Thanks, Ellen. I can say that my writing easier (to write and for readers) when I write what is interesting to me.

Those are really good lessons, Denise. And most of them are wicked hard!

Know which advice to follow and which to not. (sometimes, people will give negative feedback based on jealously)

Write, write, write.

Learn to face the fear of rejection and see it as an opportunity elsewhere. (still working on this one)

denise

Anything that energizes the writing is aces in my book. The reader notices when we're just going through the motions.

I think that's a great suggestion too, Jeanne! Figuring out where to send your manuscript is a huge part of the submission work.

Very true, Bob. As I wrote my story I pulled from past influences of O'Henry short stories and my childhood immersion into B-rate Friday night movies.
It was unexpected fun for me to write in a different genre and it energized my writing for sure.

That's a great suggestion and I can go into more of that process in a future post. My selection started with digging through contests and literary mags open for submissions.

I used mostly Submittable for my key research, but that site has a lot of markets for shorter fiction. Typing in specific key words like 'speculative' 'scifi' and 'novella' helped me find my market.

This may add to your marketing ideas, but check Submittable often as they update with new deadlines daily.

Hi James, my first manuscript is resting. I'm continuing to focus on shorter works, but perhaps there will be a future post about how to revise a broken novel.
Congratulations on finishing and editing yours! Its quite a feat.