The greatest thing about these contests, in my experience, is that they keep a lot of poor writing out of the overburdened journals' slush piles. - George Murray
Yesterday, Charity told me about a contest... and NO I'm not going to tell you which one, cuz then I'd have to take you out. Eliminate the competition. Ya'know?
Anyhoo, the entry deadline is October 31st. It requires a (*gulp*) outline. This would, I imagine, then require the story to be completed to my satisfaction -- though I'm not certain that will ever happen.
Now I need to decide... do I edit Camilla and submit her, or do I write my mystery and submit it? I'm leaning toward thinking that Camilla is more appropriate to this particular contest, but I hate, Hate, HATE editing.
Regardless, I love a deadline. Deadlines get me fired up. Deadlines give me something tangible to work toward. I adored doing NaNoWriMo (never mind the book was crap). I work well under pressure... at least I WRITE well. The question is, do I EDIT well?
*sigh*
I'm going to have something ready for this contest. Maybe if I sacrifice my first born to the editing God -- Nah... she's too cute.
How about y'all? Do you work better under pressure? And which do you prefer: editing or writing first drafts?
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3 comments:
I prefer reading your stuff :-)
Seriously, I don't mind the editing. To me, the first draft is the hardest, esp. finishing the blasted thing! I really really REALLY like flash fiction and short stories. I just wish there was more of a market for them.
As for the contest, when I read the link, I thought of Camilla instantly for it. I know you hate it, but I vote editing it and getting it out there.
Oh.. gotta see what I can do with this... esp. as the last two letters are just SO terribly appropriate!
ecfmjcc: Editing can fix Marianne's joyous Camilla's Critters
I hate outlining more than editing actually. Although its a laborious job, I get a certain sense of satisfaction from editing, but I enjoy writing new stuff more.
Deadlines? I'm going to have a few coming up when it comes to editing the manuscripts with WCP and Samhain. I'm not fond of deadlines, but I think it pushes me to get something done, otherwise I procrastinate. Without Nano I never would've complteted WORL (which I believe is ready to be submitted to either Samhain or WCP, haven't decided which).
wwpzsduv-wooden widgets provide zany surprises despite unusual violence.
I thought of Camilla immediately and was really hoping you’d consider entering. I didn’t read the guidelines too carefully (cuz let’s face, I have nothing that would qualify), but I think you only need to submit the first chapter (5,000 words, whatever) and the synopsis. That’s completely doable. You don’t have to have all the edits done for that, and a lot of the time, it’s easier to write the synopsis when you’re in “big picture” mode rather than the nitty-gritty editing mode.
As for me, what’s been toughest is not the revising and editing, but writing new scenes since it has been more than a year since I’ve written in Bethany’s voice. I’ve been doing what I call “re-writing the 250” this week and it seems to be helping.
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