Weird Circular #46 December

The December Weird Circular

December 02, 2020

This month's Weird Circular is live with submission ideas, prompts, and more!

Welcome to the Weird Circular

Dear Fellow Weird Writers,

Happy December! It's been a whirlwind of a year and I keep looking at the calendar, expecting 2021 to arrive any day, but it's taking its sweet time. One thing I see writers struggling with this month is the idea of how to rejuvenate your writing practice in the middle of a pandemic. 

I am updating my newsletter to a bi-monthly schedule. I've loved running it monthly for many years, but the schedule is just too much for me with everything going on. But the good news is that I'll be spending more time writing about writing and more time teaching workshops. Also, I'll be able to extend the submissions calender into the next two months.

Sometimes life is hard and sometimes writing is hard...and maybe we just have to lean into the weirdness. Go deeper. Find the strange and mine it for your writing. Whatever your situation, I'm wishing you the strength to keep writing. Stay strange, friends. 

Your corporeal host,

Holly 

P.S. This issue is NaNoWriMo themed. I am once again doing my so-cheap-it's-unbelievable

for NaNoWriMo writers. I love you weirdos :) 

Submission Calls

Upcoming Submission Windows:

December

  • Fantasy Magazine, deadline 12/7: Fantasy flash (up to 1k words), fiction (up to 7.5k words). Pays .08/word. (Open each month for the first week of the month). 

  • Apparition Lit, deadline 12/15: Theme: Venice. Speculative flash (up to 1k words). Pays .01/word. 

  • Cast of Wonders, deadline 12/31: Young Adult speculative flash (up to 1.5k words) and fiction (up to 6k words). Pays .08/word.

  • Podcastle, deadline 12/31: Fantasy fiction (varying word counts up to 17k words). Pays .01-.08/word. 

  • We're Here, deadline 12/31: Reprint anthology of queer speculative fiction first published in 2020. Pays .01/word. 

January

Need more submission ideas? Check the

newest markets,

, Duotrope's

,

, or Literary Mama's

.

YOU SHOULD BE WRITING

Exercise:

This exercise is for when you get stuck while writing a draft. Write down what question you're grappling with i.e. "What is my hero's weakness?" "What is the villain's secret?" etc. Then make a mind map of different answers to that question. Pick one that stands out to you. Now flip it on its head. i.e. If your villain's secret is that he's actually a demon, what if he was actually an angel? 

Bonus Round:

If you're so stuck you don't even know what question to ask, consider these ideas: What if a character comes back from the dead? What if a setting explodes? What if the worst thing possible happened right now? What if a dragon appeared right now? The "What if" is a powerful question. It can save you from a lot of painted-in corners. (And so do dragons.) 

Exercise:

To get your pen moving or your keyboard clicking, write a very long, luscious paragraph of description. It might be of setting or of a character, or of an object that's important to your book's plot. Make it one long sentence if you want. 

Bonus Round:

Take that paragraph and extend it to a chapter: What if your whole chapter focused on this one moment, this one place, this one object? 

Exercise:

Every protagonist needs a path to follow. What is your MC's path? What is their goal? Make a list of 5 obstacles to that goal. Make a list of 5 "helpers" to that goal (people, or helpful magical objects, or other tools in their arsenal.) 

Bonus Round:

Focus on either adding obstacles or taking away helpers in the next few chapters.

Editing tip of the month: THERE'S NO EDITING IN NANOWRIMO! JK. You can edit if you want. But seriously, there's a season for editing and a season for revising. Sometimes it's okay to let your work sit and be for a while. Come back to it with fresh eyes in a new year :) 

Inspiration from the Ether

News From Your Corporeal Host

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