The Writing Shaft

In about 15 minutes, I'm going to get my assignment for round 1.5 of the NYC Midnight Madness Creative Writing Challenge. Starting at midnight in NY (and 2 p.m. Saturday my time), I will have 48 hours to complete a 1,000-word short story.

A few weeks ago I played the same waiting game for round 1 when I finally received notice I was to write my story in a romantic genre in a roller coaster, making sure somewhere in there I included a straw. I hope I fare a little better in this round than I did in the last. If I don't get enough accumulative points between the two, then I'm done with the contest. But so far, it's been fun.

So how did I fare last time? Well, uh, okay so there are 15 people in my group. I finished 13th with three points. The first person in my group got 25. (Ahem.) Additionally, the two people below me didn't have points. There were zeroes by their names. And according to the rules, the lowest you can get is 1. So I'm thinking they didn't participate. So (ahem) I came in last.

I think I'm okay with it. It actually kind of made me laugh. I thought about the story. The cheesiness of it. I thought about all those messages for artists and writers and painters and other muse chasers that rejection is part of the process. Like death is part of life. It's a learning process and all that. I down with that.

Still, it was a bit funny. I got great feedback after I posted it on the public forum. Putting it out there like that was a big enough move in itself. So it's all good. And, really, kind of amusing.

Well, a little sound alerted me to the reception of my latest assignment. Shall we take a look? Hmmm. Looks like they sent the link to the standings instead of the assignment. Awesome. Gonna go get some coffee then.