Tag Archives: Benjamin T. Smith

Submission Sunday – Week Ending 02/23/2014

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I spent more time this week writing rough drafts than I did getting salable material out the door.  That’s not necessarily a problem, but it will become one if that’s all I do is draft.

On the resubmission side of things, only one story was resubmitted.  That was “Starting From Zeroth.”  It was originally submitted to the Asimov-themed issue by Penumbra.  It made it to the final round of selections (Which I was pleased with) before ultimately being rejected (Which I was not pleased with).  Still, it says good things about the story that it made it so far into the selection process, so I fired it off immediately to somewhere else, and then somewhere else (More below).

One new story was finished and sent out this week.  That was the previously named “Ninja Mama” story that has now become known as “Amidst the Swirling Sakura Petals.”  I admit it sounds a lot more pretentious than “Ninja Mama” did, especially considering that the origin of the story idea came from a quote by Chief Arino of Game Center CX (Specifically when he was playing a game and said “Papa did this with a Ninja once”).  What started out as a lighthearted tale became a very serious one that explores revenge, salvation, and motherhood.  And Ninjas.

Can’t forget the Ninjas.

Summary: 1 New, 1 Resubmission

“Amidst the Swirling Sakura Petals” submitted to Flash Fiction Online.

Resubmissions:

“Starting From Zeroth” resubmitted first to Clarkesworld (They move fast!) and then to Strange Horizons.

Writing in Public: Day 12, Month 01

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I’m still trying to strike a good balance between planning, rough draft writing, and revisions.  Today is a good example of the difficulty of that.  The day began with plans for getting more of the “You Are My Brothers” rough draft finished along with revisions for “Listening Post” and possibly one of the flash fiction pieces.  None of that happened.  With so many rough drafts that need to enter the revision/rewriting stage I got caught up in doing research on different outlining techniques and wasted much of the day jumping from article to article.

There was some success, though.  Of the five stories that need to be revised/rewritten I was able to get outlines written for four of them, and I began work on the “Listening Post” rewrite.  For some reason this story has become a challenge to me, and I’m not sure why.  Hopefully tomorrow’s work on it will yield some answers.  It could be there’s just too much in the plot to contain in a 3,500 word or less story.

Anyway, here are the rather lackluster numbers for the day:

  • Nonfiction: 186
  • Planning and outlining: 935
  • Fiction: 203
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 30,922

Total Salable for Month: 1,070

Writing in Public: Day 11, Month 01

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Today was less productive than I was hoping it would be, and a lot of it had to do with my being scatter-brained through a good portion off the day.  Did not really get to serious writing until the evening, but managed to put in another ten pages of “You Are My Brothers.”  This story is as rough as “Sublease” was, but the overall plot is beginning to come together.  And with every scene I write I get a better handle on the pacing and what I can and can’t accomplish with the word limitations given to me.  12,000 – 17,000 words seems like a lot, but it’s amazing how quickly it can get eaten up.

Now you know why flash fiction is a challenge for me!  A fun challenge, but a challenge all the same.

Speaking of flash fiction, I came up with two ideas that I need to flesh out more, but one will be a tale about applying for position of the prince that wakes the sleeping princess with a kiss, and the other will occur in the minutes and hours following the sun going out not with a bang, but with a whimper.  Will the world follow suit?

Anyway, tomorrow my plan is to get another ten or so pages of “You Are My Brothers” written and finish with that rough draft on Sunday.  I would like to revise “Listening Post” as well, and get to work on the reading research for “Song of Battle.”  I’ve never tried writing anything with music in it, so it’ll be a great challenge.

  • Nonfiction: 276
  • Planning and outlining: 250
  • Fiction: 3,000
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 30,719

Total Salable for Month: 1,070

Writing in Public: Day 10, Month 01

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Spent a little bit more time tweaking “Amidst the Swirling Sakura Petals” and fired it off to Flash Fiction Online with a total length of around 1,070 words.  If accepted there, it will need to be trimmed down to 1,000 words, but they accept submissions up to 1,100 words with that understanding.  All we can do is wait and see what happens there.

I also started work on the epic fantasy story “You Are My Brothers”, with ten pages and approximately 3,000 words finished at the moment.  Think of this story as a sword-and-sorcery version of the Siege of Bastogne, featuring a mercenary company caught behind enemy lines and the band of all-female knights that come to their aid.  The Order of the Emerald Garland is here to save the day!

  • Nonfiction: 142
  • Planning and outlining: 000
  • Fiction: 3,500
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 27,719

Total Salable for Month: 1,070

“Astronomical Odds” Cover Revealed

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oddsrough250Third Flatiron Publishing‘s Spring 2014 anthology titled “Astronomical Odds” has its cover art finalized, as well as the author story list.  My fantasy short story “Lost in the Mail” will be included in it along with twelve other stories of science fiction and fantasy mayhem and epicness.  I’m looking forward to reading the other stories, and I hope you’ll enjoy it as well!

If you’re wondering what “Lost in the Mail” is about, I’ll give you this much: it involves a magician, two pieces of critical mail he has to send out, and a postal service with a bureaucracy greater and more complex than any spell.

The anthology comes out on March 15th, so look forward to it!

Writing in Public: Day 09, Month 01

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The rough draft of “Sublease” is finished!  It took a few more hours, but with around 5,100 words put in today the total is right at 10,000 words, which was on the low end of my estimate.  Once I begin the rewriting phase of it, I imagine this story will actually grow a little bit longer.  Working through the rough draft gave me several ideas that should help make the plot and overall theme more coherent, and the pacing should be better.  This is a story that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of years now, so it’s exciting to see it finally getting done.

I didn’t meet any of my other goals for the day, unfortunately.  But, 5,100 words for a single day is not bad.  Not quite what I wanted, but infinitely better than the first few days of this “Writing in Public” challenge.

Tomorrow the focus will be on revisions for some other stories, so hopefully the “salable” number will be on the rise, especially considering there are a few deadlines that have to be met by the 28th of the month.

  • Nonfiction: 000
  • Planning and outlining: 000
  • Fiction: 5,100
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 24,219

Total Salable for Month: 968

Writing in Public: Day 08, Month 01

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Today was another good day, although I’m still not meeting all four goals.  On the rough draft side of things, I met my goal of getting the first half of “Sublease” written.  The story is now at its midpoint, and I plan to write through to the ending tomorrow.  This rough draft is about as rough as it gets, to the point it’ll have to be rewritten entirely.  But, it’s helping me see what will work, what won’t work, and what sort of pacing the story will have.  That alone makes it worth my while.

I wanted to edit the flash fiction piece “Alien Concept”, but wasn’t able to.  Instead, I shifted focus back onto “Ninja Mama” (Henceforth referred to as “A Mother’s Duty”) and reworked the final draft a bit.  There’s still a tiny amount of work I want to do on it, but it will be going out this week for sure.

That’s all for today.  We’ll see what tomorrow holds!

  • Nonfiction: 178
  • Planning and outlining: 1,000
  • Fiction: 5,300
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 19,119

Total Salable for Month: 968

Writing in Public: Day 07, Month 01 (Attack of Ninja Mama)

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Day one into the new plan, and already things have been derailed!  Well, not quite.  There is a good reason for a couple of things not being completed.

First order of business was to work on the rough draft for “A Gentle Breeze”, which turned out great.  A 3,900 word rough draft was finished in just over two hours, right before lunch.  Following lunch I got to work on the revision for “Ninja Mama”, which is a horrible name and not the final product name by any stretch of the imagination.  Of course, with that said, a quick Google search game up with this gem of an ad from Nissin as the first image hit:

Who needs swords when you have dual rolling pin action?

Who needs swords when you have dual rolling pin action?

Ok, moving on… “Ninja Mama” has been completed.  It took a few revisions, but the final product has come in at 968 words.  I want to read over it one more time and will probably do that tomorrow, but then it’s out the door into the submission pile.

On the research and outline front I went back over my notes for “Sublease” and have a pretty good feel for the going into the rough draft writing tomorrow morning.  “Sublease” is going to be anywhere from 9,000 to 10,000 words, so I assume that will take two days to accomplish.  Tomorrow I’ll work on it until I get at least 5,000 words finished, and the rest will follow Wednesday.

My task for the “Into the Wastes” today was to read over my first chapter, analyze it, and compare it with the opening chapters to some of my favorite epic fantasy books.  I have postponed this until tomorrow afternoon, and there is good reason for this.  We’re due up to six inches of snow tonight, so shoveling is in the cards for tomorrow at some point.  Odds are good I won’t be in much of a writing mood after completing that task, so a relaxing late afternoon of reading should fit the bill.

Anyway, on to the numbers!  With this one day I’ve effectively doubled my fiction output for the month.  Here’s hoping tomorrow is equally productive, if not more so:

  • Nonfiction: 675
  • Planning and outlining: 000
  • Fiction: 6,451
  • Salable words: 968

Total Fiction for Month: 13,819

Total Salable for Month: 968

Goals for the Week Ending 02-23-14

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Writing Goals (Any titles listed are working titles):

  • Write “Songs of Fate”, a fantasy short story for Crossed Genres‘ “music” theme. (4,000 words or less)
  • Write “Interstellar Explorers”, a science fiction short story about human prospectors discovering – and dealing with – a pre-spaceflight alien race that is very warlike and will be a threat if they do reach the stars. (6,000 words or less)
  • Write “Sublease”, a science fiction tale set in the not-too-distant future where all of humanity is tied into a network that makes use of everyone’s unused physical and mental abilities in exchange for paying off the enormous debt a collapsed global economy has placed on everyone.  Think of it as a coal-mining town where the company owns everything, and charges more than you get paid for the necessities.  The hero is someone who wants to break free of that system.  I’m expecting this tale to be around 10,000 words.  This is the story I want to send to the Writers of the Future contest.
  • Write outline for the second draft of “Into the Wastes”, a fantasy novel about a company of crusaders sent into their kingdom’s northern hinterlands to deal with one threat, only to discover multiple threats.

Reading Goals:

  • Read each of the five stories that Daily Science Fiction puts out this week.
  • Re-read my notes for “Into The Wastes” and lay the groundwork for a second draft.
  • Re-read the prologues and opening chapters for several epic fantasy novels, including King’s Dragon (Kate Elliott), The Green Rider (Kristen Britain), and The Eye of the World (Robert Jordan), amongst others.  I’m doing this as an exercise to see if there is anything common in each book’s opening chapters and how that could benefit the opening chapters to “Into the Wastes.”

Week in Review – Week Ending 02/16/2014

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This week was an interesting one.  Blizzards, shoveling, blizzards, shoveling.  I’ll admit all of that left me drained physically and mentally.  I was able to push through some of the writing goals I had, but the week ended with a lot left to be done.  I can only blame so much of this on the weather, as the rest lies squarely on my shoulders.  I knew the week was going to get bad and I didn’t take precautions and frontload as much writing into the better days as I should have.

The plan should always be to think of tomorrow as being worse than today in terms of productivity.  Tomorrow could be perfectly fine and productive, or the car could break down or the heating system could die and the day could be spent dealing with that.  Better to assume it will get derailed and focus on the present than to hope for a better tomorrow.

With that said, the rough drafts of four stories were finished.  They are:

  • “Fallout Ariel”, originally on the goal list.
  • “Ninja Mama”, originally on the goal list under the Kazka 713 “Journeys” theme.
  • “Alien Concept”, a flash fiction story that just came to me and had no bearing on the original goals.
  • “Listening Post”, originally on the goal list under the Penumbra‘s “superhero” theme.

“Songs of Fate” and “Interstellar Explorers” were not started, though some planning/outlining was accomplished.

On the reading front, I did finish the stories that Daily Science Fiction sent out, and look forward to enjoying more next week.  My goal with this reading is to eventually start reverse-engineering the tales and breaking them down into their component parts.  Such an exercise can only help improve my own grasp of the craft of writing, and it’s something I want to start doing with everything I read.  The more I can understand what goes into an accepted tale, the more likely my own work will find a home in the publications I read.