmit the same thing elsewhere, or not? How I see it, now that I have the first rejection under my belt, the first bruise on my creative soul, I am ready for the next literary project. Probably should not dwell on this too long.

Raholeun wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 12:41 pm

Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 10:26 am When the time comes for me, I'm seriously considering self-publishing.

Of course, once all the editing is done, I seem incapable of writing anything shorter than 100,000 words.

This post proves you are capable!

Maybe, though I have little idea a broad audience would want to read it. I have some extremely disparate influences, and I'm not sure their synthesis will appeal to anybody but myself and a very few others. I still enjoy the process of creating things, however.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:02 am Yeah, the lack of feedback comes with the territory, I'm afraid, and it's annoying.
I think the best idea is not to do like me and re-submit the story elsewhere and start working on another.

So you do resubmit the same thing elsewhere, or not? How I see it, now that I have the first rejection under my belt, the first bruise on my creative soul, I am ready for the next literary project. Probably should not dwell on this too long.

I think it's usual to submit to several places, take what feedback you can, and, if none take it, work on something else while you let this first thing rest, and maybe revisit it and polish it later (or, if you're me, expand it into a gigantic monstrosity; I was planning for a novella with my current project, which is now almost 80,000 words long and still has at least another narrative arc or so left). Don't let this first rejection get you down, though. Authors now widely regarded as classics started off getting rejections, too.

After two rounds of Skype interviews, I sadly did not make it to the next stage for a position I'd applied for in Luxembourg (official reason being "we found someone better"). I'm not particularly torn up, but it was a position I was hoping to get (and I thought I'd ticked all the boxes for what they were looking for), so some disappointment there.

Raholeun wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 12:41 pm

Ares Land wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:02 am Yeah, the lack of feedback comes with the territory, I'm afraid, and it's annoying.
I think the best idea is not to do like me and re-submit the story elsewhere and start working on another.

So you do resubmit the same thing elsewhere, or not? How I see it, now that I have the first rejection under my belt, the first bruise on my creative soul, I am ready for the next literary project. Probably should not dwell on this too long.

A lesson I learned from academic publishing is that you re-submit: sometimes you get unlucky with it ending up on the "wrong" desk or in front of the wrong editor. For example, my one article that just recently got published got desk rejections from four journals (just saying "not in scope"), so sometimes it takes finding the right place/home for it. But definitely start working on the next project and don't rework the old one unless you know you need to make changes or you got feedback (which sounds like you didn't, so resubmission as-is isn't an issue).

I would offer feedback myself (not that I'm published or anything), but I don't have time for it right now.

Raholeun wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 12:41 pm

Ares Land wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:02 am Yeah, the lack of feedback comes with the territory, I'm afraid, and it's annoying.
I think the best idea is not to do like me and re-submit the story elsewhere and start working on another.

So you do resubmit the same thing elsewhere, or not? How I see it, now that I have the first rejection under my belt, the first bruise on my creative soul, I am ready for the next literary project. Probably should not dwell on this too long.

Trying to get published is kind of soul-destroying, more so now than ever. E.g. from author interviews I get the impression that in the early 20th century submissions were few and authors could actually get personal letters back. When I was trying to submit short stories, editorial guidelines warned that the magazines got 1000 submissions a month and all you were likely to get back was a form letter. It's probably even worse today.

If you want to go this route: don't take a single rejection seriously. Yes, it's no fun at all, but it doesn't mean you suck. If they accept 10 things out of 1000, you could be anywhere from #11 to #1000. I was always advised to have multiple submissions out at once.

For feedback, find a writing pal and read each other's stuff. Though from personal experience: make sure you have similar approaches to criticism... it's very easy to provide way more criticism than someone can handle. Also from personal experience: your pal is there to point out stuff that doesn't work; don't try to write the stuff your pal happens to like.

Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 12:48 pm I think it's usual to submit to several places, take what feedback you can, and, if none take it, work on something else while you let this first thing rest, and maybe revisit it and polish it later (or, if you're me, expand it into a gigantic monstrosity; I was planning for a novella with my current project, which is now almost 80,000 words long and still has at least another narrative arc or so left). Don't let this first rejection get you down, though. Authors now widely regarded as classics started off getting rejections, too.

I have immense respect for people who can craft a story that manages to branch out over tens of thousands, almost a hundred thousand words. The plotlines, the characters, all of it must be very taxing to juggle simultaneously while writing. I tend to spend so much attention (mostly time, but let's call it attention) to the prose, that ten thousand words turns out to be a lot of work too.

Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 12:48 pm Maybe, though I have little idea a broad audience would want to read it. I have some extremely disparate influences, and I'm not sure their synthesis will appeal to anybody but myself and a very few others. I still enjoy the process of creating things, however.

Please share, it sounds intruiging. And since we are all conlangers here, having one or more niche interests and a need to create should feel familiar to everyone here.

Raholeun wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 12:30 pm I have immense respect for people who can craft a story that manages to branch out over tens of thousands, almost a hundred thousand words. The plotlines, the characters, all of it must be very taxing to juggle simultaneously while writing. I tend to spend so much attention (mostly time, but let's call it attention) to the prose, that ten thousand words turns out to be a lot of work too.

I was trying to encourage you to keep things up. Maybe you, too, will produce a wonderfully gargantuan monstrosity that will catch somebody's eye someday.

Things I've had to do recently that are Fun /s:

• After rehackintoshing my desktop, fiddle with Mac OS a billion times to get 25% of the way to customizing the About This Mac screen (the remaining 75% apparently being impossible).
• Endure several random crashes that leave no trail and have no apparent cause, that also stop when I pull out all the debugging stops that I might be able to see why they happen.
• Reinstall GRUB so I can access my Linux installation again.
• Switch to a hard nocturnal sleep cycle just as I need to actually call people for paperwork reasons.
• Also mess up said paperwork.

Arguing with my Uncle is exhausting. Says he has no problem with transpeople yet keeps using all the transphobic arguments and doesn't understand how they're transphobic. Arguments like a hippopotamus variant of the attack helicopter argument, asking me to define "gender" and then engages in dictionary fallacy, bunch of other bs arguments.

And he always cuts you off midpoint then complains when you do for him.

Got a pretty positive review for a grant application... but not good enough to proceed to the next stage of the process. (I can write a rebuttal to maybe make it into the next round, given how close I am to the cut-off, but not sure if it's worth it...)

Well, shit. One of my favourite neighbourhood bars may go under because of a racist puppet show (and the owners' reluctance or inability to recognise the outcry over this for the existential threat that it is).

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 6:12 pmWell, shit. One of my favourite neighbourhood bars may go under because of a racist puppet show (and the owners' reluctance or inability to recognise the outcry over this for the existential threat that it is).

How so? Are they hosting the racist puppet show?

malloc wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:46 pm

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 6:12 pmWell, shit. One of my favourite neighbourhood bars may go under because of a racist puppet show (and the owners' reluctance or inability to recognise the outcry over this for the existential threat that it is).

How so? Are they hosting the racist puppet show?

Already happened. Yesterday, they released an "apology" for "not vetting the entertainer" beforehand. But in their own promotional materials they say that he's performed there before and describe themselves as "huge fans". Plus one of the bartenders (who quit on the spot) said that there were rehearsals and everyone on the management team knew what the act was going to be.

You can read more on the story here: https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/11/03 ... -betrayed/.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:14 amAlready happened. Yesterday, they released an "apology" for "not vetting the entertainer" beforehand. But in their own promotional materials they say that he's performed there before and describe themselves as "huge fans". Plus one of the bartenders (who quit on the spot) said that there were rehearsals and everyone on the management team knew what the act was going to be.

Not sure how you feel about this, but I can't say I would miss them much myself. People may complain about cancel culture, but I have no good will left toward such complicity.

malloc wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 3:56 pmNot sure how you feel about this, but I can't say I would miss them much myself.

Why would you miss a place you've never been to? It's a trivially easy call for you to make as someone without a dog at all, let alone one in this fight.

Touché has never been my favourite bar, but I've been going there since the mid-90s and I've met dozens of wonderful people there, some of whom have become good friends. More importantly, it's one of the last remaining queer venues that are openly leather-, kink-, and sex-positive. (In Chicago, it's basically them, CellBlock, and Steamworks.) Plus it attracts a diverse crowd, which is a notable thing in a city as segregated as Chicago. A number of BIPOC posters in the online discussions have pointed out the contrast to many of the overwhelmingly white bars in Northalsted. It's the home bar of Onyx, a Black men's leather fraternity (who notably haven't yet ended their association with Touché, despite being publicly called on to do so).

Now, of course, there's a long history of gay bars welcoming POC cash while treating POC badly. And this isn't by a long shot the first racist incident I've heard of there. (One of my POC friends has been boycotting them for a couple months already due to how he was treated on his last visit.) A lot of folks have identified the general manager as the root of the problem and have raised hopes that if he could be replaced, the situation might improve. It's a big "if", but at this point it seems like a choice between that and closing the place down completely.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 4:50 pmWhy would you miss a place you've never been to? It's a trivially easy call for you to make as someone without a dog at all, let alone one in this fight.

Fair enough. I'm feeling more vindictive than usual since the reactionaries will have us in checkmate next week. But I can also see your point.

We don't know until the fat lady sings. You need to get out there and vote and get voting!

MacAnDàil wrote: ↑Sat Nov 05, 2022 8:48 amWe don't know until the fat lady sings. You need to get out there and vote and get voting!

I do not vote. I stay out of politics both for the sake of and due to my health.

I do not which health problems you are referring to and am not sure how that would be related to voting. In any case, I encourage everyone to vote unless they would vote for the far right.