It Begins!
So, quite some time ago, I purchased a bulk lot of 66 different books on eBay, for what worked out to around a dollar a piece, after shipping which was quite a steal. Not to mention that around half of them were hardcovers, to boot!
Why do I mention this? Well, one of them was Writers of the Future, which is the grand result of a writing contest: the winners get published.
Not that I didn’t know/expect that writing contests exist, but seeing the results in my hands got me to thinking. And I thought, “I could do this,” while reading most of the stories therein. Plus, not only do the winners get published, they get some hefty prizes: $1,000 for first place, each quarter. Then each year, the quarterly first place winners are judged again, the winner garnering another $5,000.
With the possibility of fame, fortune, and riches hanging in the balance, how could I do anything besides begin writing? So I did! I began outlining my ideas. Then, at the very end of August, I picked one, and started outlining the story for that idea. I’ve begun writing that as a short story, which is looking like it might end up in the 10,000 word range.