With my days off from work falling on Wednesday and Thursday, my ‘weekend’ is always a little off-kilter. The advantage though is that I’m the only adult who’s home and that provides good writing time as long as I’m able to manage my time properly. This past ‘weekend’ I was able to complete my work on Project X. Then I took a step into unknown territory… I submitted it.
I feel like throwing a party or doing a dance but honestly my nerves were all wrapped up in the worries that I was following the guidelines correctly. If there’s one thing I’ve had hammered into my head in the past few years it’s this: “Follow submission instructions to the letter!” There’s likely nothing worse than spending copious amounts of time working on a WIP to then torpedo it by not following instructions.
Composing the email was a task that took me almost an hour as I read, re-read, and triple-re-read the submission guidelines. Did I include my real name? What about my phone number? Did I remember to attach the damn file?!?! Universe-ending questions such as these ran through my head with each pass of my unsent draft. Actually worrying was a good thing as I did miss the ‘Real Name’ field and quickly inserted that into the list of information required for submission.
In the end, I was satisfied that my email was 100% correct, the file was attached and then I hit send. A momentous occasion to say the least but the lingering ‘nothingness’ afterwards was a stark reminder that there’s more words to write, more story to edit and tons more work to do. I’ve set my first story free and now I wait impatiently for an answer that likely won’t come for many months.
Aside: I loved the movie Project X as a kid and just thought it was fun to pay homage to this cool movie from the 80’s in my writing.