Writing and Other Pastimes

I have been contemplating entering short story competitions for a few months now. Finally, I feel brave enough to officially enter my first short  story competition, in decades. I have had articles published before but these had a vaguely factual basis which I found much easier to keep under a 2000 words limit. Draft one of a short story was finished yesterday and I did some rewriting some more on it today. Thank goodness for friends who can give constructive criticism. My short story is now on its third round of proof reading and I am looking at (hopefully) my final draft.

This competition has been a challenge for me. The word limit is 1500 words. While I can easily average 1000 words for articles, blog enteries or 'lifestyle' articles, most short stories I have written average over 3000 words. The challenge is to learn to cull unnecessary parts of the story, honing my skill in editing and learning to restrict the use of my commas! Writing this blog has given me more practice at writing shorter pieces and has been instrumental in finally preparing me to enter some prose for judging. (So thank you, dear readers, for reading my posts!)

Writing a blog is one thing but entering a competition is completely different. I have entered many art competitions, over the years, but this will be the first prose competition that I have entered since high school. I must admit I have some major butterflies. For years, I have been relatively confident in my artwork, enough to lay it bare for competitoin judges for critque. Writing, like any art, effectively lays ones soul bare to the reader. People I do not know, have not met and probably never will, get an insight into my thoughts.  

This leads me to my biggest fear (and, from what I read, many writer's fear) of rejection. What if it is not good enough? What if it is utter rubbish? What if it is just put aside due to genre preference of the judges? ... what if? 

I read an article, by a published Australian author, this year. It was very helpful, possibly one of the most helpful articles I have read in a while. It said simply, write. If you don't write, you cannot call yourself a writer.  If it is utter crap, don't worry. Continue to write. Practice writing. Try to write (or read) 1500 words a day. That article led me to creating this blog. It has provided me with a regular writing platform, to practice some of my 1500 words per day. It has given me the confidence and courage to contemplate entering a competition!

I am now eyeing off two more competitions, both of which have a limit of just 2000 words. I find this is the most difficult length for me to write. More is needed to fill out the story, but there is not enough room to get into too much depth. I can see that my editing skills are going to really get a work out. I work better to deadlines though, so I am looking forward to taking on the further challenge. Hopefully, I will rise up to the task. Maybe then I will be brave enough to try some flash fiction (maximum 500 words) ... now that would be a challenge!