The Wheat From the Chaff

Perhaps to no surprise, I've been thinking a lot about writing, recently. In some sense, I haven't written as much as I've wanted to so far this year; but I have written three or four short stories that I think are decent, so that counts for something. Still, I'm looking to take the next step with my writing, and move more of my work towards publication.

I was really focused on getting a story published a year or two ago, and put a lot of energy towards that: doing revisions, finding open calls, and sending in drafts. Perhaps I was too focused on the story I felt was my strongest, but suffice to say I didn't get it published—yet! Since then, I've turned my attention towards other projects, written a full novel manuscript, and written other short stories. Since my goal is to become a novelist, my novel manuscript is my highest priority, but while I'm in the lull before I do the next rewrite, I've continued to draft new short stories, and started to get back into the groove of revision and submission.

I recently sent in a question about moving towards publication to the writer Blake Butler, who occasionally answers the questions of the subscribers to his newsletter. You can see his full response here (paywall), but I thought I'd talk about a few of the points he made I found especially interesting.

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Blake talked a bit about the difficulty in getting stories published, even for him. In fact, he notes that this difficulty of what to even do with a short story given limited avenues for having it be read can make it difficult to even draft them. He says this is part of the reason he's turned towards focusing more on novels, which beyond simply being his focus, have more of a lane in the world.

Blake gave lots of practical advice for how to submit and revise, and on assessing your own work, but he also talked about the difficulty in publishing itself. He says it's not as simple as aiming towards publication as a goal strong enough that sustains practice, which is something I feel deeply. I think this is a balance for many writers. I write first and foremost for myself. I write to explore ideas, feelings, thoughts; to express myself; and because it's fun. In a way, it feels stupid to aim for publication, especially because I know it's not really a destination.

And yet, I want my work read, and read in a specific way. Of course, I could just take my stories and post them here when they feel done to me, and try to post on social media to get people to read them. But that wouldn't be satisfying to me, in a way that's hard to articulate why (I suspect it's to do with the recognition and prestige that traditional publishing holds, though we can argue about what degree that is).

It doesn't really feel like short fiction doesn't really has a solid home in American culture anymore. Besides writing a short story collection (which are said to be very difficult to get published unless sold with a novel or you're already an established short story writer), there are only a few mainstream magazines in the West that even publish short stories, like The New Yorker. I wasn't exactly shy about submitting this story, and yet in the course of a year, only found around 40 submissions that seemed worth it, and probably 95% or more of those were literary journals connected to a creative writing MFA program. Perhaps I should've cast an even wider net, but the market is thin.

Then, you submit a story to five or ten publications, and wait half a year to hear back. Blake notes this, saying that publish can feel and is maybe designed to separate the wheat from the chaff by simply finding who's willing to give up.

In my recent interview with Max Lawton, he said he has two great skills as a translator: his ability "to identify styles in a foreign language and to be able to re-render them into English," i.e., his own ability as an writer in English.

I'm not sure exactly what my skills as a writer are, but as I told another writer friend a while ago:

I always strive to be the person who’s willing to put in the work.

George Saunders echoes this, too:

There are two things that separate writers who go on to publish from those who don't. First, a willingness to revise. Second, the extent to which the writer has learned to make causality.

I haven't reached my goals yet—not close. But I'm still here working on them. I know I'll get there someday.

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