Subbing

Well, the thing is I only sub things about once in a while when I really feel the urge. Everything I have ever submitted anywhere has found a place - more or less. Which begs a question - why do I not submit more? Am I a procrastinator? No, I don't think so? Do I feel my work is not good enough to submit unless it's perfect? No.

Do I not write enough? No, that's not the case either.

I think it's because I don't want to submit things just for the sake of seeing them published somewhere. I want to write things that mean somethng and move someone. If they don't move me, then why bother?

There's also a heck of a lot of places to submit to, whether online or traditional print mags and there-in lies another compelling problem? Have I read enough to know what's good or not yet?

Definitely not.

The other problem is I don't actually LIKE reading any literary fiction whatsoever. I like critiquing - that's never an issue - God, I love hating something, but I actually don't like reading stuff that's been made up. I like facts, documents, reality. So, that leaves me with a dilemma...and a deep question to ask myself which is "what kind of a writer am I?"

I've asked a fellow writer this and hope he'll answer but I will have to incubate the question for a while. I thnk it's why I am more and more drawn to writing an account of my father's migration, but also because facts are always tangible and can be checked and be made certain. With fiction, there's all kinds of level of disbelief one has to suspend and I can't do it - most writing just isn't good enough to do that. The only time I can do it is with Sci-fi and that's because you already know from the outset it's going to be a world so made-up that you just have ride along with all the beautiful made-upness, the gadgets, the weirdly contorted views of the world we know or worlds we don't know.

I will cogitate on this and see what happens.