2 posts tagged “writing progress”

So today I mailed off my three entries to that writing contest.  It's the same one I entered last year and got to "finalist" status.

I'm not totally sure this year's offerings are actually any better, although overall I think I have made progress in my writing over the past year. 

Well, we'll see.

Two of my entries wanted to be longer stories and I cut them forcibly to get to the 3500-word limit.  So if I cut too much, then they won't make sense.  And I didn't have time to get the cut versions thoroughly critted by my crit buddies.  So, hm, I don't know. 

The other was a piece of flash fiction of only 700 words.  I'm never sure if my flash-fic is densely-packed enough.  Sometimes it strikes me as just too glib or simplistic.  So I dunno. 

Welp, just have to wait and see.

Yes!   YES!!    YESSS!!!

pub cred, pub cred, pub cred

One of my short pieces actually got accepted by a publication!  Not a pro mag, but progress. 

Allow me to quote from my "Goals for 2008" from early in the year:  "Get a piece published, for actual money (no matter how paltry), in an actual publication (no matter how obscure)."

CHECK.

Check, check, CHECK!!!

Well... I'm not gonna quit my day job just yet.  (um, paltry... check)  Let's just say I hope to break into the low two figures with my next sale.    But, I am far, FAR from complaining!  I am THRILLED!!!

It beats rejection by a long shot. 

And, weirdly enough, it wasn't one of my speculative-fiction pieces, but a Christian piece -- which is not my usual genre.  (Hmmm...  ) 

But, it's a pub cred.  Now the next time I submit something, ANYWHERE, I can put in the cover letter, "My short fiction has been published in BLANKETY-BLANK MAGAZINE."  And right there, that's something I couldn't say last week.  It's one more step up that ladder.   

Eh, there's some debate as to whether one should list one's non-pro and semi-pro publication credits, as it makes you look like small potatoes when you're pitching to the pro pubs.  But, I don't care.  I truly do not give a hoot.  So I am small potatoes; so what?  Last week I wasn't even that.  Last week I was dirt.  Small potatoes is a step up from that.

WOOT.