Thoughts Too Long for Twitter: I am making rookie mistakes

I realized this, just the other day, when I was studying a new magazine as a potential place to submit stories. From the look of it, it seemed like the exact place that would take my short story. Dark, edgy. Loves traditional monsters. But then I came across something interesting in the submission suggestions. 

Basically, it said “Do not send me any stories about (exactly what my story is about, almost as if she’d already read it). I don’t like them.”

Wow. Okay, knowing that she hasn’t actually read my story, I can only believe that she gets stories exactly like mine, a lot. A lot. Meaning that other people are writing what I’m writing, exactly. Exactly! And that tells me that my story isn’t new.

Nice... but we've seen it.

My reaction? I can’t even begin to describe it. But it wasn’t sadness or frustration or anger or any of those you’d expect. No, this was closer to elation. I was, in a way, overjoyed to know this, because I’d finally figured something out!

I’m writing the same damn story everyone else is writing. Everyone else is writing this, too.

Do you understand? I am not alone! That’s wonderful!

And it’s not to say that I’m a bad writer… I’m just now learning what people are writing about.

It’s like, say I drew you a picture. Of a flower, because I like flowers. It’s a beautiful red rose. And then, upon turning it in, I see that ever other picture submitted is also of a beautiful red rose. Yes, my picture is beautiful. Breathtaking. It’s very well done, and my mother would be proud to hang it on her fridge. Yes yes, lovely, but every other picture is also of a red rose.

Yawn. Draw something else. Paint something else. Come up with something else.

I’m not saying I'm going to stop drawing flowers, because I love flowers, and that’s all I want to draw. But there are so many other flowers out there that are just as beautiful. Try a dahlia. Try an orchid. Try a plumeria. That’s what I need to find. I need to find something other. I need to find my plumeria.

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about.

And it made me smile, because I am a rookie. It is good to be reminded of that. I am going at this with little to no formal training in fiction writing, and I will inevitably fall into the mistakes and misdeeds that all writers fall into when the first start out.

I am pushing myself now to write a bunch of short stories. Ten, I figure, is a good number. Ten stories, about whatever, just pump them out. Try hard, get those ideas going, write them all.

Because, I tell you, that story No. 11? That’s going to be my plumeria.


Enjoy,
LLH