Bye-bye, Story

Well, I did it. I wrote a story that I love for the Highlights Fiction Contest, and I'm sending it off today. I learned some things while writing it and I'm kind of up in the air over whether I even want to win or not.

On the one hand, it'll look good on my resume once I begin looking for agents (if I win/Highlights wants my story). I've only been published once and this would be one step closer to me feeling better prepared when I start querying for Violet's Monster.

On the other hand, I REALLY like this character (mostly her name). I'm kind of wishing I could send something else in so I could use this character in picture books. (If they accept my story, it becomes property of Highlights)

So...there's that wrestling inside me.

I've also learned I can't write jokes. Apparently I'm not funny joke-wise. Funny situations? Sure. I can do that. Joke-writing, however, is not for me. At least, not yet. More practice, maybe.

I also learned that it's great to have odd knowledge. My love of pirates came well into play in this story and it shows - I know what a longboat is, I know how to write about a prow, the stern, etc. I know ships. So I guess I need to keep reading about random stuff that interests me. Score.

The other thing I learned is that to be this precise requires a lot of time. For me, anyway. I had to think about the story for a while, and I knew about this contest in...November. I just wrote the story a few weeks ago (about 2 or 3). I just finished proofreading for the last time yesterday.

I had to make sure that my story was 750 words or less (cut it down to 680...pretty proud of that!), and I could not include violence, derogatory humor, or crime. And...it had to be about an embarrassing situation.

So I had to deal with all of that and figure out what I wanted to say about embarrassment and then somehow put that into a situation where it didn't sound cheesy, and...whew. It was one of the most difficult writing assignments to date! :P

Anyway. I'm sending it off today, hoping for I don't know what. Do I want it back with a rejection slip so I can make it into picture books? Do I want to win $1,000 and have a story published in a children's magazine? I don't know.

But I really love this story and I think it deserves a chance. No use waiting around while I try to write my other fifty books. :P