Submit, Submit, Submit

No not in a 50 shades kind of way, I'm talking here about short story submissions.

Last year I only had two short story submissions accepted but when I reviewed my submissions at the end of the year, I found out that I had only submitted ten throughout the year.  

Don't get me wrong, this wasn't the full extent of my writing during the year, but it did bring home the fact that you really have got to be in it to win it.

Rather than setting a target based on number of submissions throughout the year, in January I decided that I was going to aim to have at least ten short stories under consideration at any one time.  

By the end of March I only actually had four under submission, so I decided that I wanted to submit another three during April and three more during May so that by the end of this month I would have achieved my aim.  Obviously this is with the hope of building on this to exceed my target by the end of the year.

By the middle of April I had only submitted one story and then the following week I received one back so it was time to get moving.  

To be honest, I haven't written much new so far, but I have been trawling through my laptop and found some I had written earlier!  Some I've been editing, some I've completely re-written.

By Thursday though I still hadn't submitted, so I started on a period of intense editing and by yesterday afternoon I had hit my target!

Feeling quite pleased with myself as today I have edited another story which I plan to send to a competition.

Maybe finally I'm getting into the swing of things!

Hope your weekend is going just a well as despite the weather!

It's Beginning To Feel Alot Like Winter

This time last week I was lying on a sun lounger soaking up the rays in Lanzarote. Today I had to defrost the car before I could drive to work.  It’s a bit of a culture shock and the thought of the long winter ahead is just a little depressing.  I’m also suffering with early darkness since the clocks went back and have rediscovered that I hate driving in the dark.  It really makes me want to hibernate until the spring.

I must admit though it was wonderful to get away at half term and it definitely recharged the batteries. As we didn’t get away in the summer, and on our holiday in May it rained most of the time, it felt much deserved.  The boys had three inset days tagged onto the half term so we didn’t even have to take them out of school which was even better.

We went to Playa Blanca to Flamingo Beach, a First Choice holiday village and I must admit the facilities were fabulous (the food was pretty good too which means I have come home with a serious intention to diet).   The entertainments team were brilliant, and whilst I’m not big on group fun, the boys loved it. As they were entertained, I got on with some reading and writing, which for me is the best kind of holiday.

Before I went away I was feeling a bit jaded about my writing and couldn’t seem to get anything finished. Without the usual distractions though I drafted some new stories and came back feeling much more confident.  I’ve also made a list of things I want to write for the rest of the year which appeals to the OCD side of my nature.  You know what they say, “Nothing beats the satisfaction of a ticked off list” and for me it really helps to set myself targets.

Talking of targets, its November and time for NaNoWriMo.  This year, I didn’t want to start on a big new project as I’ve got lots of editing to do. I must admit though that I’m missing it.  So I’ve decided to set myself a mini NaNoWriMo.   My aim is to write 500 words a day.  It’s a really good exercise because it makes me write even when I don’t want to and even if I don’t do anything else, knowing I have achieved that small target makes me feel good about myself.   So far I have written 1½ new stories and whilst they are a very rough first draft, at least they are there.  They are both stories which have been on my ideas list for a very long time so it feels like a small achievement.  The aim for the rest of the year is to get as many short stories out there as possible, and who knows, one or two may even hit the target.  One can only dream!

Hoping that the dark nights and cold mornings aren't getting you down too much!

Linda