[Writingworkshop] Last Person Singular
Antony Nigel Donovan
and at MIT.EDU
Sun Jun 21 11:43:03 EDT 2009
None of this is meant to discourage you from submitting the work.
Conventional wisdom says it will be more difficult to get a longer story
published. Maybe things have changed (my view of conventional wisdom
may be out-of-date).
The way Joe spoke about it, the longer the story the more likely you
have to be a well known author in order to get it in a magazine. So
that might be between the lines. Also, the longer the story, the less
likely it is to be finished by a slush reader. I don't know if the
pieces you've published (prominently highlighted in a cover letter) will
get you out of the slush pile.
Joe did tell me that Asimov's was more likely to take longer pieces, but
that was when Gardner Dozois was the editor. He liked novelettes and
novellas more than the norm.
Again, I don't think you should make it shorter, but you may get
rejections because of the length. If that happens, I still don't think
you should make it shorter, but just try somewhere else.
Sorry that I didn't make my points clear in my first response.
Antony
On Sun, 2009-06-21 at 22:02 +1000, Neale Morison wrote:
> I read the Asimov's guidelines:
> http://www.asimovs.com/info/guidelines.shtml
> They don't seem to be saying don't submit 11000 word stories. But
> there may be something between the lines.
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Antony Nigel Donovan<and at mit.edu> wrote:
> > I'll give it another read looking for that stuff (probably tomorrow).
> >
> > I don't think the story should be shorter. You need the length to
> > develop the story.
> >
> > Approximate lengths (in words):
> >
> > Short short - less than 2000 (some would say 1000)
> > Short story - 2000 to 5000 (occasionally up to 7500).
> > Novellette - 7500 to 20,000
> > Novella - 20,000 to 50,000
> > Novel - 50,000+
> >
> > There are definitions based on content and execution that can contradict
> > the above (and are probably more appropriate to an artistic or critical
> > view of a work - but that's not how publishing functions). All of this
> > is stuff I've seen in submission guidelines or Joe has told me (in class
> > and out). As Joe explained it, the 5000 word limit is so that the
> > magazine and anthology publishers can have more names in the table of
> > contents. Only well known writers can easily exceed that length. How
> > those limits apply to online publishing may differ markedly.
> >
> > About the cat, I think you might need to indicated it's failing health a
> > little more clearly. I'll know for sure after I re-read. Basically,
> > cats that don't die violently go one of three ways: a long, very slow
> > decline for a decade or more, frequently accumulating treatable maladies
> > along the way; a more rapid decline over a year or two - heart disease
> > and cancer not uncommon; a very rapid decline over a period of weeks.
> > The latter is frequently kidney disease which can be arrested if caught
> > early enough, so probably not what you want. It's unusual for cats to
> > die unexpectedly if their people take them for regular checkups (unless
> > you count the cat dying on borrowed time as unexpected).
> >
> > Other than that, the cat stuff works really well. The lap sitting while
> > he works at the computer is spot on (for certain cat personalities I
> > have known).
> >
> > I hope you can get it published at this length. It is the right length
> > for this story.
> >
> > Antony
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sat, 2009-06-20 at 11:34 +1000, Neale Morison wrote:
> >> Thanks Antony. If you can remember what the typos and the awkward bits
> >> are I would greatly appreciate it.
> >>
> >> This story has to be long enough to get a bit of historical sweep, and
> >> to establish the pace that makes the tiny events of child raising and
> >> cats and growing machine intelligence loom large. I can't think of how
> >> to cut it down either.
> >>
> >> I'll tweak it and prod it for a while and then maybe try it out and
> >> see if anyone will forgive me for writing over 7500 words. I knew it
> >> was going to be a bit long, but that limit is news to me. Where do you
> >> know it from?
> >>
> >> And by the way, you're the expert. Does the cat work?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Neale
> >>
> >>
> >> Antony Nigel Donovan wrote:
> >> > I found a couple of typos (but didn't write them down because I didn't
> >> > want to interrupt my reading). I also found a few awkward spots (ibid).
> >> >
> >> > I think it's a very good story in the AI genre. It seems to evolve
> >> > naturally towards a conclusion that isn't obvious, which is very good.
> >> > And you managed an ending interpretable as happy. Bravo.
> >> >
> >> > My only concern is that some of my appreciation of the story is related
> >> > to my knowledge of the man on whom the narrator is modeled. Oh, and that
> >> > the story is running close to eleven thousand words. I can't think of
> >> > how you'd cut it down to 7500 (standard max for great stories by
> >> > non-name authors).
> >> >
> >> > Antony
> >> >
> >> > On Fri, 2009-06-19 at 10:52 -0400, Adam Holland wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > wow!
> >> > >
> >> > > Excited to read it.
> >> > > And I hope to have some comments on the Uncomfortablists soon.
> >> > >
> >> > > On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Neale Morison
> >> > > <neale at nealemorison.com> wrote:
> >> > > http://www.nealemorison.com/writing/shortstories/LastPersonSingular.pdf
> >> > >
> >> > > The lead character in this story is someone you may recognize
> >> > > from Joe Haldeman's forum. He's been very helpful and reviewed
> >> > > it. He says he doesn't find it intrusive or exploitative.
> >> > >
> >> > > I looked back over the forum posts and I asked him if I could
> >> > > use him on 18 May. After I finished off Specs on 23rd May I
> >> > > spent a week and a half thinking about this and started
> >> > > writing on 3rd June. This took 12 days at a little over 850
> >> > > words a day for the first draft. Then I trickled out a second
> >> > > draft with minor tweaks at couple of hundred words a day.
> >> > >
> >> > > I'm starting to get over the compulsion to keep on going
> >> > > without a break for fear I'll never finish the story. It's a
> >> > > reasonable fear though. I have a long backlog of things
> >> > > started and not finished.
> >> > >
> >> > > I sent Specs to Asimov Magazine. We shall see.
> >> > >
> >> > > All the best,
> >> > > Neale
> >> > >
> >> > > --
> >> > > Neale Morison
> >> > > neale at nealemorison.com
> >> > > http://www.nealemorison.com
> >> > > 35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
> >> > > +61 417 661 427
> >> > >
> >> > >
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> >>
> >> --
> >> Neale Morison
> >> neale at nealemorison.com
> >> http://www.nealemorison.com
> >> 35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
> >> +61 417 661 427
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Writingworkshop mailing list
> >> Writingworkshop at nealemorison.org
> >> http://nealemorison.org/mailman/listinfo/writingworkshop_nealemorison.org
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