Sunday 23 December 2012

The Short Story Writer: Coping with a Dry Spell

If you write and submit short stories, it's likely that you'll go through a dry spell at some point. That's a period of time when you've not selling either nothing at all or much less than you'd like.

And these droughts can last months or even years and can be very discouraging. So I thought that I'd look at strategies that can help a writer overcome these lean times, to help you manage their feelings while experiencing a dry spell.

It's not advice, as such, as some of these strategies are contradictory. But I hope if you're experiencing a dry spell and feeling bad about it, you can take something away from this.


  • Remember that you're not alone. Many writers experience times when they're not selling and many feel that they're never going to sell again. Many writers take years, decades to make that first sale. Participate in writers forums for moral support.
  • Remember that writers are the worst judges of their own work. Keep on subbing.
  • Take a writing holiday. But be clear to set a return to your writing. Recharge the creative well with whatever takes your fancy.
  • If not a complete writing break, try something new. Work on critiques for writing friends. Read craft books.Consider self publishing. Write on your blog.
  • If you've sold a story before consider reprint subs. These can be a real boost. And they're risk free. You've already sold the story, right?
  • Concentrate on what you can control (production and submitting) rather than what  you can't (acceptances). 
  • Celebrate what you've achieved in the past.
  • Beware of feelings. Don't get caught up with non-productive rejectomancy
  • Remember the time delay. Stories often take months, even years to sell. 
  • If you're subbing to very competitive markets, consider selling to a more 'approachable' market. 

Have you ever experienced a dry spell? Or maybe you haven't sold anything--yet. What strategies do you use to cope?

15 comments:

  1. Great advice to motivate us for the year ahead. Thanks, Deborah and all good wishes for 2013.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same to you L. Thanks for your support this year.

      Delete
  2. There's also the foreign markets. Douglas Smith runs an excellent listing at http://www.smithwriter.com/foreign_market_list.htm

    These long gaps can be intensely frustrating or disheartening. On the other hand, nobody made you become a writer, it was your choice. I think it's useful to remind yourself about why you started and why you still write - becasue you want to, because you enjoy it. Because, perhaps, it's just what you do. That's the heart of the frustration - you've written, and now you want to reach an audience.

    What I find most difficult is acceptances and sales that dawdle into actual print. My longest wait so far is four years. At the moment I've got two - one of which I've been paid for, that are over two years in that horrible limbo.

    Best wishes and luck for 2013,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent suggestion, David. I got a story reprint published in the Danish 'Proxima' this year using Douglas Smith's list. Such fun.

      Delete
  3. Great advice. I've been going through a bit of a dry spell on the short fiction front, but I think that's because my mind has been on novels, so I'm not getting stressed about it. It will all change around soon enough.

    Hope you have a great Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Merry Christmas, Simon. Don't your short story powers by concentrating on novels. (can that happen?) I'd miss your short stories.

      Delete
  4. Sure, I had two years between my first and second sale at professional rates (and I sold no stories at sub-professional rates during that time, either). It is definitely a thing that happens. You just have to keep moving forward. I think sometimes the temptation is to write stories that are similar to the ones that sold, but I don't think that's the right thing to do. One should keep moving ahead and breaking new ground. Often, there's an adjustment period as you develop new styles, new techniques, new voices: things don't sound quite right at first and you produce stories that are worse than the ones you produced when you were only deploying techniques that you'd aleady mastered. However, experimentation eventually allows you to produce better stories than you ever could've produced before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's interesting, Rahul. I like the idea of progressing forward in terms of craft, even if sometimes it feels like it's one step forward, two steps back. I'd like to be more focussed in terms of development. I have come with a theory about story plotting this year. 2013 could be the time to develop it.

      Delete
  5. Some great points you listed, Deborah, especially concentrating on what you can control (production and submitting).

    David and 'blotter-paper' also had some good points. Writers write because they love to, so focusing on that gets us through the dry spells, but those can also be a great time to experiment, try something new too. Those are the main three I connect with.

    Best of luck with your stories in 2013, Deb, and thanks always for your support.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You haven't had any dry spells this year, Erin! But it's alway good to experiment.

      Reading your and Rahul's post has made me wonder if I've been in a rut this year. Focussing too much on production mabye

      Delete
  6. For me it's not dry spells, I'm mostly dry with wet patches. My coping strategies are 1) Threatening to quit 2) Buying all the reduced-price cakes in Sainsbury's and eating them in one sitting.

    The most important thing for writers is to see other writers discussing such things so that they realize it's not just them, it's normal to run into blocks, and I applaud you for doing this.

    Colum

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like your strategies, Colum. At times it can seem like the world and his dog are grabbing fistful's of acceptances. That's why I like to talk about stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good advice.

    I've been lucky enough to sell quite a few stories, but I still have longish spells where I get no acceptances. I cope by getting as much stuff out as possible, to increase my chances. Cake helps too though, Colum is right about that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Keep on subbing" -- that's the stuff. And the idea of more "approachable" markets is good, too. If all I did was sub to the top tier, I'd have given up a long time ago.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Deborah,
    I just found this post while searching on this topic as it relates to writers, and I wanted to thank you for posting it--very helpful and insightful with many good points!

    Anita

    ReplyDelete