Just Write

Well, I dropped down to one post per week, and there was no rioting in the streets. I'm not sure anyone even noticed. And that’s fine. I know my content's been a little underwhelming as of late. I'm going to blame it on work. Basically, my schedule got all switched around, and I've been given new responsibilities. It just exhausts me. So I'm sorry my writing regimen has sucked lately.

I think I need to think more about seriously publishing. It's the goal, after all. Now, the rom-com I'm writing right now will never be seen by human eyes, so obviously I'm going to have to do some new writing.

But what? The age old question. What do I write?

Who Am I?

I'm trying to get the story posts back to the weekend, so we're going to talk about some other shit today. Namely, names.

Specifically, my name.

I've mentioned at some point in the past (I don't remember when, I have over 200 posts, man) that I had this whole debate about pseudonyms and whether or not I wanted to use one. I was going to. That's why the blog is under Mad Cooper. That's what I was going to publish as, when I got around to publishing. But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like the idea. It would be a pain in the ass, more than likely, and I'd have to set up some kind of "doing business as" thing if I wanted to get paid. And I realized that people would potentially address me as "Mrs. Cooper," and I definitely didn't want that. There's a reason that's not my last name. It doesn't suit me.

What Now?

As I said before, I do intend to revise/fix/rewrite The Long Road, this year's NaNo novel. Just… not right now. I think we need some time apart. It's not you, it's definitely me. I'm the one without a proper plot.

So we're going to put that on the back burner for the time being. Let it stew a little. Marinate, even. We want it to be tender when we tear it apart. So then the question becomes: what are we doing now?

Well, usually around this time of year, I remember that one of my almae matres puts out a literary publication every year, and the deadline is the end of January. And then I'll hammer out a short story in a week or two and submit it. If you haven't been around since the beginning of the blog, that's what initially started the whole thing. I had just made my first submission. It didn't get published, but it was a step in the right direction. I was making the effort.

A Tense Post

First order of business, I finally heard back from that local publication I submitted to back in the end of January. They didn't want the story. And that's fine. It's actually good. For one thing, I submitted it under the pseudonym I have since decided not to use. And for another, it means you get to read it here. Right now.

Without further ado, I present "Save Yourself."

This was, as far as I know, the only story I've ever written in the present tense. You might ask why. Well, for one thing, present tense creates a sort of sense of urgency, because it's happening right now, rather than being told in past tense from some  future perspective. But I didn't set out to do that. I didn’t have some grand plan about how this would work, and how the story was best told in present tense.

Rather, when I had the idea for the story, I scribbled down a brief moment, ending with "And… the safety's on," which is in present tense. That's just how I scribbled it. And it wouldn't sound right in past tense. So the whole story became present tense.

What's in a Name?

In the past year, I've gone from "Maybe I'll get something published someday" to "Let's try to get something published." It's a slightly more active approach. I'm starting to take into account whether a given story or a given scene would appear to a wider audience. I've looked up literary magazines that might suit my style. Basically, publishing has become a goal, rather than a distant possibility of something that might, somehow, happen.

And lately I've been thinking about how I want to be known, should I ever achieve that goal. Is publishing under a pseudonym the best idea?

On the "pro" side, it gives me some anonymity, not putting my real name out there in the world. Those of you who actually know me will know that I have a very common name, and a pseudonym would let me stand out more.

On the "con" side, if I use this name, I have to use this name. As in, that would be who I am. If I was ever known, by anyone, I'd have to be able to sign "Mad Cooper" (and I can't write a cursive "p"), people would call me Mrs. Cooper (some of you may know how I feel about that), and I'd have to adopt this whole other persona.

How Far We've Come

It's been a year (367 days, technically) since I started this thing. So what do I have to show for it?

• 1 50,000 word novel
• 2 10,000 word novelettes
• 6 short stories, varying lengths
• 108 blog posts (including this one)

That may not seem like a lot, but that's about 77,000 words of just fiction, while first finishing my degree and then working full time. Nine distinct worlds, each with their own characters and rules and personality. And still thinking of something half-intelligent to say twice a week. That's a lot of writing.

But nothing published, you remind me.

That's true. I set out to be a "real" writer. That is, a writer who makes money writing, or at least is known beyond their group of friends. A writer who has their words printed in a book somewhere. And I haven't done that. Yet.

Pounding Words Into Submission

So, what's new? Well, I've hit 2,000 views, so that's pretty cool. And yes, that's over the course of basically an entire year, but it's still exciting to me. Let me have my moment!

The other thing is that I've finished a story to my liking and sent it off to be considered for publication. The deadline is today, and I excel at waiting until the last second. I finally managed to write a story that's not entirely dialogue. It's two and a bit pages long, and I think there are eight lines of dialogue. I actually set out to write something with no dialogue, and this is what I ended up with.

The story is also written in present tense, which is something I've never done before. Admittedly, that happened because I had one line that ended up around the middle that was in present tense, and it just wouldn't have been the same in past tense. Present tense has a sort of urgency, like all this is happening right now. And that's what this story needed.

Head in the Clouds

Sorry I'm late. I had a job interview earlier, so I didn't want to stay up all night writing the blog post I had forgotten about. So here we are.

I've started writing my story, finally. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. It's tentatively called "Losing Daylight" and it's taking a while to get started. I spent probably an hour yesterday trying to think of a name for the airship.