This past week has been jam-packed with writing stuff:
I joined a Mom writing group on facebook about two weeks ago, and they just happened to be organizing small writing groups, so I joined one. It’s my first time joining a small peer writing group, and it’s been so helpful. There are 5 of us in the group: 3 writing romance (of different sorts), one with poetry and children’s stories, and me with my humor. We each shared our first chapter this past week and made comments on everyone’s work using google docs. I cannot express how helpful the comments from the other ladies have been (and I’m hoping my comments are the same for them!).
I also worked on beta reading a really fun novel categorized as Christian Dystopian. I love dystopian books and was so excited to see a Christian version of one. It’s been really fun to read
One of the things I’ve been working on this week is checking out calls for submissions. I submitted one story that was already polished, then found a call that perfectly fit a short story I’d written called “Cry Me a River.” I spent three days editing it, having my husband beta read it, then writing an entirely new ending … only to find out the call had been cancelled. Lesson learned: Read on the main page of the publishing site, not just on the submission page. Fortunately, I found another publisher looking for stories that matched “Cry Me a River,” so I submitted there instead. I also found a call for 100 word fiction, which is one of my favorite things to write. I composed three entries, as allowed, then went to submit them, only to find the submissions closed. Lesson: some publishers are in different time zones. If you don’t know the time zone, submit the day before. Luckily for me, when I reached out to the publisher to ask if I was doing something wrong, the editor gave me a second chance. Turns out the company is based in South Korea.
Finally, I did some writing and editing. I added a couple hundred more words to my Fantasy novel, which is still untitled, and I completely reworked the first chapter of “This Book is a Disaster” thanks to the helpful comments from my writing group. It’s looking much more polished, though I know there’s still work to do.
This week has been an absolute blast. I’ve forgotten how much fun writing can be. I’ve thrown myself in more than I have in the past, and it’s paying off. I’m more excited to write and more focused. My phone isn’t as much of a distraction because writing has become fun once more. Looking forward to seeing what this next week has in store!