2017 – a year of shorts and competitions

As an easily dissuaded and disheartened person, I infrequently submit work and enter writing competitions and then feel bad about myself when I’m not published or shortlisted (on reflection, it’s possible I do this just to have an excuse to sad-eat later). I don’t write very much short stuff because a) I only recently understood what an essay actually was, and b) it’s hard to hide all the flaws in short fiction. But I would like to. Competitions have deadlines and the allure of prizes and some of them have judges so exceptional that the prize becomes their reading the work at all. Journals have readers and sometimes readers might read something short and then buy that writer’s novel(s).

So, I’ve decided that in 2017 I’m going to focus on writing short and sending wide. I’ve enrolled in Writers Victoria’s Advanced Short Story Clinic, which should help me to produce and workshop five stories. And this is my in-progress accountability list – all the places I’m planning to pitch or submit to and competitions I’m going to enter. Once I do, I’ll come back and update the list with the name of the piece I’ve sent. It might even form a handy list for other people who also want to do this. In fact, it would be totally great if we had a buddy system.

= not submitted

= accepted

= rejected

= withdrawn

** in progress
*** simultaneous submission