Post-submission lounge

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   For round one, I spent most of the week deciding on the idea I wanted to go with. The writing was pretty quick, and I had the benefit of reading the story to my wife and daughter, both of whom are excellent critics. I then spent a couple days tweaking and polishing. The resulting story was 2500 words and won first place in its heat, so that method worked.
This time there were only three days. I tried an abbreviated version of the same process, but I wasn't able to to get feedback from my impromptu reading group. Overall, I think the story is not nearly as strong as it could be. That said, it's satire, so the main point is to try and be absurd and funny, not to necessarily have emotional tension. 

Since on the heat winners advance this time, the competition is about to get really fierce. In my heat there's another heat winner as well as a few who took third and fourth places. Since sharing the stories is voluntary, I probably won't get a chance to read all the other stories. Last time I was super interactive for the first week or so, but then I pretty much forgot all about it. Distracted by other stuff. Later, rinse, repeat.

One interesting thing, though: when the judges offered feedback on my last story, they all liked the same things but their opinions about what they would improve conflicted with one another. There's always so much to learn!