Wow! I can’t believe it’s been July since I posted last – the one downside to full time job, plus grad school, plus life is that it doesn’t leave a lot of time for extras like the blog. I’d like to promise to do better, but I hate breaking promises.
This last week I’ve been working on an entry for SNHU’s Fall Fiction Contest. The prizes for the winners include SNHU scholarships, so for a person paying for their degree out of pocket it seemed like something I needed to participate in. The trick for me is that I struggle with short stories. Luckily, I had worked on a very short story (less than 800) words over the summer as a writing challenge to myself and so I decided to polish it up and enter it. I’m really grateful for my husband, my cousin (the Queen of Short Stories), and a helpful work friend for helping me in that effort.
My biggest goal in entering the contest, knowing it might be read by professors at SNHU was not to embarrass myself. I think that I at least reached that goal. If nothing else, I like the story, which is important. In previous writing classes I’ve submitted things just to have something to submit, and it’s always hard when you aren’t even excited about your work.
I should know by late November how things worked out with the contest – it’s open to the public so I have no doubt the competition will be fierce. I’m trying not to worry to much about what happens from here. I’ve done my part – the best thing to do is move on to the next project. And thanks to my homework for my MFA classes, there is always a next project 🙂
Jenel Alan 