I got my second Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future contest today!

I think this validates what I was talking about last time I got an Honorable Mention. It took me 5 tries to get my first one, and then only 3 more tries to get my second. That feels like progress folks, and it’s about the only thing I can point to that feels that way.

Now I just have to make sure I finish my current story by September to make the Quarter 4 deadline (I’ve already submitted for Quarter 3). I know any aspiring writer out there would absolutely laugh in my face that I hope to finish 3/4 of a story in 3 months, but I have to tell you, it is about the best I can do at this stage in my life. Writers of the Future deadlines are the only thing that even keep me going. Need I remind you that I only finished 2 stories last year? I’m just happy that I’m more or less keeping the ones I have circulating (and not doing a super job of that either…ones that are destined for electronic-submission markets are okay, but I am doing a very bad job of keeping the ones that are going to postal-submission markets out. I’ve got to get on that!)

Onward and upwards!

Finally scored my first Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future contest!

When I first started entering the contest, I thought an Honorable Mention would be a slam dunk. I didn’t necessarily expect it on the first try, but from the casual way people mention it (or mention how they’ve never done worse than an Honorable Mention), it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I was even kind of hoping for better.

However, my first 4 attempts resulted in a a big fat nada. Zip, zero, zilch.

In the end this might have worked out for the better, since I have a much greater appreciation for what it means to get an Honorable Mention. At first I wondered what I did wrong. I even wondered if perhaps I missed the notification or something. What an idiot I was! In the year and a half that I have been submitting, I have come to learn the truly staggering amount of submissions that they get. Also, the people that are very active on the forum might not be an accurate picture of the “average” entrant.

In any event, getting something, even an Honorable Mention, sure feels pretty good after all the rejections. Getting a win, even a pseudo-win like this one, motivates me to do even better. And seeing my name up on the blog doesn’t hurt either.

No, the contest is definitely tougher than I thought. That’s going to make it all the sweeter when I win.