to market, to market, to sell my funny stories

Okay, it's confession time here. I really am dedicated to being a writer. I am dedicated to each of the stories I'm writing. I think about my books throughout the day, in the midst of daily duties as a wife, mother, CEO of our household. But, doggone it I haven't written anything new all month!

I've been writing, yes--rewriting. Reworking a short story with the help of my brilliant critique group and getting it ready to send off. This is a huge challenge to me. The marketing side of things, and the time it takes to hunt down good markets and send stuff out, generally overwhelm me. It's so much easier just to write, but unfortunately, I'm one of those crazy people who actually want somebody to READ my stuff.

I do intend to send off two pieces this week: the short story, and a short humor piece. One publication said their only criterion was that it make them laugh out loud. I read their archived humor pieces and mine is really, honestly MUCH funnier. So I take heart. I qualify. But there seem to be some restrictions on what they accept--like coming from their home state. Sigh. Foiled again.

editing, rewriting, and reconstruction

Any writer who's accomplished anything tells us they rewrite and rewrite and sometimes throw the whole thing out and start over after all that work. I figure by the time anyone is published, they must make about 25 cents an hour on the deal--if that. Evan Marshall in The Marshall Plan Workbook, a book about structuring not just your novel, but your writing career, has a great first section that brings home the financial reality of most writers' lives: "Any of us can name writers with healthy six-figure incomes who have no need to undertake any additional work to support themselves. And as an agent I can tell you that many writers who are patient eventually work their way up to advances and royalties large enough to live on. But to expect this kind of monetary reward from your novels one, two or even five books into your career can be a big mistake."

FIVE books in? Heck, I'm only a half a book in and I already know there's no money here unless someone buys it for a film. I'm not writing the kind of book that is going to be a crazy, trendsetting novel. I'm writing a romantic comedy, a mostly light, sometimes thoughtful expose of a looney woman who has to write fiction, deal with her relationship with her father, and juggle a day job. In that sense, it's mostly biographical. Except that she's nothing like me in personality--or is she? I've discussed that before. I never know how much I'm revealing about myself, but I do know that I have to finish the book before I can start the real work on it--editing, rewriting and reconstructing in part. I already did the part of throwing most of it out, so I hope I can skip that this round.