Writing and Publishing Fiction

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Mule Anyone?
(If you had a Commodore 64 in the eighties, you know exactly what I am talking about.)

In software programming a self-recursive program is an error that can occur if a line of code refers to itself.

How Do You Astrally Project to a Fiction Writer's Conference?
Cotton Underwear is the Key.

In order to complete my being publishable check list, I had planned to attend the Ann Arbor Book Festival's Fiction Writer's Conference on Saturday, the 14th. Unfortunately, I was a bit short on cash (or credit for that matter) as the conference approached and I had a decision to make.

Novel Critique: Apes with Bald Kneecaps

Let's hear what the Unpublished Guy fiction panel, including Dr. Zaius, 18th century poet and engraver William Blake, and Mrs. Butterworth, has to say about the novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was developed while the movie was being filmed.

Three Sample Chapters. No more, no less. Three shall be the number,
and the number shall be three. Five is right out.

Being a submitter of unsolicited short story manuscripts that I could fold twice and fit in a #10 envelope, I had to do some research on this book proposal thing. What the book proposal should contain and the order that different sections should appear varied.

If I were to describe my writing style, I would probably classify it as speculative postmodern neo-minimalist metafiction. Followers of Unpublished Guy have already been treated to various samples of this enigmatic writing style if they followed my novel writing effort in July. Every good writer should challenge themselves and try different writing styles.

Often I find writing to be a thoroughly unenjoyable task. It's no wonder I haven't published anything when I can't finish writing anything. Even when I employ the Mashed Potato Method of fiction writing, I get stuck where I just start thinking too much. Right about step three when the writing starts getting more detail-oriented. Then the mental debates begin—about word choice, sentence order and structure, sorting through underlying meanings and symbolism that begin to surface and whether I should develop them. Completing the short story starts feeling like I am working on an assembly line gutting chickens with arthritic hands that are seizing up into in some malformed claws. Except in the case of writing it is my brain that gets knotted up.