Time to Stretch Yourself

I hear some of you suffer from a nail-biting problem...

Believe it or not, I actually cruise through my Followers blogs once a week or so. I don't always comment, but I like to see what you're doing. And it seems like quite a few of you, like me, are somewhere between deciding to write seriously and settling down for a serious relationship with an agent or editor.

Today's workout is going to cure you of that problem.

Wait!

Don't run!!!

I promise... this won't hurt me a bit.

Wednesday Workout

Write and submit a short story.


Not sure where to start?

Why not try the Way of the Wizard anthology edited by John Joseph Adams, assistant editor or The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction? The reading period doesn't open until July, and doesn't close until March 2010. That's plenty of time to write 10 pages, polish until you see your reflection, and send it out.

And the theme, a magic user solving a problem with magic, is wide open. There really isn't a genre this won't fit. So it's not wildly out of anyone's comfort zone.

Still biting your nails?

I know from personal experience that Mr. Adams writes very polite, and encouraging, rejection letters. He rejected Seventy. And M-BRANE picked it up the following week. Not to shabby!

Go ahead.

Write something.

Submit something.

Get that first rejection out of the way. Get the first 100 out of the way.

Until you take that leap of faith and submit you will never get beyond being a hobby writer.