Million Word Madness Update

Week 1: 22,932

Today I entered the draft of a new story in AuthorMentorMatch. I had a potential three manuscripts I could have entered, but chose this one for reasons:

1. It’s a relatively new age group for me. I’ve written in this age group three times now, and this is the fourth MS for this group. But getting feedback for my targeted age group is tough.
2. Thankfully, getting Beta readers for it after feedback isn’t as tough. I have a ready supply of victims—uh, I mean, readers. (My poor writing group—I don’t know how they put up with me.)
3. It was at the level where developmental editing is needed.
4. I’ve already scheduled it for my critique partners to look at, therefore, if chosen, the revision time is already blocked on the calendar for this story. If not chosen, I will be moving forward with other feedback.

When writing contests open, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. What happens if your story is chosen? What happens if it’s not? How do you revise to the feedback of a person you only know from a thin profile and occasional Twitter posts? How do you revise if you don’t get in the contest and have to go it alone?

Personally, I find that much of that chaos is alleviated with a plan for moving forward. Put it into action the day of submitting, if not before. It makes entering a contest that much more enjoyable when the stress of what happens next has already been dealt with.

And it makes moving forward the thing to do, not the thing to fear.