Which story?

[lizvogel]

I'm trying to decide about the Windycon writers workshop. I did it last year, and it was extremely useful, so I'm inclined to have another go. The difficulty comes in deciding what story to go with.

It has to be spec. fic of some variety, so a chapter of either the espionage novel currently being shopped or the espionage WIP is out. I'm got two potential candidates: There's the baffling thing that fell out of my brain while I was trying to come up with the story for the ISFiC contest. I'm really still extremely confused that I wrote this thing, so there's something to be said for shoving it front of other people and asking "So... what is this?" Then there's a piece of prompt-fic I did a little while ago, during one of the phases when I was working to get the gears moving again. The housemate's quite fond of it. I'm fond of it too, though I think it could use a little more "oomph" in the ending, and it would be nice to get some input on that. But the market these days seems to be focused on borderline horror, or at least creepy, or grimdark, or going past the limits of the possible -- and this is just a nice, fun little story. It's cutting no edges, it's pushing no boundaries. I'm not sure there's anywhere to go with a nice, fun little story.

And I have to decide today, because the deadline for submissions is tomorrow.

Comments

[infiniteviking]

Both sound interesting! Which did you go with?

Is it really that much of a problem in a workshop to not be going where the market's focused? (Have been wishing for years that there was somewhere to go with a nice, fun little story.)

[lizvogel]

I went with the baffling pseudo-magical-realism thing. It's the one that I'm most open-ended on as to what kind of feedback I get; I kind of just want to throw it at some other perspectives and see what sticks. For the nice little story, I know where I want it to go and just need to fine-tune how to get there; probably better to run that by a selected group of critquers. (If I had one, sigh.) (Though I did come up with a suitably punful title for it, while I was debating.)

For the workshop itself, marketability (or lack thereof) wouldn't be a problem. But this is also a networking opportunity; last year I ended up with what amounted to a revise-and-resubmit and an editor's direct email address. (Didn't pan out in the end, but still, pretty cool.) Only makes sense to give priority to a story that might catch someone's eye professionally, all else being equal. Also, as several of the critiquers will be industry pros, I'm not sure that a less-marketable story wouldn't be in for a harder time of it -- not because it was actually inferior, but because they are quite understandably focused on whether a story can sell.

I think there is an untapped market for nice, fun little stories, frankly. Not everyone wants gloom, doom, and brainsprain, and even those who do don't necessarily want it all the time. Someone should get on that.

[infiniteviking]

Hmm, makes sense! And ah, networking, I see. I'm still learning that irl when it comes to other kinds of work.

That'd be awesome, yes. I wish someone would launch a mag for upbeat, optimistic spec fic. Doom and brainbreak are a legitimate niche, but it seems like that's where everything goes nowadays, and I want some nondystopian options for the future, y'know?