John Woodington The official site for the author.

A New (Canadian) Novella PublisherPosted by John Woodington on March 30th, 2010

A couple days ago my novella “Goodwill” was rejected by a publisher.  Boo hoo.  So, of course, I went to find another place that I might submit to.  A little searching showed me that many contests for novellas are out of date online, and that certain publishers aren’t taking the time to remove these frustrating pages from the interwebs.  A little more searching led me to Short Sharp Shock, a publisher out of Canada that only publishes novellas.  What a glorious find.  Finally, someone out there cares about the novella form other than Miami University Press.  I sent Short Sharp Shock a query for my novella, and am eagerly awaiting their clever, Canadian rejection letter.

It is still difficult finding publishers that take novella-length submissions, and actually read them with the intent of possibly publishing them.  Many places I know and read accept novella-length submissions, but only very rarely do they publish them (I’m looking at you, Missouri Review and your little “Bearskin”).  It’s very refreshing to find publishers like Short Sharp Shock that actually enjoy novellas and desire to publish them.

So goes my crusade to bring the novella to the forefront of the publishing industry.

The Novel Editing Process, and the NCAA Tournament. And Lolita.Posted by John Woodington on March 26th, 2010

I edited through a couple chapters of AlieNation on my lunch break yesterday, and found some good stuff and some bad stuff, which seems to be the way of things with this novel, and with writing in general.  I’ve been trying to think ahead, to plan the steps I need to take to get this novel from its current state to a finished, submittable format.  Right now, I’m going through, just trying to cut out the fluff in as large of sections as I can, and so far I’ve cut about 30 pages, which is great.  I’ve purposely been skipping some of the more minuscule revisions in this draft, and I’ve also been putting off doing some of the more reworking-minded things.

As I go through the manuscript, I take notes about the things that strike me as strange, or in need of rework, or in need of bolstering (thematically, usually).  After I get through this Cut-Out-The-Crap revision, I’m thinking I’ll do an Add-In-And-Bolster-The-Theme revision, followed by a Home-And-Refine-The-Language revision.  After that, I should be about done.  Then comes the daunting task of finding a new agent.

*ominous music swells in the background*

I just finished reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and I’ll say that it was very well-written, especially for someone who’s native language is Russian, but who did, in fact, write the novel in English.  The story itself was quite unsettling, and while I hear there are a couple similarly unsettling Hollywood treatments of this text, I think I’ll avoid them.  What I’ve seen in my mind’s eyes does not need to be seen by my actual eyes.  Come on, Humbert.  Get your act together.

In the meantime, I’m enchanted by the NCAA basketball tournament, and by how quickly my prediction bracket has become a useless mess of scribbles and crossed-out colleges.

Inspirations of GreatnessPosted by John Woodington on March 23rd, 2010

Here’s something short and sweet for you.  Every once in a while I stumble upon something that reminds me of what great writing is, and what I strive to write in my own fiction.  I came across this work in McSweeney’s, and it made me laugh so hard I cried.

It is titled “Cowboy Deaths, In Descending Order of Degree of Dignity.”

Hilary Duff’s Literary Master(fall to)piecesPosted by John Woodington on March 22nd, 2010

Little by little, I get further and further in my editing of my novel AlieNation, and little by little, I find that I’m liking what I’m seeing.  Apparently the first draft was written when my writing skills were feeling juiced up, because things are connecting, and that makes me happy.  Every once in a while I stumble upon a phrase or line of dialogue which I’d forgotten I’d wrote, and it makes me laugh.

In related news, I posted a short little poem to Fictionaut today, and I’m hoping for some good reviews.

In not-related news, I read about this book deal in my Publishers Lunch today:

Hilary Duff’s multiple-book YA series, starting with ELIXIR, combining the allure of a dangerous love triangle with thrilling international adventure as a young photojournalist travels the globe in a race to unravel a centuries-old mystery that could unlock the key to her soulmate’s true identity and the secret of her father’s disappearance.

So now you have something to put on your Christmas list for this year, under the category of “Works of High Literature I’d Like to Own.”

With More Drafts to ComePosted by John Woodington on March 16th, 2010

I’m 216 pages into the editing of my novel AlieNation, and things are starting to flow now.  I’m finding that there are certain areas which are a bit loose, but I’ll clean those up in the next draft.  Right now, I’m looking for stuff that doesn’t belong, or is just plain wrong.  Get rid of all the crap, then polish up the stuff that still needs to be there in some capacity.  The hardest part so far is when I want to add new content.  I’d like to rewrite and add some stuff to push the novel more closely to its underlying themes, though I have a feeling this will be a separate draft all in itself.  We’ll see.

In publishing news, I should be getting the online proofs of my short story “Jasper Tilson,” which is set to appear in the next issue of Slow Trains, due out later this month.  I eagerly anticipate their arrival, as I’ve never had the pleasure of reviewing proofs for my own story before.  Usually the publishers just mock it up and print it how they want it.  So I consider this a new level in my publishing life.

I shall mini-celebrate with my friend Earl Grey right now.

Writing for the Money (or not)Posted by John Woodington on March 11th, 2010

I get a daily email newsletter called Publishers Lunch that lists the new book deals that have been signed and gives a rough estimate of what sort of advance the authors get on said deals.  I used it in the past to generate a list of agents to query, but now I just use it for entertainment, as well as honing my email deletion skills.  Reading through Publishers Lunch today, I came across this deal, which surprised me:

Gordon Lish’s GORDON LISH: COLLECTED FICTIONS, the first complete collection of the short work of the celebrated and controversial writer, editor and teacher dubbed “Captain Fiction,” in a nice deal, to John Oakes of OR Books, by the author (world).
john.oakes@orbooks.com

Now, Gordon Lish is a guy I only know because of his connection to Raymond Carver, a favorite author of mine, whom Lish edited (and in many cases edited quite substantially).  I knew he was a writer and did his own stories, and taught creative writing at the university level, so a collection of his short fiction isn’t unexpected.  What surprises me about this particular deal is that amount of money he got for the deal.  Publishers Lunch calls this a “Nice Deal”, which they categorize as a deal in the range of $1 – $49,000.

Now, the high end of that range is nothing to sniff at, but as you can guess, this is the lowest range Publishers Lunch gives for book deals (the high end is categorized as a “Major Deal” at $500,000 and up).  I’m surprised that a collection by someone as literarily (not a real word) accomplished as Lish would be in the lowest category for advances.  You’d think that after a lifetime of work, he’d be able to command higher paychecks.  What this tells me is that critical success doesn’t always translate into dollars.  No surprise there.  How many times do we see novels that are critically slammed sell millions of copies?

In light of this realization, I shall change my writing habits and style to generate less critically-popular work, in the hopes that inferior writing will lead to a brighter career.

Just kidding.

A 5% Reduction in Manuscript PagesPosted by John Woodington on March 8th, 2010

I’m making progress on my edit of my novel AlieNation.  This thing started out at 463 pages, and is now down to 440, which I calculate to be about a 5% reduction in manuscript pages (like the title of this post says.  See what I did there?  Right?)  I’d say this is pretty good as far as edits go, because I’m not even halfway through the manuscript, so I’m hoping to cut off a good bit more by the end of this particular edit.  I’d like to get down to 400 pages in this draft, but we’ll see.  That’d be almost a 14% reduction in pages, which is more than my original goal of 10%.

Note to self and everyone else: I think I got that 10% goal from Stephen King’s On Writing.  Don’t know why I stick with it.  I don’t really like King’s work (Except for On Writing, which is great), but I respect him for the sole fact that he gets stuff done.  And I want to get this thang done.  I think he gets stuff done well enough to use the phrase “git ‘r done” at his readings and talks, but I’m not sure.

I’m also finding that putting time aside to work on editing is difficult, mostly because I enjoy the writing part of things more than the editing.  That said, nothing I write ever gets published unless I edit the snot out of it, and since I want this story to be successful, I’ll hunker down and put in my time with it to make it the best I can.  I’m just lacking a bit of motivation, naw meen?

And I just saw this: it’s called a Vook, and it is an eBook that you both read and watch, as it contains video.  Is this cool?  Maybe.  Not sure, since I don’t own any of the necessary technology to read/watch any Vooks.  Also, the word “Vook” just sounds too much like a person with a Russian accent trying to curse in English.  What the H is that about?

The New Yorker Rejection LetterPosted by John Woodington on March 5th, 2010

I submitted a story to The New Yorker on December 4th of last year.  Exactly three months to the day later, March 4th, 2010, I received the most current version of their standard rejection letter (email).  It reads as follows:

Dear John,

We’re sorry to say that this manuscript is not right for us, in spite of its evident merit. Unfortunately, we are receiving so many submissions that it is impossible for us to reply more specifically. We thank you for the chance to consider your work.

Sincerely,
The Editors

I told them not to be so long-winded in their response but they never listen to me.  I just hope the exactly-three-month rejection time isn’t some blatant indication that they never read the story in the first place.  I’d rather be rejected than not considered at all.

…

In more promising news, Glimmer Train has a $2000.00 top prize in their Fiction Open competition, which is accepting submissions currently.  So maybe I’ll send this New Yorker-rejected story to them.

I’m 150 pages into my edit of my novel AlieNation which is looking more and more like the title will change to either Alien Nation or The Alien Abduction Consultant, though the latter seems very bland and not-thoughtful.  I’m finding that there are certain section which are far easier for me to edit than others.  The most difficult sections to edit are the ones where I read through them, realize they are redonkulously horrible, and then agonize for an hour about cutting it out.  After the cuts are made, however, everything feels better.  Onward and upward.

2010 Pronunciation Support, and EditingPosted by John Woodington on March 2nd, 2010

Just thought I would let you know that my campaign to get people to pronounce this year “twenty-ten” instead of “two thousand ten” has gained steam.  There’s a t-shirt you can buy that may or may not help further this worthy cause.  It can be found over at BustedTees.

I’ve gotten to the point in editing my novel where I find there are certain things I know should be cut, but I feel a pang of fear that I will be cutting something that I will inevitably want to use in a later draft.  My remedy to this conundrum?  Paste every major thing I cut into a document called “Stuff Cut From AlieNation.doc”.  Now tell me that ain’t a great idea raht thar.