Hitting "send"
The instant the "send" button descends is the most heady and terrifying moment of the whole writing process. The din in my head ("No! It isn't edited enough! Did you read ALL the formatting guidelines? What are you DOING???" "Shut up! It's a beautiful, powerful story ringing with universal truth and relevance!" "But you've messed up the guidelines, I'm sure you have! They're going to think you're an idiot! And your story is actually crap!" "I FOLLOWED the guidelines, and no it isn't -- shut up, shut up!" "Oh my God, it's too late, there it goes, it's too late, too late....") is unbelievable.
And yet once it goes, the exhilaration spikes: I'm being a Real Writer, I'm sending my stories out into the world to seek their fortune.
posted by Laura E. Goodin @ 9:36 AM (permalink)
3 comment(s)
3 Comments:
Or, as said by someone else:
Go, little booke, God send thee good passage,
And specially let this be thy prayere,
Unto them all that thee will read or hear,
Where thou art wrong, after their help to call,
Thee to correct in any part or all.
Geoffrey Chaucer "Belle Dame sans Mercie".
("The Beautiful Lady who Never says 'Thank you'" - Michael Swan)
You know, that sounds like my day thus far. Are you sending of Clarion edits?
At the moment there are only one Clarion and one pre-Clarion story out there. Just quietly, I've been informed today that the pre-Clarion story has been shortlisted for the comp I sent it to (Conflux). I'm hiding this in the comments because I don't want to jinx it.
I've also had one rejection of a Clarion story. And I'm waiting to see if the electronic-submission Chamber of Secrets at Interzone will ever open, because I'd like to send them my cricket story (which I quite like).
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