My Second (and Third) writing contest

A delayed ramble

Keeping with the theme of this series, the title is slightly deceptive. It is, in fact, my third and fourth contest I’m discussing here. I covered my second contest back when writing about my first, and I really did not want to break continuity here.

We good? Good.

Now, onto the juicy thoughts of what’s been going through my head. I magnificently failed to place in both Writing Battle and Elegant Literature—both of which are competitive fields, so it was a predictable outcome.

Still, I would have like to at least get an honorable mention—I mean, who wouldn’t?

What I’ve learned is that I’m divisive as a writer, not in a political sense, but in a stylistic sense.

It sounds like a bit of a cop-out, so I will try to elaborate.

A slight tangent: what, fundamentally, does a good story require? My take is a clear situation that is introduced well, characters with clear motivations and goals, and a point to it all that the reader can wrestle with.

Though I believe all three are important, I tend to put a lot of weight on the last bit: making a point. I try not to moralize, but more hypothesize about ‘what if this happened’, ‘that would mean this change in the world’, ‘therefore, this must be the consequence’.

Those three steps, to me, are what speculative fiction is all about, and speculation is at the heart of all my writing.

I’m aware I’ve just made a three step argument nested within a three-step framework. Stay with me, it’s gonna get better—I promise.

Because my focus is on the speculative elements, often drawing on philosophical concepts that occupy me, I sometimes—occasionally (read, mostly)—under-emphasize the situation and the motivations of my characters. I don’t believe I forget about them, or dismiss them, but I tend to take them as a given within the speculative structure.

To be absolutely clear, I think I need to work on that. It’s not a case of ‘artistic superiority’, where the readers just got to adapt to me. I also need to work on that aspect, and I’m trying my best.

To illustrate how much work I have in front of me, I’ll introduce my stories. I won’t be publishing them on Substack for the foreseeable future, because I’ve revised them and submitted them for publication elsewhere.

In my Writing Battle story, I tried making a time loop about redemption within a heist. I wanted to write out the self-recursive nature of guilt and self-recriminations, set within either a hell-like torment, or the looping state of a dying mind. To do this, I had a main character with two names, two supporting cast members for a team dynamic within the heist, a childhood archetype, and a devil brewing coffee.

Sounds like a bit much, right? Doing that in 2000 words was a challenge, and in the feedback it became clear that there were some structural elements missing for the situation to be clear, as well as the motivations for my protagonist. Still, I got a lot of praise for my ambition, which is nice, but it evenly split my judges in the peer judging—down to each round.

In my Elegant Literature story, I wrote about a lone soothsayer finding an inn in the middle of nowhere, only for his spirt-like companion to make a mess out of everything. I indulged in a tense-shift in the opening and ending, to make these moments feel eternal present, while the meat of the story was in past tense. The story is a lot about how dance and song can transform people, sometimes even forcing them into change, so the language is a bit poetic.

I pretty quickly submitted it to another magazine afterward and got a rather quick reply. They liked the atmosphere, but couldn’t get into the characters, which—again—is fair.

So, what have I learned?

I need to write better interiority, and make it a priority in the openings of my stories. Once the reader is invested in the characters, perhaps the point I want to make with my stories will be more interesting.

I personally think I’ve written some of my best work lately, and I’m really eager to see whether my training pays off. I took a chance with my December submission for Elegant Literature and wrote a surrealist tale about the end of time, whales singing, and an egg, so it’ll be interesting to see if it lands.

I’ve also learned that surrealism comes naturally to me as I write.

In conclusion, much to learn, too little time to write, and so many stories to tell.

Have a great day today, and happy Holidays.