My Kind of Writing

As the end of the year approaches, I have been doing a lot of thinking- first and foremost about who I am as a writer. I do know that I love to write science-fiction and fantasy works. I tend to take my time with these kinds of stories, since I love to build expansive, complex, interconnected worlds that are based on a logical set of rules that apply to the specific magical/fictional world I am writing about. This process is one of my favorite things about writing. I also love the process of creating dynamic, complex characters to fit into these worlds, developing their arcs and the challenges they must overcome and lessons they must learn. I have learned so much in this class, both from our homework and from my peers, about character and plot-building, lessons that have helped me so much as a writer.

This is kind of a random image but it came up when I googled 'fantasy' and I thought it was pretty.

As for my writing style, I would say that I'm still trying to figure it out. Sometimes when I write, I get nervous to take chances. I love reading stories that have a poetic feel, stories that aren't always written in perfect grammar but written in a way that evoke emotion. This is how I want to write as well. However, sometimes I feel like my writing is kind of cut-and-dry. I have learned so much in this class from my peers about different writing styles and I hope to take this knowledge with me as I continue to search for my specific style.

In searching for contests and places to submit my work, I wanted to focus on science-fiction and fantasy based contests, as well as flash-fiction contests. I know that submitting, and more importantly reading, other people's works is so helpful to me, since I always become inspired by other people's words. I love reading new and creative fantasy ideas, and I feel like flash-fiction writers always write so beautifully and pack a lot into a small word-count. I can learn a lot from studying submissions from other writers.

One place that I found to submit was the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. Yeah, the guy who started Scientology. Don't be alarmed! This contest has nothing to do with the religion, no matter how you feel about it, and instead asks for a science-fiction or fantasy short story/novelette up to 17,000 words. Winners receive $5,000, $1,000, $750, and $500.

Another place I might submit in the future is to Inkitt, who offers $300 and eligibility for publication to the contest winner (under 35 years old) who submits a short novel 20,000 words or more. Similarly, the Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer's Residency Prize offers a residency, $10,000, and a publication for their manuscript to an author under 40. I would submit a work I published in my senior year that I intend to rework and want to have published in the future.

*I will post a small snippet of it in the writing section of this blog.

Thinking about the future is scary, but what makes it a little less scary is knowing just how many places one can submit stories. There are so many avenues to success, so many other authors to work with and learn from, and that makes the journey so exciting.