The New Kid on the Writers Block

I'm one of the newer writers in this MTRWA group, and I've been doing the rounds in the contest circuit. This spring, I finaled in the Genesis Contest and the ESPAN Page One Contest. With that same ms, I also finaled in the Virginia Romance Writers Fool for Love Contest.

I'd entered the Golden Heart and about four other contests with my Scottish historical and didn't final. So I gave up on that ms and started with this ms that I've been working on since February. But then, after a friend got back to me with her beta read of my Scottish historical (and after Jennifer Hudson Taylor's medieval Scottish inspirational came out and proved to me that the market is not dead), I decided to go back to it.

I reworked it, changed its genre, did some character work, added back in some of the historical detail I'd cut, and started in a completely new place. And I decided I might as well start entering it in contests again. Then it finaled in the Golden Claddagh. Exciting.

You might be wondering why I would be entering manuscripts in contests when I could be working on getting my ms out to editors. Well here's my story.

I have publishing credits in academic nonfiction and literary fiction. I took an MFA, I've won literary writing awards, I've taught college writing. I feel very confident in my writing pedigree.

But I've never been published in the romance genre. And as much as I've read the genre, I read all over the board. I never picked a genre (inspy, suspense, historical, what-have-you) and just really got to know it. So I have a good sense of the stories I want to tell, but they're about as all-over-the-place as my reading list. I'm having a hard time picking one and sticking with it.

As a result of having very little focus when it comes to genres, I need a lot of feedback. I need to know when I'm writing something appropriate for the genre and when I'm not.

And frankly, I don't have time to have critique partners in all eight genres I'm currently writing in. So these contests are absolutely invaluable to me. I stopped writing 20th century historicals because of my contest experience. But I don't feel bad about it. In fact, I feel like it was the best decision. I would imagine that at some point, I'll stop writing in most of the genres I'm currently in, but I need to know if I have what it takes to write in these genres, or I don't want to waste my time.

I have to admit, the not-finaling is hard. Even when I get good feedback. And the one manuscript I abandoned was not easy to leave behind. But now that I've left it, I know it was the right choice. And the finaling is probably less exciting than it should be, too. Especially after finaling in the Genesis. I even had a great "I-got-the-call" story for the Genesis, which was a lot of fun.

But I think I'm reaching the end of my contest circuit. I feel really solid in one genre, specifically, and pretty good about two others that I think I'll continue to write in on the side. I'd like to take the manuscript I have, the one that finaled in the Genesis, that I feel pretty confident with, and move forward with it. I may seem a little on the slow side as far as rushing into this world of publishing, but I don't like to do things halfway. If I'm gonna try to be published, I'm gonna kill it. And once I can really move forward with it, I'm gonna keep moving forward until I get a yes.

I did the contest thing with my whole heart. And I've been successful. I'm batting over .500. And with my main ms, I'm batting a thousand. If I can have that much luck (or blessing or whatever it is) when I start trying to get published full-throttle, I'll be happy with that. We'll see how it goes. For now, I'm happy with the success I've had. And I'm looking forward to the success in the future.

Couldn't do this without the support of my fellow writers (MTRWA, Celtic Hearts, HHRW, ESPAN, ACFW... everyone has been fantastic), and I'm really looking forward to RWA Nationals in two and a half weeks. It's going to be an exciting experience for this new kid.