Writing | Karavansara

14 September 2020
by Davide Mana 3 Comments

A story idea in a typo

Today I tweeted about the fact that I have so far submitted 53 stories in 2020. But because I’m the worst typist on the planet (and possibly in the whole system), I tweeted, in fact, about having submitted 53 stories in the year 202.

Trying not to look too stupid, I tweeted again and joked about the year 202 AD, also known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Antoninus.
But there’s more, because 202 AD was the year in which female gladiators were banned in Rome.

And I thought… isn’t that a great idea for a story?

So here I am, thinking about an out-of-work former gladiatrix… what a promising character!
And yes, I know there’s a movie about that featuring Pam Grier, but let’s not dwell on that right now.

2 September 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Writer’s enough

My friend Alex, that is locked up her in the same wing of the blogsphere where I am, made a video this morning about the fact that “What do you write?” is quite often a loaded question, and one whose answer must be carefully weighed. In terms of marketing – or just plain old pulling girls – the wrong answer can spell disaster.

In response to Alex’ video, another friend, Flavio, confirmed the suspicion – say you write horror, and they’ll think you’re some kind of psycho that loves blood and mangled corpses, say you write science fiction…

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1 September 2020
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

What if it wasn’t him?

Something popped up through my socials, and made me think. Yeah, that’s dangerous, I know.
In a nutshell, a person was being very critical (let’s put it this way) of this newfangled habit popular authors have, of getting their books written by anonymous ghostwriters, and then published under their own names.

What would have happened had Dante Alighieri commissioned The Divine Comedy to some anonymous hack? He’d be undeservedly regarded as a genius, while the true genius would have been forgotten!

And it’s true, you know.
Also, it really does not matter.

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28 August 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

The World’s Greatest

As I browsed Twitter over breakfast – as one does – I chanced upon a link for a podcast, about … well, about stuff, the description was not that clear. What it was clear was, this podcast was being hosted by the world’s greatest expert in podcasting. It was written there, just like that “the world’s greatest expert in podcasting”. So I guess it had to be true.

Scrolling down, I landed on an ad for a new fantasy series. According to the author, this “most original” book features warriors, wizards, elves, dwarves, and a dragon. I am blown away by the originality.

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27 August 2020
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Numbers II – Write Faster

And today I mailed three more stories, early this morning, thus managing to post six submissions in roughly 24 hours. Should all six stories sell (unlikely), at the rate proposed by the respective publishers, it would mean six months of mortgage covered. It would be good.
It will not happen, but it would be good.

And I am writing on – not only my new novel (about which, more in a future post) but a story for another submission. I started it this morning, and hopefully I’ll have the first draft ready before midnight. The target word-count is 4000, of which I have already about 1600.
Then I will let it rest – the call opens officially in two weeks, and it’s good to let the new stories sediment for a while before revising and mailing them off.

Finding out yesterday that I have been slacking in my writing and submitting this year made me feel bad. Not only working for an abusive client has caused me health problems and a devastating amount of stress, but it has really come close to damaging my ability to earn a living.

This, more than anything else, has caused me a sort of frenzy.
Something that was supposed to help me has massively damaged me, and as a result, for a change, the future is bleak.
In such circumstances, all I can do is (like good old Ike Asimov said) write faster.

26 August 2020
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Numbers

Facebook informed me today that one year ago, on the 26th of August, I sold a short story. It was (as I posted at the time) the 15th sale of the year, out of a total 55 submissions.
I was quite happy.

As luck would have it, today I submitted a story to a magazine. It’s the 33rd submission of this year.
Which gave me pause.
This year I have written/submitted roughly 40% stories less than last year.
That’s a lot of words, and a lot of missed opportunities.
The question is – why?

I blame my Client From Hell, that just today asked for a fourth rewrite of the book I am ghostwriting for him – and taking the opportunity to once again point out what a useless git I am.

Three rewrites of a 100.000-words novel (and the associated fatigue, stress and unhappiness) make for 22 stories not written and submitted.
This is the harsh mathematics of the thing.

But on the plus side, of the 33 submission of 2020, I sold 11 so far.
There is a small sign of improvement.

23 August 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

I’d kill to write a story about these two characters

Autumn is obviously approaching, as ideas are once again flooding what’s left of my brain, and the need to organize the days becomes essential if I want to have a chance of doing everything and maybe be able to pay the bills. So…