[Writingworkshop] Last Person Singular
Neale Morison
nealemorison at gmail.com
Sun Jun 21 08:02:33 EDT 2009
I read the Asimov's guidelines:
http://www.asimovs.com/info/guidelines.shtml
They don't seem to be saying don't submit 11000 word stories. But
there may be something between the lines.
On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Antony Nigel Donovan<and at mit.edu> wrote:
> I'll give it another read looking for that stuff (probably tomorrow).
>
> I don't think the story should be shorter. You need the length to
> develop the story.
>
> Approximate lengths (in words):
>
> Short short - less than 2000 (some would say 1000)
> Short story - 2000 to 5000 (occasionally up to 7500).
> Novellette - 7500 to 20,000
> Novella - 20,000 to 50,000
> Novel - 50,000+
>
> There are definitions based on content and execution that can contradict
> the above (and are probably more appropriate to an artistic or critical
> view of a work - but that's not how publishing functions). All of this
> is stuff I've seen in submission guidelines or Joe has told me (in class
> and out). As Joe explained it, the 5000 word limit is so that the
> magazine and anthology publishers can have more names in the table of
> contents. Only well known writers can easily exceed that length. How
> those limits apply to online publishing may differ markedly.
>
> About the cat, I think you might need to indicated it's failing health a
> little more clearly. I'll know for sure after I re-read. Basically,
> cats that don't die violently go one of three ways: a long, very slow
> decline for a decade or more, frequently accumulating treatable maladies
> along the way; a more rapid decline over a year or two - heart disease
> and cancer not uncommon; a very rapid decline over a period of weeks.
> The latter is frequently kidney disease which can be arrested if caught
> early enough, so probably not what you want. It's unusual for cats to
> die unexpectedly if their people take them for regular checkups (unless
> you count the cat dying on borrowed time as unexpected).
>
> Other than that, the cat stuff works really well. The lap sitting while
> he works at the computer is spot on (for certain cat personalities I
> have known).
>
> I hope you can get it published at this length. It is the right length
> for this story.
>
> Antony
>
>
>
> On Sat, 2009-06-20 at 11:34 +1000, Neale Morison wrote:
>> Thanks Antony. If you can remember what the typos and the awkward bits
>> are I would greatly appreciate it.
>>
>> This story has to be long enough to get a bit of historical sweep, and
>> to establish the pace that makes the tiny events of child raising and
>> cats and growing machine intelligence loom large. I can't think of how
>> to cut it down either.
>>
>> I'll tweak it and prod it for a while and then maybe try it out and
>> see if anyone will forgive me for writing over 7500 words. I knew it
>> was going to be a bit long, but that limit is news to me. Where do you
>> know it from?
>>
>> And by the way, you're the expert. Does the cat work?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Neale
>>
>>
>> Antony Nigel Donovan wrote:
>> > I found a couple of typos (but didn't write them down because I didn't
>> > want to interrupt my reading). I also found a few awkward spots (ibid).
>> >
>> > I think it's a very good story in the AI genre. It seems to evolve
>> > naturally towards a conclusion that isn't obvious, which is very good.
>> > And you managed an ending interpretable as happy. Bravo.
>> >
>> > My only concern is that some of my appreciation of the story is related
>> > to my knowledge of the man on whom the narrator is modeled. Oh, and that
>> > the story is running close to eleven thousand words. I can't think of
>> > how you'd cut it down to 7500 (standard max for great stories by
>> > non-name authors).
>> >
>> > Antony
>> >
>> > On Fri, 2009-06-19 at 10:52 -0400, Adam Holland wrote:
>> >
>> > > wow!
>> > >
>> > > Excited to read it.
>> > > And I hope to have some comments on the Uncomfortablists soon.
>> > >
>> > > On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Neale Morison
>> > > <neale at nealemorison.com> wrote:
>> > > http://www.nealemorison.com/writing/shortstories/LastPersonSingular.pdf
>> > >
>> > > The lead character in this story is someone you may recognize
>> > > from Joe Haldeman's forum. He's been very helpful and reviewed
>> > > it. He says he doesn't find it intrusive or exploitative.
>> > >
>> > > I looked back over the forum posts and I asked him if I could
>> > > use him on 18 May. After I finished off Specs on 23rd May I
>> > > spent a week and a half thinking about this and started
>> > > writing on 3rd June. This took 12 days at a little over 850
>> > > words a day for the first draft. Then I trickled out a second
>> > > draft with minor tweaks at couple of hundred words a day.
>> > >
>> > > I'm starting to get over the compulsion to keep on going
>> > > without a break for fear I'll never finish the story. It's a
>> > > reasonable fear though. I have a long backlog of things
>> > > started and not finished.
>> > >
>> > > I sent Specs to Asimov Magazine. We shall see.
>> > >
>> > > All the best,
>> > > Neale
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > Neale Morison
>> > > neale at nealemorison.com
>> > > http://www.nealemorison.com
>> > > 35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
>> > > +61 417 661 427
>> > >
>> > >
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>>
>> --
>> Neale Morison
>> neale at nealemorison.com
>> http://www.nealemorison.com
>> 35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
>> +61 417 661 427
>> _______________________________________________
>> Writingworkshop mailing list
>> Writingworkshop at nealemorison.org
>> http://nealemorison.org/mailman/listinfo/writingworkshop_nealemorison.org
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--
Neale Morison
neale at nealemorison.com
http://www.nealemorison.com
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