Getting Through the Writing Grind

It's about that time in my writing calendar for hearing back from the Florida Writers Association about my various submissions. Both to the annual anthology contest - this year's theme was "Thrills and Chills" - as well as the Royal Palm Literary awards. 

Welp. I heard back from the judges on the Annual and... I did not make the 60-story cut.

I knew it was a long shot - they get so many submissions - but still I'm sitting here wondering "what the hell do I have to write... HOW do I write something that will appeal to others?"

I know the rule is "write for yourself" foremost, but c'mon, you're writing so others can see your work and be entertained if you do it well.

I hope that my blog writing - which relies a lot on my journalism expertise for pithy and concise wordcraft as well as my librarian background on research - can be more impressive (I did win a Silver for one blog article two years ago, but I struck out last year. Sigh).

Part of my writing logjam is having about five or six ideas at any one time and then failing to focus on getting one done in a fast-enough manner to make it relevant to the moments that inspire me. Part of it is the doubt that creeps in along the lines of "no, wait, people aren't going to grok that" or worse.

I look through Submission Grinder from time to time wondering what I could submit to, or start working on to fill an editorial request, but I get stumped and frustrated second-guessing myself on what those editors really want.

I read enough to know what the markets are like, I write enough to feel I have a knack for it.

But most of the time I just despair. This isn't a hobby anymore, or a lark.

Submission Time 2019: RPLA Attempts

Well, I hope I am wiser and sadder about this year about my chances in the Florida Writers' Association's Royal Palm Literary Awards.

This time I shan't get my hopes up too high. I will remain even-keeled well past any Finalist standing(s) I might earn.

I am putting in for more entries this year. Not only an unpublished Short Story submission, but also a Published Short Story (I shouldn't say anything until later which it is), and also a NEW category they are offering in the Non-Fiction category: Short Non-Fiction covering articles and BLOGS (oh, yeah, I have one of those).

We'll see how my year goes. Wish my stories luck, peeps.

Hide and Seek: the FWA Collection

As mentioned before, the Florida Writers Association is hosting an annual anthology publication and is now taking submissions for it.

Rules for it linked (PDF) here.

The theme of it is Hide and Seek, so the submission has to be some element of hiding (secrets, person, MacGuffin) and seeking (quests, self-reflection, stern chase).

Deadline is April 30th, but it helps to get it in as soon as possible.

No entry fee, but you're capped to two stories to submit. Word count is at 1,200 words (if you write about 160 words per page double-spaced using Times New Roman at 12 pt, that's seven pages).

Failure to submit properly results in your immediate deresolution.

I wanna put in for it, see how it goes.

Other Writing Projects Of Note: For Florida Writers

As a member of the Florida Writer's Association, I want to contribute more to that organization in the way of submitting work to them. Either for their Awards categories or for their Annual Collection.

They host a themed anthology every year, for which they select 60 submissions as part of the publication. It's a nice thing to be a part of, and it helps get your presence known among the state's writers and agents.

They're going to start taking submissions this February 1st. I'm going to keep an eye on it and see what the theme is, and write accordingly. See how it goes.

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo 2012

With hope and luck, this is the year I not only finish the 50,000 word count but I also finish an actual honest-to-Cat novel that's suitable for publishing somewhere.

I'm with the Florida : St. Petersburg regional group again as that's closest, but this time I am paying more attention to events with Tampa especially as I'm trying to get fellow writers from the Wesley Chapel FWA group involved with this year's NaNo.

My biggest problem right now is making up my mind: Should I write a novel / series of stories based on the superhero universe from my Hero Cleanup Protocol e-short; or should I write a thriller noir-type work I've had in mind over the last two years about an unemployed yet honest (which explains the unemployed part) financier getting involved with a shady figure who might provide revenge against the greedier souls who ruined him four years prior?  Leave comments if you encourage one or the other.  Thanks.

Why Should Writers NaNoWriMo?

Working on my October presentation at the moment:

So why should writers sign up for National Novel Writing Month?

1) It's fun
2) You meet up with fellow writers
3) You get out of the house and head out to writing sit-ins at coffee shops (why Panera Bread doesn't sign on as a sponsor, I'll never know) that let you plug in your laptops
4) You get some writing done
5) You get to tell your Writer's Block to go pound the pavement
6) You get 50,000 words of a rough draft completed between the days of November 1 to November 30
7) You get encouragement to finish that rough draft into a larger novel (50,000 words is at best half the length of an average novel: roughly 150 pages)
8) You get accomplishment webpage badges for making it to the 50,000 word deadline
9) You get to impress that cute soup server at the local Panera Bread
10) For emphasis: IT'S FUN

I think I can get that into a pretty decent PowerPoint presentation, ya think?

oh and 11) You get an opportunity to get your finished work published on Create Space.  I think.  Will need to check NaNo's tie-in to that.

Sticking To Deadlines

As far as the writing plans for the Labor Day Weekend panned out...  not so well.  In short, I'm scrapping what I did write (which wasn't much).  And focusing on getting a few other projects prepped for later.

Writers Block.  I hate it.  I have it.

There was a time when I spent a lot of it (time, that is) writing.  Mostly fanfiction, back in the Nineties during my love affair with the television show The X-Files.  Gossamer has an archive of most of what I wrote in terms of fanfic.  For normal writing, regular fiction writing, I was focused on short stories mostly for writing contests.  Eventually I coalesced the more coherent shorts into a smallish anthology Last of the Grapefruit Wars, which I published in 2003 through a Print-on-Demand service Xlibris.

And since then?

Most of my ambitious projects - actual novel writings, additional short story attempts for contests - don't go very far or very well.  I've tried the 3-Day Novel contests for years to no avail...  I've joined the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and while the last two years I've "won" the months by hitting the 50,000 word counts I've yet to complete either novel into an acceptable conclusion.  This year was practically a miracle seeing me get some stories - Welcome to Florida and The Hero Cleanup Protocol - self-published...

I could explain it away if I was distracted by work or by family.  But I've been unemployed full-time the last two years (going on three), and my family is mostly off doing their things while I'm struggling with mine (and family have never really been major motivators in my writing projects, to be honest).

The unemployment issue is what worries me most: when I was working, I was stimulated with library work - research, above all - and that stimulation helped with getting some works off the word processor.  Now, stressing out over each submitted resume and cover letter seems to dull my interest in getting writing work done.  Even suggestions that I go into freelancing work (for websites like Guru or Examiner.com for example) somehow don't appeal to me even though there's a huge part of me that does.  It's even part of the reason why I don't blog as much as I should: if I kept more active, I'd think I'd get more traffic here.

As for future projects... there's obviously NaNo in November.  I've been given a heads-up about a 24-Hour Comics contest, hosted this year on Saturday October 1.  I am/will be tempted to join in that.

Wish me luck.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2010

It being the first full week of October, they've renewed the sign-ups for National Novel Writing Month, of course.

The deal remains the same: 50,000 words over 30 days of November.  While 50,000 words seem like a lot, it more often doesn't complete the story the novel ought to tell so most writers will need to go way past that.

My first successful trip to 50,000 was last year's NaNo.  Problem was, the novel was barely half-way completed, and without a full novel sitting there in my lap ready for editing and fine-tuning, I quickly lost interest in getting it truly done.

This time is different.  Because this is also the first time I had any genuine success with the earlier 3-Day Novel contest.  Wherein I got 30,000 words done in just three days.  10,000 words a day per average (it was more like 5,000 words each the first two days and then a massive 20,000 rush job on Day Three).  I know now the effort needed to get that much writing done in a single day.  And as long as I ascertain the distractions I'll face, I am pretty sure now I can get the NaNo's 50,000 word count with ease.

That means the REAL objective I have this NaNoWriMo is this: get a full novel completed, and well in time to be able to edit the rough draft.  Something to finally submit to a publisher.

The planning begins...

Aftermath of the 3 Day Novel 2010

...my God, what have I done...?

95 pages worth.

30,000 plus words.

And it's relatively coherent compared to the earlier attempts I've made.

Dear God.  This just might work...

Shall I dare do another 3 Day Novel contest?

I keep swearing off that thing, but then August rolls around and I get tempted with an idea for a novel to write and then... ggaaaaaahh.  The one thing truly stopping me at this moment?  I seriously don't have the $50 needed to register.

Well, Once Again...

...The 3-Day Novel didn't pan out. Got 4.5 chapters done.

But I can now plan out getting at least one chapter a day done. Well, once I get a few more days cleared out...