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Dance of the Dying Feathers.
14 years ago
The story I'm uploading as my first to this site is one I'm rather proud of. As far as non-comedic, slow-paced prose goes, I feel that I really hit the top of my form. While it was rejected from all major SFWA-standard zines, it received a fair few compliments on the language in the process. That's the first reason I chose this as a starter, with the second reason being that I hear that transformation themes are quite popular.
Reasons for rejections largely boiled down to 'Too slow and vague.' Which is, to be fair to the editors and slush readers, quite true. It's not a fast-paced, action-filled, black hat/white hat story at all. However, the ability to utilize patience and subtlety in storytelling is something I very much admire about European and Asian cinema, something I feel that Hollywood has very much lost touch with. At the end of the day, the story be what it be, and you either like that sort of thing or you don't. This one isn't for the adrenaline junkies.
In retrospect, I would have liked to include more details on the cultures involved and fleshed out the setting properly. However, word counts are tight in magazines, and my tendency is to go over them anyway. It's entirely possible that if I'd done more research I would've only come up with details I hadn't the room to include in any case. That limitation is what I would consider my number one barrier in short fiction, really.
The moral lesson here is one I revisit in many of my works, one of an anti-black-and-white viewpoint. You're left to decide for yourself if the protagonist did the right thing or not. Whatever forms we end up living with will always have drawbacks as well as benefits, and one must remember that and not get too caught up in the idealization of the other.
Reasons for rejections largely boiled down to 'Too slow and vague.' Which is, to be fair to the editors and slush readers, quite true. It's not a fast-paced, action-filled, black hat/white hat story at all. However, the ability to utilize patience and subtlety in storytelling is something I very much admire about European and Asian cinema, something I feel that Hollywood has very much lost touch with. At the end of the day, the story be what it be, and you either like that sort of thing or you don't. This one isn't for the adrenaline junkies.
In retrospect, I would have liked to include more details on the cultures involved and fleshed out the setting properly. However, word counts are tight in magazines, and my tendency is to go over them anyway. It's entirely possible that if I'd done more research I would've only come up with details I hadn't the room to include in any case. That limitation is what I would consider my number one barrier in short fiction, really.
The moral lesson here is one I revisit in many of my works, one of an anti-black-and-white viewpoint. You're left to decide for yourself if the protagonist did the right thing or not. Whatever forms we end up living with will always have drawbacks as well as benefits, and one must remember that and not get too caught up in the idealization of the other.
