In my January blog, I shared my goal of writing, editing and polishing a short story to submit it to someplace… any place! I broke down the steps to achieve this goal in 2023: the first step was to research various fantasy short story contests (see my blog in January). So how am I doing on this plan?
True Story: When I was in high school, one of my English teachers had us submit a short piece of writing to at least 2 magazines for publication as part of our requirement to pass his course. The goal was not to get published but to understand how to get published and experience the process. Back then, we had to flip through a massive book that listed every magazine with their criteria and how to submit. Then you mailed your story or poem with a self-addressed stamp envelop so that you could receive your rejection letter.
The teacher made a board where we posted our collection of rejection letters. We held a competition for the person who received the most pathetic rejection letter. My friend won: she received one that had one sentence typed on a narrow piece of paper and then the paper had been ripped (not even cut) so more of the paper could be used again for other rejection “notes”. She didn’t even rate a full paper sheet. It might sound unusual for an English class to do this, especially now when failure is not always encouraged. Our teacher warned us that we would all get rejections but that was not the purpose of the assignment. The lesson was to understand a process and that one must sometimes jump into the unknown (We also had to read Heart of Darkness, so there might be a theme here). You can stare at a pool, study it, wonder about it, but you won’t really know what’s it like to be in water until you jump or wade into that murky water. That is what he wanted us to experience in our writing journey.
How much easier it is to do this in 2023! Instead of spending hours pouring over this book, looking for a place that might be a good match for whatever horrid piece of fiction my sixteen year old mind had thought up, one morning I spend a few minutes typing in my search terms. Soon, I had a list of potential contests for me to consider. After I discounted anything that had a deadline before August and made sure that I qualified for the basic entry requirements, I had a list of 3 to 4 options. I still had time to eat breakfast.
Here’s the magic of setting a goal and starting down a new path. You don’t really know who you might met and where you might end up. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, who would expect that she would met a timid Lion? In my short search, not only did I find potential options for contests, I also discovered a free online course on writing fantasy and SF short stories. I thought, why not? It’s free. It’s geared to my genre. I should take this and see what I will learn.
Here’s the link to the one I found: https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writing-workshop/
Stage whisper: There’s also a contest for Illustrators too from this website (for any artists out there).
And then I discovered that there’s more of these free online courses out there. These allow you to learn at your own pace and in the comfort of your home. Doing a course will usually help generate ideas for a story and help keep you motivated. Here are some more options:
https://learn.christopherfielden.com/p/free-short-story-writing-course
https://www.topcreativewritingcourses.com/blog/free-online-fiction-writing-courses
I haven’t taken any of these courses so I can’t vouch for them but it’s wonderful that there are free resources out there for anyone who needs some structure to help them get started down a writing path. Or maybe you just need something different to get you motivated. Jump into something new and see where is might take you.
Happy writing!
PS. Ending to the True Story: Despite my teacher’s warning that we would ALL get rejection letters, one of my fellow students did actually get published (missing out the big reward for the worse rejection letter, of course). You never know when magic and hard work will pay off.
