Sadly, I've decided not to write any more magazine stories. Since writing longer fiction, I've found the short stories harder and harder, and I no longer enjoy writing them as I used to do. Time was when I was earning about the same writing them as I was in my (part time) nursing job, but I just can't do it any more. I've lost both the urge and the knack. Plus, changes in some of the magazines have been sad and difficult for all of us, with familiar names vanishing. Perhaps it's just that I'm getting old...
I sold my first short story to Woman's Realm nearly forty years ago, so it probably really is time to say goodbye. But it's been fun; sometimes disappointing, sometimes rewarding, and over the years, I collected my fair share of rejections. My last short story appeared in November's W W Fiction Special. That magazine and I go back a long way, so it seemed a fitting place to end.
I'll take up the challenge. I don't think I've ever read such stuff. I guess I could empathise given a beating with red hot rusty barbed wire.
ReplyDeleteMy sex life is non existent since I fell in love with a Manx Norton.
Adrian, your reply reads like something from a parallel universe. I have NO idea what you're talking about! But thank you, anyway.
DeleteSometimes we need to move on, I agree. Since I've never come across any of your short stories (not reading womags may have something to do with it), but really enjoying your longer fiction, I can't say I regret your decision :-)
ReplyDeleteIt means you'll spend more time and creative energy on your books - and I am hoping there will be a new one soon-ish.
Thank you, Meike. There should be another novel before too long....
DeleteAlways sad when an era comes to an end. Wishing you all the best with your books.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is. Thank you, Viv.
DeleteFrances I have loved reading your stories. I'll be sorry to see your name disappear from the pages of the magazines but I have lots of sympathy for your reasons. But a good writer never dies. She just metamorphosises.
ReplyDeleteGeraldine, that is so kind. I notice you're still going strong, and I wish you lots of luck with future stories.
DeleteI must say that I didn't know you still wrote short stories since I stopped buying the magazines. My foray into short story writing didn't last long after the rejection slips kept coming. I write poetry and draw now for pleasure. I'm sure you will be just as happy writing novels and I look forward to hearing about them.
ReplyDeleteMaggie, if you I could draw, I wouldn't write! I'd love to be able to draw. But I'm sorry you've given up the writing.
DeleteI am actually writing more now I have given up writing stories. I have designed and had professionally printed a book of 26 poems, so I haven't given up writing.
DeleteI've just read 'Conkers' (I have a story in the same magazine) and it's lovely. I've never read any of your 'longs' but shall look for them now! Like you I also have part of my past in nursing and still have my one remaining horse - 'Hoss' so I feel some kinship with you. But I've never had any of my 'longs' published, only lots of 'shorts' - and I'm not ready to give up yet! But if you are, then enjoy your 'retirement', although I've a feeling you might just be back from time to time in the magazine scene.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Celia, thank you so much. Yes - nursing and horses...I can see a kind of link! I'm glad my last story shared a mag with yours.
DeleteIf you don't enjoy writing them then it makes sense to stop – or maybe just take a rest from them for a while?
ReplyDeleteYes - maybe that's what I'll do, Patsy. I'll see. But I do need to concentrate on the longer stuff, and at the moment, I'm not!
DeleteNever say never. But life often has ‘stages’ and sometimes it just feels right when a stage ends. And that doesn’t mean that if you have the most amazing short story idea in the world you can’t write it. Enjoy the new ‘stage’ of your writing life.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Simon. I'll await that amazing short story idea eagerly!
DeleteSorry to hear this. Know what you mean about the womag changes. More and more are stopping accepting new submissions. I have only just started on the womag journey. Good luck with the longer works.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Julie. and very good luck with your womag journey!
DeleteSorry to read this, Frances, but if you're not enjoying it then it's no use carrying on. Good luck with your other projects.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Keith. And good luck with yours, too!
DeleteI can understand your decision, Frances, and it allows you to fully concentrate on novels. The short story market is ever decreasing.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's so sad, isn't it, Rosemary? Do women not want fiction in their mags any more? It's all increasingly about "celebrities" now (most of that probably fiction, too...).
DeleteHello Frances
ReplyDeleteI find short story writing very difficult so concentrate on novels. Writing for magazines is actually something I've never contemplated, so it was interesting to read that you made a similar amount of money in doing so, as a part time job. Good luck for the future and your novel writing.
Thank you, Amgela. Short story writing is very satisfactory as you have a complete, pint sized piece of fiction that (if all goes well) travels neatly from conflict to resolution in relatively few words. Plus it doesnt s a year to write one but I just can't do it any more.
DeleteI'm now five years down the line of womag writing and have been lucky to have had a lot of success in that market. But in the last couple of years, I've also been writing my two novels which has made me feel pulled in two directions. I also wonder whether it's possible to do both properly. When I was in full swing with the novels, the story ideas stopped coming so readily and I considered giving up the magazines but as they were my only proper income, I continued writing for them - just less often. Now the novel's finished, I have a bit more time for the shorts but I know that if the novels come to anything, I'll have to put them on the back burner again.
ReplyDeleteThis reply may come too late, Wendy, but it's interesting to know you understand how I feel. I miss the brief satisfaction of a short story, but a novel is a whole different thing. Good luck with both!
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