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| New Years Resolutions. http://www.horrorworld.org/msgboards/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=2306 |
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| Author: | Matt Cowan [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:17 am ] |
| Post subject: | New Years Resolutions. |
I like to write horror short stories as well. I have written ten to date. In the new year I resolve to write at least six more this year (the most I ever wrote in the past for one year is four) and submit a few to at least a couple publishing places. The only one I have ever submitted before was rejected by Cemetery Dance. Any sugesstions of other places that accept submissions from unpublished horror writers? 
What are your resolutions for the new year, if any? |
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| Author: | Mark Justice [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:58 am ] |
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Matt, Try for market listings. Good luck with your writing...and keep sending out those stories. That's the only way you'll get published. |
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| Author: | Matt Cowan [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:58 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks! It looks like a great site! 
One question though and it will probabley sound like a dumb one but what is the difference between Literary Fiction and other fiction? Sorry, I should most likely already know that. 
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| Author: | Mark Justice [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:24 pm ] |
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Literary fiction is generally -- though not always -- non-genre. Think Oprah Book Club or Barbara Kingsolver. |
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| Author: | David T. Wilbanks [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:58 pm ] |
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And remember, don't sell yourself short. Start at the highest paying market and work down. But make sure they want what you're selling. |
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| Author: | ristow [ Sun Dec 31, 2006 12:10 am ] |
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The main difference between what is literary and what is genre relies on three things. 1) How much you stick to formula and plot contrivance over building a strong living character, 2) facility with language, and 3) the snootiness of other people who read. Let me give you an example. We all could agree that Toni Morrison is considered "literary" by many standards -- one of which is her level of international recognition, because she has, of course, a Nobel Prize on her resume. Yet, I have met plenty of pretentious "English Major" types who have out of hand dismissed "Beloved" because its a "ghost story." Plenty of other upper-crusty American critics have also refused to read prominent South American Writers like Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel Garcia Marquez, because of the whole "Magical Realism" thing. Of couse, it doesn't matter to these people Marquez also has a Nobel Prize in his pocket. But its for reasons of Marquez, Morrison, and Joyce Carol Oates that people are starting to be a little more receptive to the strange and fantastic in fiction. The point is, write what you feel is truthful, honest, and important to you. (I should find Stephen King's speech at the national book awards and post a link to it here, because he has a lot to say about this issue) There will always be people out there who will nit-pick and will try to find ways to feel superior to you. The term "literary" is just a convienent curtain that they can hide behind. I know this from having spent, collectively, 10 years in college as a student, and going on 7 as a teacher around "English types." Some in lit studies, and some in creative writing. In that time, I've learned to not get mad at these types, but only to recognize that they are only depriving themselves from the richness and fullness of the totality of literature, both "academic" and "popular." I'm a little passionate about this subject. Sorry. (But I do want to cross post this onto my own blog, since this post became a little too involved.) |
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| Author: | David T. Wilbanks [ Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:08 am ] |
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Good post, ristow. |
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| Author: | ristow [ Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:04 pm ] |
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Stephen King's remarks during the Nat'l Book award hullaballoo. Many people staunchly beleived that King shouldn't get a lifetime acheivement award. http://www.nationalbook.org/nbaacceptspeech_sking.html |
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| Author: | ristow [ Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:25 pm ] |
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Permit me one more moment on my soapbox, please. I hate the word "literary" and it's usuage to describe contemporary fiction. Literature, to me, is a distinction bestowed onto age old books that somehow to survive and outlive its author. This means that, yes, Lovecraft and Poe are just as literary as Dickens and Henry James. But, if one were living during Lovecraft or Poe's lifetime, they were not perceived as the literary giants they are today. If I'm not mistaken, Poe's contemporary's scoffed at him, probably because he was different. Poe was writing the grotesque into his stories and poems, and that didn't jel with the prevailing cultural standards. Critics especially savaged his poetry, for much the same reason. Poetical standards, at the time, was either rhyming or blank verse iambic pentameter, and Poe was writing in trochaic meter -- which gives his verse, like "the raven," the sing-songy feel it has. Oddly enough, Poe did earn some ardent fans, through translation, in France-- like Charles Baudelaire. This is not exclusive to gothic writers of yester century. Shakespeare went through this to some extent. Drama, during his time period, was considered a vile form of popular entertainment. A staging of Hamlet, for example, had whores, theives, princes, and even monarchs in attendence. It had plenty of violence, too. Think of it, Hamlet used to be considered "popular fiction," to an extent. During Shakespeare's life, the "literary" mode of distinction was written poetry along the vain of Spenser, Donne, and plenty of sonneteers. The point is, pretty much, that much of the people who presently publish under "literary fiction" will be forgotten once they've died. Then, somebody from the pulps will always rise and the get the recognition they once deserved in their life time -- look at Phillip K. Dick, for example. The other point is that we, as readers, can't really hasten the process along. Literature is something for the ages and eons to come to figure out. In the mean time, we should just have fun reading what personally speaks to us. |
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| Author: | Matt Cowan [ Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:28 am ] |
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I asked about the literary fiction category merely to see if anything I had written would fall into that section since I was unsure what it was. I see now that it would not. One of the areas in the site had listed that they were looking for 'Literary Fiction'. I would never try and write something that I did not enjoy or want to write as I am not skilled enough to do so. I can only write things that I personnally find facinanting. This may mean that I end up writting only for myself but I will still be happy to do that, even if that is all it ever turns out to be.
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| Author: | ristow [ Mon Jan 01, 2007 2:54 pm ] |
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| Author: | Matt Cowan [ Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:57 pm ] |
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Thanks. I hope to try and submit a few stories this year. I hear that it's extreamly difficult to get published but I enjoy writting, so even if no one accepts them I still will have had fun anyway and it can't hurt to send them out since I went through the trouble to write them in the first place.
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| Author: | Matt Cowan [ Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:04 pm ] |
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| Author: | ristow [ Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:28 pm ] |
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| Author: | David T. Wilbanks [ Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:30 pm ] |
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| Author: | Mark Justice [ Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:19 pm ] |
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| Author: | Nanci [ Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:44 pm ] |
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| Author: | David T. Wilbanks [ Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:57 pm ] |
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| Author: | Grim Rictus [ Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:45 pm ] |
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| Author: | Mark Justice [ Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:13 pm ] |
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| Author: | Mark Justice [ Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:14 pm ] |
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