The Blog of Xangis

I’ve just finished reading about 40 stories submitted to All Possible Worlds.  I don’t know the exact total, but I’ve now read over one million words worth of submissions.  Some people don’t read that much in a lifetime and I’ve done it in about a six month time period.

Yesterday I caught myself saying that I would have a hard time catching up with the 40-odd stories I had in the to-be-read pile with another 10 coming in each day.  I just had to prove myself wrong, eh?

One thing I’ve recently started doing is giving up on a story if it completely fails to catch my interest in a few pages.  I guess that now makes me a hardened editor.  Until a couple days ago I was reading every word of every story, even long after it became utter torture to do so.  On the ones I stop reading it’s usually about the third page where I give up if nothing has given me a reason to be interested.

It seems that most writers do a pretty good job with the middle.  A much smaller number can get the beginnings right.  Far fewer can end a story right.  It’s usually the endings that kill them.  I’m not surprised - wrapping everything up in a neat little package without being abrupt or silly can be tough.