The Monthly Checker - Morgen Bailey Entry for January 2017

The prompt for Morgen Bailey's January 2017 100-word story competition was to write something based on the title, "The Monthly Checker."

I actually wrote two stories for the January competition.  The first one, "Where To, Ma'am?" was just awful when whittled down to 100 words, so I let it be as long as it needed to be and found that it turned into a pretty interesting story at about 1300 words.  I submitted that version to Flash Fiction Online and am waiting to hear back from them.

I was able to come up with a 100-word story for Morgen with the requisite title and submitted it.  It was "highly commended."  It is probably also the story Bailey mentions that was, "eek-making, in a good way!"  It features a woman with proprioception issues involving her breasts.  And then it turns out that there is a non-neurological reason for her lack of proprioception there.

Now that the contest for January has ended, and I am free to give the story my preferred title, I will call it "Xenomelia."  I can use the slightly longer draft and send it out to possible markets.

Xenomelia is defined as, “the oppressive feeling that one or more limbs of one’s body do not belong to one’s self."  Breasts are not exactly limbs, but it was as close as I could get to an accurate name for the condition.  If you are interested in learning more about this condition or mental state, I highly recommend that you read Dr. Oliver Sacks' book, A Leg to Stand On.  Sacks was a brilliant writer, and I always find his books about neurology fascinating.

Every time I enter one of these Morgen Bailey competitions I learn something new.  The striking thing I observed in the stories that won in January was that not one of them read as if it had been whittled down.  The language in each of them flowed naturally, yet all three told a succinct story in 100 words, an impressive accomplishment by their authors and one that I will strive to achieve for February and for my future writing.

Submission: "The Monthly Checker"

This evening I submitted "The Monthly Checker" to Morgen Bailey's 100-word flash-fiction competition.  The story prompt for January 2017 was the title.  This story is about weirdness involving a woman with proprioception issues.  If it doesn't place in the contest I will expand upon it and submit it under a different title to a market that accepts flash fiction.

Story Submission Update

Not a whole lot to tell.  "An Arduous and Beautiful Duty" was declined by Phobos Magazine.  I'll tweak it some and send it back out.

I submitted "Oh, Shoot!" to Morgen Bailey's 100-Word short story competition for August.  Given the prompt for this month, there just was no other story in my heart to tell.  Members of my family, alas, will know what the title refers to.  I miss you, Aunt Frances.  You were an awesome woman, and one hundred words were not nearly enough to tell the world how awesome you were.

Aside from that, I have been working on "The Witch of Braighe."

July 2016 Morgen Bailey Competition

This evening, I was excited to open my email and learn that I placed second in the July 2016 100-Word Flash Fiction Competition run by British author Morgen Bailey. She runs these every month, and I have been entering mostly consistently since January. This month my submission, "A Lively Imagination" was chosen from among 23 flash fiction stories to be in the top three. You can read it here.

Each month has its own prompt, which can be integral to or superficial to the story. You have from the first day of the month to the last day of the month to submit a 100-word story that is somehow related to the prompt. Prizes include a choice between certain of the online writing courses Ms. Bailey offers, or a story critique.

Try it out; it's fun!

Update as of 07/29/2016

Story submissions so far this month: 3

1. "A Lively Imagination" to Morgen Bailey - Pending.
2. "Choosing Chains" to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction - Declined.
3. "An Arduous and Beautiful Duty" - Phobos Magazine - Pending.

I have gotten at least one reason as to why "Choosing Chains" keeps getting declined: It begins in a tavern, which is where all good (and bad) thinly-disguised D&D campaign stories start, with the assembly of the party. Doing this was a completely newb mistake.

Now, I am well aware that editors don't want to see thinly-disguised D&D campaign stories. It honestly never occurred to me that the story starting in a tavern might be a problem. Tarran lives in a tiny riverside fishing village. Its tavern is where people hang out--either there or at the well on laundry day. Every year on his sister's birthday, Tarran goes to the tavern to grieve, because he is always otherwise obligated on the anniversary of her death each year. He goes, and he drinks a pitcher of their strongest alcohol. It never helps him to forget, and he goes home once he's done drinking the contents.

It just never occurred to me that the location where he does this would be considered so much of a cliche that the mere use of it in the beginning scene of a story might turn anyone off. I had thought people might be turned off because the story is dark, bitter, sad, and horrific at various places. I also think it's funny in places, but that's sick, twisted me.

So one of my upcoming projects will be to redesign the story with the beginning in a more original location. I have no idea if that will help, but it certainly can't hurt. Many thanks to C. C. Finlay for pointing this out to me, or I would never have even thought of it.

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"An Arduous and Beautiful Duty" is what I finally decided to call my Fomorian story that takes place in the waters of the Minch, off the west coast of Scotland. Hey, at least it's a more original setting! I am still not entirely satisfied with this story, but deadline was too close, and I will be busy this weekend, so I wanted to get it out. There are always other places I can send it if Phobos declines it. I haven't mentioned this story by name previously in my blog because I didn't have a title for it, and I try to categorize my stories by title so I can look up posts in Blogspot easily.

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I read in an interview of him in Deep Magic that Brandon Sanderson often writes the endings to his stories first.

You all might not know this, but Sanderson is the god before whom I bow down and cry out, "I'm not worthy!" That used to be Marion Zimmer Bradley, but, well...ahem. Anyway, Sanderson's Mistborn novels blew me away with how good they are and with how he uses a common fiction trope to make the reader think one thing is supposed to happen when, in fact, the complete opposite is the case. Seriously--read Mistborn. You will never see the plot twist coming until it smacks you in the forehead with the force of a sledgehammer. I am still in awe. Mistborn is the best novel I have ever read.

Part of the difficulty I have with writing stories to deadlines is in figuring out what the story is that I want to tell. I do a plot outline based on the submission criteria for whatever market I'm submitting to, but very often it doesn't satisfy me. I have always thought that I needed a road map, but maybe what I really need is to see the solution so I can work backward from there. So I'm going to assign myself the task of writing three or four endings a week, using story ideas I want to write about, and see if those satisfy me (and potential editors) better. I like that this will force me to think very hard and in some detail from the outset about my characters and their motivations.

Have any of you ever tried this technique? How has it worked for you? Has it helped?

Recycling a Story

One of the two stories I submitted for the Witches and Dragons anthology was not accepted, so I now need to find a different market for it--or recycle it.  I've decided to recycle.  I am going to use elements from "The Witch of Braighe" in this new story, which I plan to submit to Phobos Magazine for their Deep, Black Sea issue.

A challenge I will face is that the word limit is 2500 words, but the story idea, which will involve a volley of rhyming couplets, might need more wordage than that.

I am also going to reuse a character.  My idea is, what if a character in "The Witch of Braighe" had made a different choice?  What if this character had valued slightly different things and been angrier?  I'd like to explore that other choice path.

I will say that it helped me very much that Phobos gave clear and vivid examples of the kinds of stories its editors want.  Sometimes, I feel like I'm in a guessing game when it comes to figuring out the types of stories desired, so having this clarity is something I appreciate.

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Submissions Today:  "A Lively Imagination" to Morgen Bailey.

Story Accepted: "Weight"

Today I received notice that my short story, "Weight" has been accepted for the CBAY Books anthology, Witches and Dragons, which is part of their Fairy Tale Villains Reimagined series.  The book is scheduled for publication in June 2017.  This will be my second short story publication with them, and I am delighted that they accepted my story!

I also wrote a story last night called, "A Lively Imagination," which I will submit to Morgen Bailey's blog.

Submission: "Stavros"

Today I submitted "Stavros," a 100-word micro-fiction story, to the Morgen Bailey blog monthly competition.

https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/

Submission: "Not for One Piece of Fireworks"

Today I submitted a 100-word story called, "Not for One Piece of Fireworks" to Morgen Bailey's monthly 100-word story competition. 

The title of the story is taken from a quote by Neil Armstrong:  "I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work."