Saturday, May 12, 2012

Starting now.

"The Writer's Voice" contest has come and gone, and Skyborne wasn't chosen.  I'm oddly okay with this.  I'm really glad I participated in the contest, as it got me to finally start a blog and make some connections with other writers out there.  Aside from friends and family, I tend to be a pretty solitary person, so it's not easy for me to just wander into peoples' blogs, say hi, and start following them.  The contest was a good way to dive into that headfirst, as I wasn't the only one throwing my work out there and hoping it stuck to something.  Or someone.

...okay, that metaphor just died.

Anyway.  A big part of why I'm fine with not getting into the contest is that I'm now free to pursue the agents I want to work with, without having to worry that an agent in the contest will want to see my work.  Also, thanks to the contest, I now have a much better query letter and a fully-edited book, which I wouldn't have otherwise had by now.  Nothing quite like editing 133K words down to 128K in seven days.  So I'm coming out of this in a better place than I was when I went in.

Besides, this doesn't actually change anything.  With apologies to George R. R. Martin, in the game of publishing, you win or you keep trying.  There is no middle ground, because you only fail when you stop trying.  Or when you die, but at that point it's kind of moot.  ^_^

I don't think I'll be dead anytime soon, and I will not stop trying.  One way or another, I will win.

2 comments:

  1. With that attitude, you will win. :) Let me know if you get a "Follower" or "Follow by Email" gadget up. I'd love to follow back.

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    1. Done! I'm still learning my way around Blogger; thanks for letting me know about that.

      And thank you. ^_^

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