'Runt' of articles litter, seeking advice (Humanities)

[Ancient Fellow]

I am revising a shorter manuscript (c. 4k words) which has sat since its initial rejection at the beginning of the pandemic, but which I think still has potential to rise above reviewer B's objections and become a worthy article. I have yet to completely abandon a piece of writing, but as this is an outgrowth of a previous monograph, it is not something that I can fold into a future book – it must stand or fall as an article.

I would like to ask my fellow forumites, how often have you cut loose unpublished efforts?

[mamselle]

There are a few interstitial options, of course--post an abstract on a related topical disciplinary site, or on Academia/ Researchgate, and see if a collaborator with related interests appears with whom you might work on it in some new way.

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

So far, I've only abandoned stuff I wrote in grad school. That said, a few things have lain fallow for years, now. I still plan to return to them sometime, but...


Do you have journals that specialize in shorter pieces? We have a couple. I like to send things there because the review times are short, but I've yet to get an acceptance.

[traductio]

Only occasionally have I completely abandoned an article, although I have more than once (quite often, actually) set an article or book chapter aside without definite plans to come back to it. The difference between the first and second approaches is subtle and lies, really, in the potential to come back to something set aside. I have, on occasion, come back, but I also have some that are still sitting there, basking in their unrealized potential.

As for your current dilemma -- I'm coming to love writing essays in the 3k-4k word range, but they're devils to place. My best luck has been in generalist humanities journals, especially the quarterlies that universities used to publish with more frequency (like the North Dakota Quarterly, which has been oddly receptive).

[Ruralguy]

I eventually made the choice to abandon two papers, both some years ago. I probably could have made something out of them, but in their stead, I went with more immediately productive options, which was probably wise.

[Wahoo Redux]

So far I have only dropped one piece chopped from the dissertation.  That said, I was actually giving it some thought lately----it was bounced by an editor who essentially wanted an entirely new thesis and approach.

I do have three pieces sitting on flash drives which have been there for a while and I was thinking about rewriting two of them over the summer.

I did have the experience of being rejected by a specialist journal, rewriting based on readers' reports, and then seeing publication in a much better journal shortly afterwards.  So I wouldn't trashcan anything yet.

If you cannot see a clear-path for your current short piece, I might suggest putting it in the closet for a while and then come back to it next year after you have done more writing and seeing what you think of it.

Good luck.

[Myword]

I abandoned ideas for articles but so far, not a finished or first draft article. Although if my article under review is rejected again, I may have to regretfully, shelve it or list it on ResearchGate.

  I stopped writing two novels, one after it was finished, and I knew it is unpublishable. Now it is too dated, passed its time. My English professor would not help me--a notable author himself. I have also stopped sending out a Shakespearean short story. Okay so it is not an article.

[mamselle]

Does posting the whole thing on Researchgate not open it to potential theft?

I'd post an abstract, but...the whole article?

M.

[mamselle]

And--on further pondering....

I do have some 'runts,' but they're sweet, odd little critters, and I don't plan to abandon them...they don't eat much, really.

There's the half-done invited conversion from a paper to an online blog post that got stopped mid-way for want of a reply to the basic question, "how long and what focus?" I'll finish it sometime, have another outlet in mind, so it will still find a home, I think.

There's a fully re-worked piece on something I found and (I think) correctly interpreted after a range of mis-interpretations; it was invited by one editor, he retired, and the next editor wanted a totally different t paper; it, too, has been given as a presentation a few times and made the rounds of all the possible topical journals I know of, can't seem to get anyone to see that the constructive--and not the deconstructive--issues are what matter in it.

There's a cluster of case-study-like presentations that I'm just now figuring out how to align with each other: they, too, were at one point invited for a journal but I knew the editor had been difficult for my advisor to work with (a paragon of diplomacy, although if you danced in her company, you heard what she REALLY thought) and I had my own issues with his work so declined, politely saying it "was spoken for elsewhere." I've since wondered if I might have managed to work with him after all, but the work has shape-shifted a few times since, so probably just as well.

There are others, but they're mostly just in various stages of process, whittled away at when I can.

Nearly all have been presented at some time in their lives, but pubs in the humanities are harder to sort out than those in the sciences--no-one sees your work as likely to save someone's life, for one thing-- and time for independent scholars is differently-prioritized as well, so....

On va voir.

M.

[Myword]

Only on this forum would someone use French and we understand it. C'est la Vie.

You ask whether an article be stolen on ResearchGate? Sure in whole or part--it's a risk. But a published article or one under review at a journal could be stolen or plagiarized also. It is possible. And that assumes that your writing is so well done that someone would do this, anyway. Students, yes, it is easy.

[mamselle]

Yes, one of the things I enjoy about this forum!

I actually had several short 'for-the-public' pieces that I did for workshops a long time ago lifted off my Academia site.

They showed up on Amazon as "pay-per-order" items and I had to contact the Academia folks (I could tell by the three Vietnamese readers who had downloaded them--all living in the same tiny hamlet in Canada, as it happened--who it was) and ask them to ban those folks from the site.

My efforts to reach Amazon never did yield an answer, mais la vie, c'est comme ca.

That was actually why I asked...

M. 

[Ancient Fellow]

Some good food for thought here, thanks everyone.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I've abandoned papers a few times: Sometimes I find some fatal flaw, sometimes I lose interest, sometimes a logistical issue gets in the way. But usually, if the manuscript is finished and I believe in it, I'll keep revising and sending it out.