{"id":310,"date":"2017-09-04T15:38:52","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T19:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/dremadeoraich\/?p=310"},"modified":"2017-09-04T15:38:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T19:38:52","slug":"learning-by-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/04\/learning-by-doing\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning by Doing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I attended a science fiction workshop at The Muse Center<\/a> (in Norfolk, Virginia) a few days back and came away excited, motivated and inspired. (Thanks, Jason, Matt and John!) I also came away with some new resources, which I\u2019ll be adding to my links page soon.<\/p>\n

One of those new potential targets was Metaphorosis<\/a>, an online magazine for short fiction. I\u2019ve read some of the entries on the site; they\u2019re good. The zine pays, but the best part of its submission system is this: the editorial staff offers feedback if you ask for it.<\/p>\n

The editor, B. Morris Allen, rejected my story, but at least I know why<\/u>. First of all, my story\u2019s concept was familiar enough they could predict (accurately, I might add) the ending. Morris suggested if I\u2019m going to use a familiar concept, I have to do something new<\/em> with it. Okay. I can deal with that. Second, Morris (and\/or his team) rated my prose for that tale 3 out of 5, which basically means my prose was functional, but not exceptional. Could use some work. No problem. Now that I know where my weaknesses are, I can work toward improvement. In fact, the Hampton Roads Writers Conference<\/a> (coming up later this month) offers several breakout sessions for improving prose. I\u2019ll be attending as many as I can.<\/p>\n

The \u201coverly familiar concept\u201d thing is something I\u2019ll have to figure out. I stopped reading altogether for a long time, because I figured that if I was reading, I couldn\u2019t be writing, and I wanted to spend ALL my \u201cextra\u201d time writing. Wrong. Erroneous thinking, and this is an excellent example as to why. If I\u2019m not reading, I don\u2019t know what other story concepts have been done. I thought the concept for \u201cSwitch\u201d was clever. Shows what I know, and the only way to fix that knowledge gap is to fill it. By reading. And reading. And then reading some more.<\/p>\n

As you know, I\u2019ve been posting a book review every single week for a while now and while that alone shows I\u2019m reading, it\u2019s also keeping me so busy with novels and other full-length books that my new issues of Analog<\/em><\/a> have been languishing. Bobby suggested I might review short stories, or particular issues of magazines. This makes sense, and I\u2019ll probably start doing that as soon as I finish reviewing the Jemisin series I started last week (and continue this week). I\u2019ve read many online stories, trying to get a feel for what various target magazines want, so there\u2019s a lot of material to be had.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I\u2019ll be sending Metaphorosis something else to read over. Maybe they\u2019ll offer more input I can use. You should check them out \u2013 and if you like what you see, support them through Patreon. Zines like that one are good to keep around.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"