New Story Idea

I have a new story I'm working on. No title yet, I'm only about halfway through the first draft. This one will be pretty short, probably about 4,000 words at most. I want this one to be somewhat satirical. It's not very light-hearted so far, but I plan on working on that after I get the first draft down.

In the meantime, I'm also working on tightening up "Where Do We Go From Here." I want to get it down to about 10,000 words, which means I gotta cut about 3,000 words from it. I've been finding bits of cruft to cut out here and there, stuff that I don't think is needed to tell the story the way I want it told. I'm also going to be doing that with my other stories, to widen the number of magazines I can send my stuff out to. That done, I'll get back down to researching magazines.

I have to admit I was a bit demoralized by the lack of venues available to me. This isn't the 50s, when pulp magazines could be found around every corner. I'm going to have to really plug away. I have to keep my chin up and not be daunted by the prospects.

I knew it would be hard work to get published, but knowing something and experiencing it are two different things. That's something I thought I'd learned by now, but life is a constant learning process.

Well, talking about it isn't going to get it done. I'd better get my nose back to the grindstone.

-E. Maxfield Moen