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Intro
Hello everyone! I’m Sasha, using this sideblog as a space for my original writing. You can also find me on Twitter and BlueSky with the same username.
My published works:
My short story Between Heart and Home was published by Coffee With Tea Media in Living With Demons, a charity dark fantasy anthology, on May 16, 2023 (Goodreads | Amazon); and
My short story you transfix me quite was published by Brigids Gate Press in Crimson Bones, a Gothic romance anthology, on June 27, 2023 (Goodreads | Amazon).
My short story No Flower of Her Kindred will be published by Wild Ink Press in Wickedness and Wonder, a dark fairytale anthology, in July 2025!
I am proud and honored to be part of the WriteHive mentorship class of 2024!
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not very new hyperfixation rediscovered write a poem abt it
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Some of my writer’s block cures:
- Handwrite. (If you already are, write in a different coloured pen.)
- Write outside or at a different location.
- Read.
- Look up some writing prompts.
- Take a break. Do something different. Comeback to it later.
- Write something else. (A different WIP, a poem, a quick short story, etc.)
- Find inspiring writing music playlists on YouTube. (Themed music, POV playlists, ambient music, etc.)
- Do some character or story prompts/questions to get a better idea of who or what you’re writing.
- Word sprints. Set a timer and write as much as you can. Not a lot of time to overthink things.
- Set your own goals and deadlines.
- Write another scene from your WIP. (You don’t have to write in order.) Write a scene you want to write, or the ending. (You can change it or scrap it if it doesn’t fit into your story later.)
- Write a scene for your WIP that you will never post/add to your story. A prologue, a different P.O.V., how your characters would react in a situation that’s not in your story, a flashback, etc.
- Write down a bunch of ideas. Things that could happen, thing that will never happen, good things, bad things.
- Change the weather (in the story of course.)
Feel free to add your own.
The handwriting own seems to work like magic for me. I remember recently I would sit in front of my laptop for hours and not get any it of writing done, then I'd pick up my pen and boom, all the creative pressure that had been building up in my mind gets transferred to the pages.
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You Don't Need an Agent! Publishers That Accept Unsolicited Submissions
I see a few people sayin that you definitely need an agent to get published traditionally. Guess what? That's not remotely true. While an agent can be a very useful tool in finding and negotiating with publishers, going without is not as large of a hurdle as people might make it out to be!
Below is a list of some of the traditional publishers that offer reading periods for agent-less manuscripts. There might be more! Try looking for yourself - I promise it's not that scary!
- Albert Whitman & Company: for picture books, middle-grade, and young adult fiction
- Hydra (Part of Random House): for mainly LitRPG
- Kensington Publishing: for a range of fiction and nonfiction
- NCM Publishing: for all genres of fiction (YA included) and nonfiction
- Pants of Fire Press: for middle-grade, YA, and adult fiction
- Tin House Books: very limited submission period, but a good avenue for fiction, literary fiction, and poetry written by underrepresented communities
- Quirk Fiction: offers odd-genre rep for represented and unagented authors. Unsolicited submissions inbox is closed at the moment but this is the page that'll update when it's open, and they produced some pretty big books so I'd keep an eye on this
- Persea Books: for lit fiction, creative nonfiction, YA novels, and books focusing on contemporary issues
- Baen: considered one of the best known publishers of sci-fi and fantasy. They don't need a history of publication.
- Chicago Review Press: only accepting nonfiction at the moment, but maybe someone here writes nonfiction
- Acre: for poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Special interest in underrepresented authors. Submission period just passed but for next year!
- Coffeehouse Press: for lit fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translation. Reading period closed at time of posting, but keep an eye out
- Ig: for queries on literary fiction and political/cultural nonfiction
- Schaffner Press: for lit fiction, historical/crime fiction, or short fiction collections (cool)
- Feminist Press: for international lit, hybrid memoirs, sci-fi and fantasy fiction especially from BIPOC, queer and trans voices
- Evernight Publishing: for erotica. Royalties seem good and their response time is solid
- Felony & Mayhem: for literary mystery fiction. Not currently looking for new work, but check back later
This is all what I could find in an hour. And it's not even everything, because I sifted out the expired links, the repeat genres (there are a lot of options for YA and children's authors), and I didn't even include a majority of smaller indie pubs where you can really do that weird shit.
A lot of them want you to query, but that's easy stuff once you figure it out. Lots of guides, and some even say how they want you to do it for them.
Not submitting to a Big 5 Trad Pub House does not make you any less of a writer. If you choose to work with any publishing house it can take a fair bit of weight off your shoulders in terms of design and distribution. You don't have to do it - I'm not - but if that's the way you want to go it's very, very, very possible.
Have a weirder manuscript that you don't think fits? Here's a list of 50 Indie Publishers looking for more experimental works to showcase and sell!
If Random House won't take your work - guess what? Maybe you're too cool for Random House.
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. A Dance of Lies
an illustration i made for author Brittney Arena for their book, A Dance of Lies, out in June
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don’t make me tap the jen silverman essay!!!!
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I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter was one of the best works of sci-fi of our generation and one of the best works of transgender fiction ever written, and there are world renowned authors who still have successful careers after they publicly assassinated the nascent woman who wrote it. I don't think they should ever know peace.
Isabel Fall is the patron saint of works unwritten and art unmade by a culture that cannot tolerate trans women
I think this constantly and then I get angry for thinking it, because trans women should not have to be martyrs or saints to animate our politics and our art. that work should have been her debut, not her epitaph. I should be moved by her career, not her absence. I could spit.
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visions
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Often times, writer's block is about anxiety.
Will this twist actually work, or is it just stupid? Are my characters interesting and realistic, or have they become flat plot devices? Have I been so concise that I've lost depth and made my prose boring? Have I added too much description and stumbled into purple prose? Is the plot still interesting, or have I gone off the rails?
Will the reader understand the messages I tried to convey?
Will my story be good enough?
The only way to beat this type of writer's block is to write. Tell yourself that it's okay if the story doesn't wind up "good enough" in the first draft. It's okay if some of the writing is flat and bland or overly dense and purple. It's okay if characters make silly choices or the plot veers into weird territory.
At worst, you'll be right and some of it won't work. Once it's on the page, though, you can edit it! You can give it a few days and read it back over with fresh perspective, and you can start fixing the pieces that didn't work.
And maybe the writing was bad, in that first draft, but when you edit you can find the bones of a good story that you're trying to tell. Those bones are what you'll keep and refine into the final draft, but you wouldn't have found them if you didn't write anything at all out of fear.
At best? At best, your anxiety was wrong, and you'll come out with a pretty neat first draft! There will probably still be editing to do, because no one writes a perfect first draft, but maybe it will still be a first draft you'll be proud of.
If you have a story that you're excited about but writer's block hits halfway through? Write the stuff that might be bad. You might just wind up with something pretty good.