Letting Go

I’ve got two brand new stories which I plan to submit for the first time in a few hours – the werewolf SF tale (3755 words) and the automaton story (2035 words) – which adds up to a double dose of writerly angst. Are they as good as they can possibly be? Where should I send them? If I send a story to this market, then I can’t submit it to that anthology, unless the first publication’s editors reject it quickly. The months of patiently waiting for a yay or a nay tie a story up and reduce its flexibility, and afterwards one wonders whether it would have had a better chance with the market that is now closed. None of this is news, of course, and the dilemma is the same for each and every story before it goes off, it’s just that one feels it more keenly with a perfect, ahem, newborn story that is all shiny with hope and promise, which you just know the entire world is waiting for with bated breath.

Anyway, I’d planned to submit the wwSF story last Sunday, but my guts rebelled. I thought it was ready to run free, it’d already relaxed on my hard drive for months and settled, and then I'd edited it again, but no, I couldn't do it. And thank goodness my innards did stop me, because all this week, in a sudden fit of clear-mindedness, I’ve swapped words, cut lines, changed dialogue and banished a few repetitions that had somehow snuck under the radar. It was mostly tinkering, but it was the kind of tinkering that makes a real difference. Now it’s ready. My guts agree. Ditto with the automaton story. But aaaaaah, it's such a fine, fine line between obsessive-compulsive rewriting and professionally listening to your storytelling instincts.

So, off they both go. Hit enter. In a bit.

After that, I'll submit a couple of previously rejected stories. Poor little, grubby darlings. I hope someone recognises their inherent wit and charm soon :)