Thursday, May 31, 2012

Hitting The Send Button

It's been a week ( I think) since I took a good look at my writing habits (or lack thereof) and decided they needed an overhaul.  It looks like that was a good decision, because I made my deadline. (Cue applause).

Actually, I had three.  Today was the first.  Chizine's Rannu Fund Award Contest Deadline was today, May 31st and I hit the SEND button on my submission at 12:18 pm Arizona time.  The time stamp is for me, by the way, just because I like to be efficient.

It was touch and go, I'll tell you.  I agonized over the finishing touches of my story, whittled it down for three hours, and finally decided it was as ready as it would ever be.

It's a funny thing, hitting SEND.  It seems like a pretty simple action, one click of the mouse and off it goes, but there's nothing simple about it.  There's last minute checks of formatting, last minute checks of the email address, of the bio, etc.  It may sound a bit OCD-ish to some of you, but if you're a writer, I think you can feel me.

It's not that it's been a while since I submitted anything - the end of December I sent off a story to Glimmertrain's Fiction Open Contest (I didn't win, but I was a finalist, and that's better than seeing 'complete' on my submissions page, let me tell you. 

This is different, though.  This is Chizine.  If you write horror, you know what I'm talking about.  Chizine.  I'm not saying it's the 'end all, be all' but it's pretty damn close. I want that feather in my hat.  Is that vain?  Yeah.  Yeah it is.  But I'm a big enough person to admit it, so who cares.

I'll be honest, I want to win.  But I know the odds.  And in reality, even if I don't, it's okay.  It's okay because regardless of the outcome, I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I hit the deadline.

2nd deadline is in two weeks.  Narrative Magazine's deadline for general submissions.  And then it's back to my novel outline.  That deadline is the end of June.  Wish me luck.  With three kids, trying to enjoy their summer break, I've got my work cut out for me.


1 comment:

  1. Good for you, Petra! Keep learning, keep striving, keep writing, and keep hitting 'send.'

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