Succeeding, But Not Right Away

Be okay with the process of writing. Maybe you don’t want to succeed immediately.

What? Why wouldn’t you want to succeed immediately? Sooner is better, right?

Not so fast, Italics Guy. Hold your slightly-leaning-right horses.

I have excellent news for myself that I wanted to share. I often want to try to turn my news into something else, so it isn’t completely self-serving. Insight I may have gained, tips I can share, motivation, etc.

So, since I have last shared about my accomplishments, I have found out that two more stories I submitted to the site Sci-Fi Shorts have been accepted. I don’t know when they will go live yet, but I will be sure to share those. And that is amazing news for me!

Today, I received different news, excellent news. I knew the announcement would be coming out today, but I was trying not to get my hopes up. But I got the email and was ecstatic. I had submitted to the Launch Pad Prose Writing Competition and my story “Darkness of the Ecuadorian Sunset” has moved on to the Top 100! I have submitted to this competition before, once moving on to just the Second Round, two other times no advancement. I have also submitted scripts to Launch Pad in the past. But this is the furthest I’ve gotten into the competition.

Top 100 feels like a major accomplishment to me. It makes me feel like I’m continually progressing. But what’s more is that with this competition, once you reach the Top 100, you start seeing benefits. It’s better for you the further you go or if you win, obviously, but once you make the Top 100, they start promoting your story to industry professionals. Now, people looking for new projects can read my work! Managers, agents, producers, whoever!

This is why I am so ecstatic… I feel like I have already won… along with 99 others. I started filling out my profile for the site and reading their tips… their extremely helpful tips… and I learned I can even promote other works on there. They recommend it. Not too many… but a few. One of their big reasons for this is, what if someone loves your story, but for one reason or another, they aren’t able to do anything with it? They may say, “I love your writing. What else do you have?”

And what you don’t want is that sense of panic. “I’m a brand new writer! I don’t have anything else!” And then rushing to finish a halfway done draft just to get something done.

Luckily for me, my other stories that I had submitted to them are saved on their site and I can choose to use them. And luckily for me… I have been writing for a while… I have plenty of other work I can upload if I wish. Luckily for me, if someone wants to see what else I have… I have other polished work that I can share.

If I had written something terrific and it was the first thing I had written, who knows how my next stories would turn out? It’s important to get the practice in. Just write. Write your ideas out. Write something that isn’t great and see that it doesn’t work. Keep writing. Keep working. Work through your weaknesses and hone your craft. That’s the process. Get good at writing.

I have been turned down a ton already. Who knows? Maybe it was all a blessing in disguise. Maybe if I succeeded in a big way early on... I wouldn't have been prepared for that. I had plenty of time to keep writing and honing my skills. Finishing more stories. Going over my stories and revising them and polishing them. That’s been the process. And I have been okay with that.

Now, I am beyond okay with that. When I read on their site, 'what if someone wants to see what else you have written', I had a minor panic attack. But it only lasted ⅜ of a second when I remembered… oh yeah… I have a ton of other work. And a ton of other work that is similar to this work. This is a horror story. I have other horror stories. I have other stories that do horror in different ways, other things in the speculative fiction genre with just elements of horror if someone is more interested in that.

I have a lot that I can share. Because I took my time to go through the process and just kept writing. I am so thankful I didn’t place in any competitions early on when I didn’t have a good deal of work that I was proud of. I am so thankful it’s happening now. And thankful that it’s happening in general. I’m thrilled. It’s such an accomplishment. I don’t know what will happen from this point on… and I am nervous… but I feel a sense of preparedness. That sense is battling some other senses of panic and terror and sweaty palms… but at least it’s there. It’s present at role call.

I suppose there is something to all of this. Don’t be disappointed with rejection. Maybe it isn’t time yet. Don’t discard something because it was rejected. Someone else may love it. Don’t get discouraged because you haven’t had something happen yet. You are currently building up your portfolio and you want a big one, just in case. Don’t ever stop writing. What if someone likes your work but they have that question for you…

“What else do you have?”

Keep writing. You want to make sure you have a good answer to that question whenever it is that it’s presented to you.