The last few days have been interesting. I came across a writing competition and for some reason I thought the deadline was in September, in a few days. So I quickly registered and wrote my story, the rules state a maximum of 1500 words. I wrote a personal story from my childhood. I can't post it anywhere until the contest is over, which won't be until February. If I remember, I'll post it here, and let you know the outcome.
Then... I found another contest in my feed that sounded really different. This one was a 24 hour short story contest. They send you a writing prompt at noon Saturday that also tells you the word count maximum.
Then it's due at noon on Sunday. You can change the age and sex of the characters, but you need to touch on the prompt enough so they can tell you wrote the story in the allowed time. Apparently people have tried to pawn off old stories as newly written for past competitions.
I set an alarm on my phone to remind me to check for the prompt email. It came right on schedule. The writing prompt sparked some ideas and I thought them over all afternoon. The word count maximum for this contest was 900 words. I wrote the story last night and read it over and edited a few times. I sent it in when I was happy. Originally I planned to send it in the morning so I could review it after sleeping on it. But then I worried something would happen to cause me to miss the deadline somehow. I submitted it when I finished after midnight. This morning I read it and found two things I wanted to change. I added one letter to a word and rearranged four words into a different order and added one word. Bringing my word count to 899. But I couldn't send in my changes, they were just for me. Well, maybe for you too if I eventually post it. Again, I can't do anything with it until the contest concludes. I'll probably post it on my website or Facebook eventually. The results for this one will be out in about six weeks. They accepted 500 entrants so that's a lot of reading, even if it's only 900 words.
I really enjoyed entering both of these contests and I needed a break from writing my second book in the Forces of Nature Series. But now I need to get back to the grind and get this book finished while I work with my editor on the first book in the series. I had planned to launch the first book October 12th. The cover may not be ready soon enough. My editor also has a lot of commitments right now so editing may take longer than I hoped. I'm flexible and as an indie author my deadlines are my own. So that's another check in the pro column. I will make sure my website reflects any changes to launch dates. I'm hoping for the cover to be ready in the next ten days or so, the designer is busy working on it. Once it's finalized, you guys will be the first to know with a reveal.
For a person who doesn't have a day job, this is a lot of work. The main thing is keeping up with social media. I need to figure out how to make some Booktok videos. I'll let you know if I make any progress with that. I have some ideas, but not sure the reality would work. My hairdresser is a romance, supernatural, suspense, reader. She suggested Booktok videos, I have thought about it, but her encouragement may have pushed me over the edge. (Of course my husband had a whole marketing plan outlined day one. He's a bit OCD and manages large groups of people and projects all over the world. Planning and organizing is his thing.)
Initially I thought I would write one book, park it on Amazon, and call it a day. So that didn't happen. I'm having too much fun. I LOVE writing. Now that I'm doing it on a larger scale, I don't want to stop. My new goal is to support my writing habit by selling my work. If I can do that I'll be happy. Who am I kidding? Once I do that I'll probably raise the bar another notch, but low bars are my M.O. I was sixth grade limbo champion at my elementary school afterall. If anyone can squeeze under a low bar, it's me. I'm rolling my eyes at myself, you don't need to. Talk to you soon. As always, thanks so much for reading!
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