Wednesday 14 September 2011

A Man with a Plan


I haven’t written much lately. I’ve submitted hardly anything, either, so I’m feeling like I need do to something more constructive than just occasionally update my blog with my thoughts on / excuses for why I haven’t been feeling very ‘writerly’ for the last couple of months.

I work better with deadlines, and I like a challenge. So, my target for the remainder of 2011 is to submit 10 stories to competitions and/or paying markets of some kind. Ten stories is hopefully an achievable goal, but it’s a big step up from my current output, so it’ll take a bit of effort. It may not seem like a huge number, but I need to be realistic – after all, I’m working full-time at the moment, which involves a lot of travelling and leaves me with very little free time, so it would be disheartening to aim for anything too ambitious and fail miserably.

This evening, I’ve looked at my list of unpublished stories – some are fighting fit, others need pretty brutal edits before they see the light of day – and I’ve compiled a list of suitable competitions. I’ve paired up a few stories with competitions that might offer a good fit, but I do have quite a few empty slots where I’ll need to either drastically rework an older piece or come up with something new.

Wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted on the results of my endeavours.

4 comments:

Chloe said...

Good luck, Dan! You'll have to try one of the big competitions like Bridport or Fish or something as one of your entries. Look forward to reading of your successes :)

Dan Purdue said...

Thanks, Chloe. I sent a couple of entries to Bridport earlier in the year - I don't think the results are out until mid-October. I'm not holding out a lot of hope, but you never know.

Fish is a bit of a dilemma - I had sworn it off after several unsuccessful attempts (it's quite an expensive one to enter). But this year the judge is David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, etc), who is one of my writing heroes. If I can come up with something suitable in time I would be thrilled at the thought of him reading something of mine.

Watch this space.

logicus said...

so hows it going then...

Dan Purdue said...

Hello Logi, long time no speak. I'm not sure whether you're asking about the challenge or things in general, but it's all going pretty well. Thanks for asking.

Hope all's well with you.