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Not much work done the last couple of days. Jeff's taken the week off from work and so we've been doing things with the kids. Yesterday we went to Elitch Gardens amusement park and spent the day there. Finally got back to work today, starting off with getting some critiquing done. I also went over the galley of "Night Bird Soaring" for GUD, and for the first time, I've actually felt really good about a story that's been accepted. I'm not sure why, but usually after I've sold a story and read through the galley, one of my reactions is "Good grief this is horrible! What was the editor thinking to buy this?" I'd like to think that I have a lot of confidence in what I write, but obviously it's not as much confidence as I'd like to have. How to get over this, I don't know, but for the first time, I read a galley and came away feeling "that's a story to be proud of." I think it may have something to do with the fact that usually when I'm reading a galley, I find all sorts of things I wished I'd done differently but now it's too late. This story though I went through draft after draft, critique by a couple of my most trusted readers, and even was critiqued by Carina Gonzalez through her Zen Pen critique service. This story even got me out of the slush at F&SF. It ended up at a semi-pro magazine, but a snazzy-looking one with editors that showed great devotion to the copy-editing process (this is kind of interesting because I've seen references to bad copy editing in reviews of the first issue, so obviously they took that criticism seriously and made efforts to correct that. Copy editor Julia Bernd even went to so far as to check my Nahuatl and help me correct and streamline what I'd pretty much put together from a jumble of difference sources--I have much better reference books now than I did when I originally wrote this story). I really have nothing but good stuff to say so far about my experience with GUD and encourage everyone to submit their work there. The icing on the cake would be if the story comes with an illustration (I don't know if it does. I probably won't find out until my contributor's copy comes). Anyway, this is the first time that I've read the galley and thought, "I really love this story." It might get thoroughly torn apart in reviews, but I don't think that would change my opinion of it; for me it's my favorite of my published works.
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tlmorganfield- T. L. Morganfield
- tlmorganfield.com
Comments
It would sure make editing easier, for one thing *g*
Congratulations about the story, it's great!
In a way, I'm a bit afraid that because I like this story so much that it will get bad reviews. I of course want people to like it as much as I do. But that's out of my hands now.
See, I really want mine to have little brothers and sisters *LOL*
I wonder if what the writer sees and the editors sees are both right. I mean, different levels of right, sure, but stories are complex. I think this is what they touch on when they (people) talk about shorts being difficult to write. There are layers to a story, and it's actually part of the enjoyment that the reader (or editor or writer) brings his or her own filters to the mix, too.
Your story is going to do fine! I feel it.
So, are you going to flash this weekend? You should, really--loads of us are, getting ready for a huge bunch on the first. C'mon, it'd be great!
Belated congratulations, especially at being able to feel pleased at what you've accomplished. Hooray!