(no subject)

[tanaise]

I have a highly refined suck monkey. My suck monkey acknowledges that my stuff is good. My suck monkey asks, instead, is it good *enough*.

We talk about this all the time in the chat--eventually you get to a point that you can write. You've got all the technical bits down, hell, you've even got the finer points figured out. You get to this point, and then it's no longer a case of being good, it's a case of being good enough, of having the extra little bit that rocks the editor's world.

THat's where I start to worry. But I've got two stories to ship out tomorrow or Tuesday (amended because I suddenly remembered that everyone and their brother has stuff they need me to do tomorrow. So it may not get sent out till Tuesday, or it may get put in the mailroom tomorrow afternoon, which works out to the same thing.) They'll be going to Analog and Polyphony. Strange Horizons has one of my pieces for 26 days today, and Realms of Fantasy is at 111 days, and Shawna still hasn't seen it. THey can take their time, though, cause that piece has no certain next market--probably LCRW, if I had to pick now, but I'm not sure, and I have no piece that I want to send there right this instant.

All my stories are good. Some may even be good enough. It's just a waiting game now.

Comments

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I think I have a very similar suck monkey. It's one of the reasons I'm hesitant to get slides done and sub them to places. While my stuff has gotten pretty good, it doesn't seem it's THAT good yet. Although with jewelry, anyway, I can sell directly to people; it doesn't have to pass through critical eyes to make some level of contact with the public. Just to make GOOD levels of contact.