And the NaNo project....

Continues apace. I have three outlines (of seven) in the can, and now I'm poking the Plot Bunny Hutch for the fourth. I have five pages in 10pt Times New Roman of random ideas. Sometimes I combine more than one idea into a story, such as "tattoos that come to life" and "small-town sheriff who is also a wizard." I really need to revisit that one as well--maybe I will after I fix Ghost Ship, since it looks like I'm going to have all kinds of time at the end of the month to do so.

I realized the other day that I used to not outline because I figured I could just use the time more productively in actual writing. I've always been a pantser, since Day One. Sure, I'll make notes to myself in the process of pantsing my way through a story, but formal outlines have never been a Thing for me. I'm still not sure how "formal" these outlines are, but they give me structure and events and order.

The process of actually outlining has made me realize what a valuable tool this actually is. It will be nice to actually have an ending in mind (for once) that I'm headed toward, rather than flailing around and trying to figure it out while I'm getting there. Each of these outlines has taken a little over a day to do, and I really think they're going to save me time and anguish in the long run.

At the same time, I'm not married to the outlines. If the story decides to take an abrupt left turn because the characters are looking at me and going "Yeah, no, honey," well, then, I've often said "I don't control these people; they just keep me around to write stuff down."

So far, it's been a very interesting experiment. We'll see how it shakes out in the actual writing.

*massive, heavy sigh*

Annnnd Won His Soul has garnered its second rejection.

The next place I want to send it to only takes snail mail subs.

The thing is over 15,000 words long. Seventy-four pages, plus cover letter.

Not only is that a large investment in ink and postage and time in line, but, dude. The chances of getting it published in that particular market are vanishingly small. On the other hand, at least I'll know in a week or so if they want it, because they have a nicely fast turnaround time.

But markets that pay professional rates are thin on the ground for something like this. The length is problematic. Duotrope's gives me eight results that are semi-pro and up. Of those, two are unsuitable; one is for kids (which this is defintely not) and one is a shared universe (which this is not a part of). One is a contest whose results will not be announced until June. I've got something at Tor right now, so they're out. I have something at TM as well; although they do take multiple subs. I'm not sure they'd want it anyway, because there's some "graphic content" in there (whatever that means, hoo-boy, but I'm pretty sure that some of the stuff that happens in it would greatly squick more sensitive readers. I pulled no punches with this one.) It's already been at WotF.

This leaves two on the list, one of which pays a penny a word, and one not on the list, which pays a flat $100. Which, you know, okay, but I'd rather get pro rates if I can, because who wouldn't. So it seems I have little choice in the matter but to jump through this particular hoop, if I want a chance at getting my Magnum Opus actually published someplace that will pay me serious money for it.

You can't win if you don't enter.

Right?