Sunday, July 5, 2009

writing short stories, etc.

Writing short stories has never been a goal of mine. My mother wrote them all the time, most of them excellent but only one got published. I've written a few, but without success--that is, I wasn't satisfied with them. Right now, there's a competition with the deadline July 15th. I'm aiming to get something sent to them. It's only 750 words maximum, so.... That doesn't make it easy, just not a long term commitment. I'll write a story and send it off. Maybe I'll write some more, just to have ready in case another competition comes along, or I spot a market for short stories. In preparation for this competition (www.polarexpressions.ca) I downloaded the winners of the last competition and have been reading them for inspiration and an idea of what these judges are looking for. It's a Canadian publisher, and there's no entry fee, so what can I lose?
As for the "etc." in the heading, it's to do with a goal I've set for myself. I have been keeping up with it for a few weeks now, and it's working for me. That is, I must write at least 500 words every day. That is EVERY day. AT LEAST 500 words. So far so good, but that's not the goal. The goal is to work it up to 2000 words a day. I've been over 1600 words, but have not yet reached 2000 words in one day. Some days, just getting 500 is a struggle. The above short story accounted for that minimum yesterday. That's just the first draft, of course. Most of the time this month I've been working on a middle grade novel. Some days it flows, other days it doesn't. But at least I'm writing every day now. For a while there, I wasn't.

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