I've been thinking that I should enter some writing competitions. It's always good to have something to write on a CV and if I never enter anything, I'm never likely to have anything to write. When my favourite writing magazine turned up the other day, announcing a competition with the theme of 'Adoption' I thought now or never. I duly sat down and wrote the requisite 1500 words. At first I thought I had a good original slant. The fact that for the first time ever I'd written in first person, present tense, felt good too. After all, it's a subject I know a lot about.
Now, though, the doubts are creeping in. Am I too close to this subject? Is the story soppy, rather than the 'touching' I was aiming for? Is my main character unsympathetic? Does it make any sense to someone who has never been touched by adoption.
The logical thing would be to have it critiqued, but that feels like cheating. The next best thing would be to let my husband read it, but I'd hate it if he said it didn't grab him. I could leave it in a drawer for a while in the hope that when I come back to it, I'll be a little more distanced. But the deadline is only five or six weeks away, so I don't have a lot of time up my sleeve.
I'll leave it a week and see what I think then.
3 comments:
Why is having it critiqued cheating? I know some stories that were up for critting prior to a contest. Everybody will try to enter the best story they can, with the tools they have. CC is one of your tools, use it!
You could be right I suppose, Luc. I'll check out how long the General queue is.
If you've got the points Kate, you could pay 18 and get it in for next Wednesday.
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