I wrote a new story today. The story was kick-started by an ad I misread. Have you ever done that? The ad said Call today to reserve your parties, showers, and meetings. These folks definitely need a writer, but anyhow, I read it as Call today to reserve your panties. Yeah, that made my brain do a double take. But I thought, why not?
The story I imagined is not the story that came out of the ends of my fingertips. There's cursing, sex (alluded to, not shown), a seventy year old protagonist and God help me, barely a smidgen of crime. Its a pretty decent story when all's said and done but it doesn't fit within the guidelines of anything. At 1050 words it's too long for flash, though I could probably trim 50 words easily enough, but the story doesn't fit the crime, romance, horror or literary genres. It just dangles out there on a string of its own. So, now what do I do with it?
I know, I'm searching, and will probably send it either to LuridLit, though it might not have enough sex in it, or to Pear Noir! which says they take stories that don't fit anywhere else. Lurid pays for their stories so I'll probably take a crack at them first. Plus I'll do a little more searching as I still have to polish this one up just a tad more before its fit to send out.
So, how about you? Do you just write the story that tracks through your brain or do you write with a specific market in mind? For me writing for a market is plain torture and it shows in the writing, so I tend to write the stories as they come to me, then search for a market. Not the best way to work, I guess, but most days that works for me. Just not today.
4 comments:
I do both.
But here's a tip you can take to the bank (literally):
Select a publication you'd like to write for. Study it. Study the guidelines to determine what they say they want. Study the stories to determine what they actually publish. Then force yourself to write stories for that publication. Submit those stories. Pretty soon you'll discover that inspiration provides you with market-specific story ideas.
Sandra,
I think the undefinable stories are always the most fun! There's bound to be a weird/off the wall zine out there like mud luscious or word riot that'll pick it up. You might also want to check out 3AM, those guys put up some pretty out there stuff
Great advice, Michael. And there is a big difference sometimes in what they say they want and what they actually publish.
I've been wanting to try the "True" magazines and picked up a few of them. The few romance stories I've written for WW have all been rejected, but I'd still like to break into that genre.
And I'm still getting over the shock of finding out that those True Confessions aren't true! Another teen-age belief shattered! :-)
Yes, they are Keith! This one was going to be a murder mystery but when that old man stepped into the story it just got away from me. Maybe it was all the talk about Geezers at SMFS combined with Patti's story at A Twist of Noir. You never know what's going to affect a story when you're writing. And thanks for the market tips, I'll check them out.
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