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Editorial Personality In traditional publishing, I have two novels and nearly ten short stories in my vast  inventory of experience. It’s been interesting to experience different editorial approaches from different publishers. Everything from fast-moving and little disorganized, deferential, to slow-plodding, thorough, and very opinionated about what they think should be in the story. As with many things in life, there is no dark without light, hot without cold, etc. In this vein, in my limited experience, it seems that the ‘toughest’ editor is maybe the best experience for the writer. Especially, a newish published author. Your story is likely to be better when it is finally in print. Any thoughts or experiences on publishing/editor experiences? |
My Best Fiction Writing Payday Ever This past two months, I have been involved in a new writing project. A competitive freelance gig to consult on plot development and writing scripts for a narrative-driven video game. I got some valuable advice from Jeff   and was offered the contract. Low five-figure contract, very low five figures, for plot development and installments of writing and editing. About six weeks of work. I just got the last payment, and they paid promptly for every deliverable. It was more than fifty times my total earnings from short stories and novels for nearly the last six years, since I started writing fiction. It's fun and it’s challenging, but the creative decisions are limited based on marketing and game development considerations. There are also constraints on how the writing is presented to accommodate game players. It’s not as fun as dreaming up my own story based on what I want to write. The deadlines are fairly demanding, but I am enormously grateful for the opportunity. I think I will stick with it if they keep offering me work. It seems like they will. Maybe it will lead to a chance for more creative control for a similar project. My traditional submissions have fallen behind schedule, so I’m struggling a bit with balancing this out. It’s also affected my WDC online time. A nice payout for writing has been rewarding, but, honestly, not so much as a traditional publishing contract for far less money. |
| These types of jobs are extremely fun... I was lucky enough to have done one a few years back. The movie didn't blow away the box office (Warcraft), but it was very enjoyable, and I got to meet some impressive folks. It was also good to learn that most of the folks making our entertainment are regular people, just like us here on WdC... though it did suck to learn that all the glitz and glamor is faked. It reminded me of an old saying about how one should never meet their idols or heroes, as the disappointment is palpable. |
BOOK LAUNCH! BOOK LAUNCH! BOOK LAUNCH!
It does happen to have my story Time Lapse. | ||||||
Newsfeed Trigger Warnings Writing Topics Please include a trigger warning when posting about certain highly sensitive writing subjects. Importance of Grammar, Plotting or Pantsing, Traditional-Self Publishing,Using AI writing. Warning: This newsfeed post may cause stress, anger, and wild rants from crazed writers. |
History and Landmarks Landmarks can have a deep emotional impact on people and mean different things to different people. Here is a new short story about a small town where tensions are growing over a local landmark. Give it a read and let me know what you think.
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Cover Reveal Smoking Pen Press has a new anthology nearly ready to launch, A Twist on Time. Here is an early reveal of the fantastic cover for you special people on WDC. Yes, a bit of self promotion it contains Time Lapse by Damon Nomad. A sci-fi serial killer story with a twist. |
A Dispute at Quill Pub It’s late, not, too long till closing time. The bartender has been listening to Plotter and Pantser argue about how to write a story for hours. The bartender has finally had enough and he interrupts. Bartender interrupts, “You two be quiet for a moment.” He points at Pantser. “You said you have two published novels. Are you saying they don’t have interesting and complex plots?” Pantser answers, “Well of course. They wouldn’t be good stories, if they didn’t.” Bartender responds, “Well, why didn’t you start with a good plot outline in the beginning?” Plotter laughs, “Exactly.” Bartender points at Plotter, “You ever have to alter that plot outline because of the interesting character behaviors that emerge as you write?” Plotter mumbles, “Well, sure.” Bartender taps a fist on the table. “You two are arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It’s closing time.” |
I'm a pantser all the way... I scribble weird notes of frustration and bewilderment (also known as worldbuilding) as I write each story  |
| Billy Wilder once said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree, in the second act you set the tree on fire, and then in the third you get him down. That's my plot outline. For everything I write. Does that make me a plotter? |
Breaking News in the World of Publishing Have you heard! It’s coming. TALES FROM THE CROSSTIMBERS Vol. 3 Summer 2025 Edited and curated by Max Griffin 🏳️🌈  Check it out.
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Pop Into A Notebook I have started dropping into notebooks of writers on my fan list. I am quite surprised by the posts I have missed and it’s given me a chance to drop a note or comment. Give it a try. |
Hanlon’s Razor In one form: “Never attribute to malice that which is easily explained by mistake or stupidity.” What is particularly curious about this philosophical adage is the common attribution to Robert J. Hanlon, who submitted it for a 1980 joke book edited by Arthur Bloch. Mr. Hanlon was a computer programmer who has since passed away. It’s also been attributed to Robert Heinlein, Napoleon Bonaparte, David Hume, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. But it most commonly appears as Hanlon’s Razor, a joke submitted by a computer programmer. It is a sentiment worth remembering, even given the context of the inclusion in a joke book. |
Too Much to Ask? I have a bit of a pet peeve; a minor frustration. Okay, fine. Sometimes it makes me angry. Put yourself in my shoes, maybe you have even been in these shoes. You work on a story for a submission to a publisher, anthology, journal, or -zine. Spend time editing, revising and polishing. Then closely review their submission requirements on format, font, word count, etc. You formulate a cover letter in your email or submission portal and add as the last sentence. Please acknowledge receipt when you have a moment. Some of them have robot responses. Thanks for your submission. No problem. Some of them take a few days and respond. Thanks for your submission. No problem. A few of them never acknowledge receipt. A week later you send a kind request for acknowledgement. and Silence . . . Problem? Is it too much to ask? |
| I think I get around 5% personalised, 80% auto-response, and 15% no response. I will say that adding that line at the bottom can be a red flag to some publishers (from conversations with them), so, in my opinion, I'd not bother. if they respond, great, if not, and you never hear from them, add them do the personal "Avoid" list. Mine is more than 30 publishers long, but I've been at this for a very long time... |
The Fool Reveals Himself I have a pattern that disappointingly repeats. I never see it coming, but I know what underlies it. An arrogance that I deny is there. My most recent experience involved my quiet observation of my silly WDC colleagues chasing the animations for the seven-day streaks for logon, review, blog, forum, and newsfeed. The Story Master was getting them to dance like puppets. Curiosity got to me, so I did the five items the other day, just to see what it took. I found new and interesting corners of WDC that I had not been. I've done it a few more times. I might not chase after the animations, but I realized again, it was me who was the fool. The five-by-seven streak is a creative and fun way to increase participation beyond just the newsfeed. Meanwhile, I await my next encounter with the fool in the mirror. |
WDC Ten Commandments Not exactly, but they could or should be.
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| These are common aspirational standards for collaborative teams in the workplace or classroom. They were abstracted from the research on both what makes such teams effective and what makes them ineffective. The same research generally shows that diverse collaborative teams exhibiting these kinds of interactions perform better than homogeneous teams AND better than any single individual member, no matter how skillful that member might be. While a group on WDC isn't exactly a collaborative team, I think these still are pretty good aspirational goals. |
S 🤦  - I've had the same experience. But WDC proper isn't a collaborative team, it's just a place where it's possible to FORM a collaborative team. I think that's the point here--everyone posting to the Veteran's Forum is part of a team wishing to honor veterans and military service. Given that shared aspirational goal, these seem to be reasonable aspirational standards for interacting with each other. |
Listen to Editors, Reviewers, Beta Readers, and Yourself One thing a writer learns after gaining some experience and as the skin thickens to feedback. Listen to every criticism and suggestion you get and be thankful. All of the big steps I have made in improving my storytelling have come from reviewers, beta readers, and editors. As you get even more experienced you also learn they are not always right. Same as you, they are imperfect. I recently got some feedback for suggested edits. I noticed it was all grammatical and in spoken dialog. Most people don’t speak with proper grammar, and these characters in particular did not. So listen, be thankful, but don’t ignore your own opinion. |
Quickest Rejection in Publishing History Usually within a few days it’s nice to get an acknowledge email for a submission. Assurance that the submission didn’t disappear into the ether of the internet. Yesterday, I got a same day email for a submission, but hours later. Not a robot message. It started with ‘I am impressed’ but then explained why my story wasn’t right for their anthology. Left me wondering what they were impressed about. Barely enough time to enter it into my submission tracking table. |
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When it comes to short stories, I am at a stage where if I don't like the editing done by an anthology or magazine, I will withdraw my work. Only done that twice, and one of them decided to negotiate. So I've only encountered one editor who I could not work with (I have withdrawn works for other reasons, contract-based), and the rest... well, I have a decent list of publishing credits.
FWIW, not one of my published poems has ever been edited. Not sure if that means poetry publishers are more forgiving, or I am better at presenting them.
The challenge with all writing groups is the chemsitry of the group itself. Finding a group of sympatico authors, writing in more-or-less similar genres, with more-or-less similar views about craft, is really hard. WDC used to be full of such groups, but even here they are hard to find and sustain.
There's the "1000-hour rule" for mastering any craft. It takes 1000 hours of *mentored* practice to learn a craft, whether it's engineering, brain surgery, social work, or writing. Some professions formalize this and make it a requirement for liscensure. For writing, the challenge is finding mentors and, after that, putting in the necessary work.