Writing: By The Numbers

*cracks knuckles*

Let’s do this. 

As an aspiring writer with a following that is still a work in progress get off my baCK ‘KAY HERMONO? I’M WORKING ON IT, I do not have a lot going on in the writing sense. Outside of my part time job, the projects I’m pounding out are barely anything compared to the work load of a profession. But it warrants exploring what kind of time and effort that takes. So I’m going to break it down by the most exciting metric I can think of. Numbers. 

*Skip to the last few paragraphs for The Point (TM). 

THE MONSTER MYSTERY

THE BOOK CURRENTLY OUT FOR SUBMISSION

As the title suggests, the active narrative work on this sucker is done for now. It is awaiting an offer, Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise. So right now the focus is on market research and submission. We’re in Query Land folks, the least successful amusement park since 63% of Wisconsin. (Not just the water parks, mind you. Wisconsin as a whole.) This project took 2 years to get to in submittable-shape, most of that period spent splitting my focus between it and school work. 

DRAFTING: 6 months

EDITING: 1.5 Years

DRAFTS: 3

SUBMITTING: Ongoing

SUBMITTED: 23

REJECTED: 7

IGNORED: 2 (probably. Who knows. This business is slow.)

FEELINGS HURT: Exactly 4

THE NIGHTMARE THRILLER

STILL IN PRE-PRODUCTION

I’m still in the process of putting all the pieces together. This includes a lot of reading, interviewing, journaling, conceptualizing, so on and so forth. Turns out, dreams are tricky. Trying to nail down exactly how to write them, along with figuring out how to handle the overflowing Controversial Material (TM) that keeps on popping up in the book is-hang on, let me check my notes-

*knocks down tower of papers on desk

*shuffles through mess on floor and plucks a single sheet of paper

*squints at paper

-hard.

RESEARCH & DRAFTING: 4 Months and still ongoing

THE SHORT STORIES

Here, at least, I can offer you lovely readers some conclusive data. Not all that much, however, because that’d just be too much fun. To give some context, writing and sending out short stories is like the lite version of sending out a novel. Doesn’t take as long to write them, you skip the middle man, don’t have to do as much research on your markets, and sometimes don’t have to wait as long for a reply. Yet, somehow, rejection still packs the same punch. 

ANYHOO. 

Mr. Pascal’s Funeral Parlor - 1 Month

WRITTEN: 1 week. Back in high school. 

DRAFTS: 1 

SUBMITTED: 1

ACCEPTED: 1

*don’t ask me how I did this. I don’t know how I did this. I haven’t been able to do this again.

The Great Oak of Hypothetical Nowhere - Submission Ongoing

WRITTEN: 1 month

DRAFTS: 3

SUBMITTING: On Hiatus. Like Twenty One Pilots. 

SUBMITTED: 9 

REJECTED: 9

PRIDE: HA. Itsfine. 

Siren - 3 Months

WRITTEN: 1 week

DRAFTS: 2

SUBMITTED: 4

REJECTED: 3

ACCEPTED: HECK YEAH BABY. NON-PAYING SCHOOL MAGAZINE STILL COUNTS. 

Jack vs. The Bloody Carpet - 2 Years

WRITTEN: 3 weeks

DRAFTS: 2.5

SUBMITTED: 19

REJECTED: 15

IGNORED: 1

ACCEPTED: FRICK. YES. 

Ann - 5 Months

WRITTEN: 1 month

DRAFTS: 6 

SUBMITTED: 4

REJECTED: 3

ACCEPTED:

 

Quesadillas of Questionable Origin - Submission Ongoing

WRITTEN: 1 afternoon

DRAFTS: 2

SUBMITTING: Ongoing 

SUBMITTED: 3

REJECTED: 3

PRIDE: Could be worse. I’m not dead. That counts for something, right?

ONGOING PROJECTS

Here’s a look into the workshop, all the things that could come to be. Clock them in at about 800-1800 words a piece, meaning they take a good afternoon to write if the juices are flowing. 

*Linda and the Chosen One’s Ring - Short Story - Submission Prep

*Dragon in the Hearth - Short Story - Draft 2

*A Change of Pace - Graphic Short - Draft 1

*God and the Process of Grief: A character study of A Monster Calls - Article - Pitched

*Piracy and Intellectual Property - Blog - Researching/Drafting

*Letting Your Writing Be Cheesy - Blog - Outlining

*Christianity’s Relationship with Art - Blog - Researching

*Improving Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Ending - Video Essay - Written ALL THE WAY BACK IN 1965 WHEN MILK WAS A NICKEL, CHURCHES WERE FULL ON SUNDAY MORNIN’S, AND THE MOTOZOLA RAZOR WAS STILL A COOL PHONE.

Ahem. 

Videos are hard.

So there it is. That’s the stuff I have recorded. Not an exhaustive list by any means but it’s a start. Not counting the stuff I tried to send out before college or the comic I tried to self-publish once upon a time because that is another post altogether.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because you ought to know that even in the barest of efforts, even when you distill it down to just the numbers, writing takes. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes guts. It takes heart. Put all the mushy starving artist nobody-respects-ART-man sentiments in a drawer and you’ve got a career that demands you sacrifice your evenings, weekends, days off, whatever you have feed the machine. And it won’t sustain you until the planets align in your favor. It’s a crazy business, mate. You gotta be crazy to be in it.