Living the Fictional Dream

Tomorrow, my writing group kicks off its June contest, the Story Every Day contest (a.k.a., SED). Originally, it was called the Story a Day contest, but people didn’t like that acronym SAD. Instead of seeing who can write the most prompts in a month (with the winner usually averaging between 5 and 7 stories completed), we are challenging ourselves to write a story every day for two weeks.

Whew! This will be a challenge of close to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) proportions. Sure, the stories can be 500 words minimum (or more), which is less than a typical NaNo daily quota, but there is more time pressure here. A complete story every day! During NaNo, you can skip one day and make it up the next, or, if you know that you’re going to be busy one day, you can spend a couple of days getting ahead. For this contest, if you miss a day, it’s gone. Suddenly, your total number of possible stories goes from 14 to 13 with no way to make it up! And, the stories will most likely be different, instead of continuing the same long story with one flow, like in NaNo. I suppose one could write a series of shorts about the same characters, but nothing like that has come to mind for me thus far.

Then again, maybe that is a good thing. Last NaNo, I felt really trapped with characters and stories that just weren’t working out. And after a while, it is too late to start over. Last year was the first year since 2005 that I didn’t win NaNo. The first year I ever didn’t win NaNo when I registered for it. But, it all worked out, as the short stories I wrote while procrastinating on my NaNo novel became several of my first acceptances (“Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less” and “Remember?” most notably.)

So, the SED contest is going to be a challenge, but it’s one I’m looking forward to. My goal is to write all 14 stories despite the fact that we’re possibly going out of town for a couple of days and that we’ll have friends in town from California for half of the contest. We’ll see how it goes… I may be thwarted by outside pressures, but I’m going to try anyway!

And it’s actually a good time for me to do this. I need more stories in my submission queue. After receiving several acceptances lately (more this month than in any other month ever, and also some last month), I find myself in the strange position of having nearly depleted my short story arsenal. I have one short story (the one I began in Colorado) still out on submission, and I have three or four flash pieces that I’m sending around, but other than that, I’m out! Hopefully, the SED will give me the kick start I need to pick up the pace and have more stories to submit. Assuming that I have 14 good creative ideas in me at the same time!

After the contest is over, I’ll probably post my thoughts on this as a creative exercise. Currently, I’m looking forward to it for the number of stories that I might end up with, for the creative stretch of writing so many stories in such a short time, and for the stretch to my writing discipline. Making time to write every single day is a discipline that I lack. I’m more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer — I don’t tend to outline and I mostly write only when inspired. After the two weeks are over, we’ll see how I was able to do in those goals.

Because of the SED contest, my blog entries may be fewer and farther between than normal. My story will have to be my first writing priority for the day, which will leave less time (especially on the work days) for blogging. But I will do what I can. And, hopefully, y’all will continue to check back for more entries at least occasionally. I don’t intend to go completely incommunicado on you guys!

So, wish me luck! Just 13.5 hours, and then we’re off! Go, Writer’s Inkers! Go!