Competition buzz

I get such a buzz from sending off my stories to competitions. It's that mixture of satisfaction, hope and anticipation, plus knowing that someone out there - a complete stranger - is going to read my words.

I sent off my entry for the Write Space 'Forbidden Friends' comp yesterday. I had been intending to email it in today, today being the deadline and that being the way I work. But yesterday I thought 'No, let's get this thing in a whole day early'. Glad for that thought as when I checked the website I discovered I needed to send off for an entry form and post my story to Cornwall by snail mail. Thankfully the lovely people at Write Space are prepared for last minuters like myself and emailed me an entry form by return. Also thankfully my often truculent printer was in a good mood. So story is off; it has hopefully wung(?) its way south and has dutifully landed on the desk of an eager reader this morning.

I made a commitment to myself this year to make space for my writing in amongst my work load. I'm fortunate in that I work freelance from home and can usually make time for writing. Sometimes though it's tough and at the moment I'm having to make work my priority. So my children's novel, after progressing so well last week has not moved on at all this week - that competition deadline of November 17th is approaching like a steam train (not quite an intercity express though, so there is still hope). Next week should be better as my current work deadlines are all for this Friday.

Didn't come anywhere in the Times Ghost story comp (now I come to think of it my 'spooky house' motif wasn't particularly original!). You can read the winning entries here.

A beginning

So, OK a new blog started (one of 40,000 today apparently). Why? Well I started a diary (the paper and pen kind) at the beginning of this year. I carry it everywhere and have found that just having it makes me write. Sometimes it's just unsharable nonsense but other times odd sentences or word pairings lead me on to characters and story ideas. So, I thought as I spend so much time sitting at my computer I might as well have an online equivalent, an electronic sibling to my paper and pen. Another place to sit and natter to myself and to anyone who wants to listen, to play with words, to try to find the right ones.

In an undusted corner of my room a teetering stack of cardboard and paper sandwiches together years and years of my writing in a giant Scooby snack. Ideas for characters, for plots, for conflict and adventure. Lots and lots of beginnings but too few middles or ends. I began to think as the pile grew higher that I would never write a complete story, not even a very, very short one.

Then I discovered the joy of writing competitions and more importantly - Deadlines! I've known for years that the only way I ever get anything finished is if I have a deadline to meet but I never thought to apply it to my writing. Self-appointed deadlines aren't worth the paper they're not written on - but every competition comes with its own delectable deadline just begging to be met.

Sad, but true, that was all I needed to get me writing in earnest. It's not the winning (fab though that is when it happens), it's the completing, the finishing, the knowing that I have told a story. So, in the hope of inspiring others, and also as reminders to myself, I will post a list of current writing competitions - and of course their deadlines. Let me know if I've missed out any good ones.