It has been a little over a year that I have actively been pursuing publication of my short stories. I wish this was where I could tell all about all the progress that has been made, but all I can honestly discuss is form letters and rejection notices. Plenty could be said about either of these, but it would all simply down to “they suck.”
Everything I’ve read about all these tremendously successful writers getting rejected on their first 100 submissions and all the stuff I’ve read about editors not reading a writer’s stuff if there isn’t a marketable reason they should take the chance of publishing the name doesn’t help me not be bummed out by the “no thanks” letters. I do get a weird determination from the letters though. It’s not as cocky as thinking well, you’ll be sorry. It’s more along the lines of just not letting the last thing I hear about my writing to be negative. There’ll be a break somewhere… and that’s where Godzilla comes into the picture.
I really don’t like most cheesy writer’s prompts. Too many of them paint the writer into a corner as to where the writing can go and all too often, where the writing prompt leads the writer is to commonplace and cliches. I especially hate them when they are overly touchy-feely.
While bored at work one day, just like many other days, I started in with some serious Google research. Imporant stuff, like what new movies are coming out, what off-season moves NBA teams made, what idiot made a new jackass-style stunt video. After the truly intellectual stuff, i then returned to my most common search, info on publishing markets. I stumbled across a really cheesy prompt on a writer’s resource website that inspired a need in me to mock it and all its cheese-filled glory. I can’t remember exactly what it said, but it was something about writing a personal journal entry from your present character’s point of view, revealing his or her innermost feeling and take them to the place inside of them that’s special and they never let anyone else see…blah, blah, blah. Somehow, and I still haven’t figured out where this thought came from, I decided it would be funny to write this type of journal from Godzilla’s point of view.
I spent the next few mintues writing Godzilla’s Journal and when I got done, I figured there was only one person that would really think it was as entertaining to read as it was for me to write, so I emailed to my friend Scott. I thought everyone else I knew would give me that look I’ve grown very familiar with that says Really? This is what you think is funny?
Scott read it and responded that I had to send it in to McSweeney’s Internet Tendency “Post Haste.” If you haven’t checked that site out, please do. It’s great satirical work, updated several times a week. We’ve both been fans of the site for some years now, so it was pretty surprising and exciting when they said the Godzilla thing was hilarious and they were going to use it.
I still didn’t see this as related to a writing career. A couple of days later, I did see a potential tie-in. I thought that maybe if I got a few pieces posted there, I could claim in my submission letters to be a regular contributor. I’ve been rejected several times in trying to do so.
Several more days past by and I got an email from McSweeney’s saying that some guy wanted to turn my piece into an online comic. I’d never heard of that and mistakenly assumed it was going to be an animated thing. In checking out the guy’s site, though, neomonsterisland.com, I found out it was more like an online comic strip or comic book, featuring still pictures with captions. It was pretty funny and very strange to see something I wrote as a goof be recreated visually. I still didn’t see it as a chance to improve my chances as a writer.
What finally made me see that maybe this was a marketing tool like I’d been looking for was a website called BluePrintReview.com. See, it was another one of those extremely rare days that I was bored at work and searching the Internet for anything interesting and this website has a great section of suggested reads. When i opened it up this time, though, I saw my name. It totally didn’t register at first. It just seemed foreign there. Especially because the other pieces listed as suggested reads were in the New Yorker or similar publications and here was my thing about the feelings of a giant lizard right there with them.
I got all geeked up and wondered what else might be out there that links to the Godzilla thing, so i went and Goggled myself, which sounds suspiciously like something that has been accused of making people go blind, but it’s really quite harmless. What I found was several people linking to the Godzilla piece in their weblogs and even one site that lists notable authors that had a page for me that “tracks his latest work.” Now, granted there were several hundred other writers with their own pages, too, but still…tracks my latest work? Because of Godzilla? It was the first time I’d ever been publicly or at least officially called a writer. Maybe it’s a little middle-schoolish of me, but it was really exciting.
So, now my submission letters, instead of just suggesting to editors Hey, it’s a good story and people might like it. I got nothin’ to base that on, but come on, take a chance, talk about my satirical work (sounds much more impressive than “my Godzilla stuff”) has been featured on this website and suggested by this website. And the letter suggests the editor track my latest work on this other website. I realize that this isn’t the same as having a strong track record of published stories and a collection of various awards, but maybe it’s a foot in the door. A big, scaly, giant lizard foot.
So with something a little more concrete to give me some hope than what i usually grasp onto, I thought that if this does turn out to be the break, I wanted share that expereince or at least track it. With my outstanding organizational skills, I know if I simply kept a written journal, it would most likely get misplaced or forgotten about. For the same reason I switched from legal pads to Microsoft Word, I’m keeping track of what hopefully becomes my writing career right here.
