No resolve just priorities by Amanda Wilson
Personally, I think New Year resolutions are pointless. For one thing, if you're going to resolve to do something, I would assume it would be something you could do without having to wait for a new year to begin and secondly by February or March of the new year most resolutions are broken; shattered into a million tiny pieces with the words 'I tried' strewn in between.
So for 2013, instead of making resolutions I've created a list of priorities; things that are important to me and which I intend to give my full attention to. These priorities are classified under four headings: Family, Home, Work and Personal and include things such as spending regular 1:1 time with my husband and daughter, getting a promotion at work, having massages at least once a quarter (I need to be realistic) and getting my front gate fixed. (It's practically off its hinges!). Whilst going over my list of priorities I thought about a couple of other things that I could add under the heading 'Work', both relating to writing. I could have made one general priority - that being to write more - but as with the other priorities, I want to make them as specific as possible.
So my first priority is to write something at least once a week, whether it's a flash fiction story, a poem, or a blog post it doesn't matter, as long as I've written something of worth each week I would have met my objective. Just like going to the gym on a regular basis ensures a health body (provided you do a work out once you get to the gym), so writing - and sharing my writing - on a regular basis, can ensure my writing muscles remain well flexed and in the best condition possible.
My other priority as far as writing is concerned is to enter a few writing competitions, more specifically at least three. This is something I've never done, despite having been a writer for many years. I don’t know whether it's because I have to write on a subject determined by someone else, because my writing will be 'judged' by others, or simply because I haven’t written anything that I think worthy of a competition entry but whatever the reason I have never entered a writing competition before. However in the spirit of prioritising I intend to change all that in 2013.
I've concluded that there are several benefits to entering competitions. First and foremost it keeps your mind focused on the audience you're writing for. I can only speak for myself when I say this, but writing can be a very lonely (in a positive way) past time with the writer losing themselves in the pages of their own imagination. There is nothing better than reading a story that I've enjoyed writing and I believe that someone - somewhere - will enjoy reading it. Writing for competitions means you have to be even more mindful of whether the story will be enjoyed by others. Of course, with competitions you can never be entirely sure what will tickle someone's fancy. If you have a panel of judges, chances are there will be some that will like what you write, some that won’t like what you write and others who will be totally indifferent to what you write. Naturally this is all supposition, bearing in mind I have neither entered, nor judged a writing competition before. I am merely going by my experience of human nature.
In the UK there are a wealth of story writing competitions available for new and experienced writers to enter, with a range of genres to choose from and it's a bit of a minefield trying to find the right one. On the one hand, the whole point of entering a competition is to win and as such you want to choose a competition where you have some chance of that happening, which means for a first competition I don’t think I'll aim for the Costa Short Story Award or anything of that ilk. On the other hand, you want to know that your story is being judged by people who know what they're talking about and so you have to go to the trouble of choosing one where the judges have a decent writing track record, the prize is something worth aiming for and (most importantly) the previous winners of such competitions are ones that you can agree were worthy of their winner’s crown (even if you consider one of the runners-up to be a more deserving winner).
Essentially when you enter a competition you are at the mercy of the judges. You can put your heart and soul into a story that you think is worthy of winning the top prize and being featured on the front page of all the top writing blogs, but ultimately it's up to a group of unknown individuals to decide whether or not the story you've devoted hours of your precious time to writing, re-writing, editing and honing into the desired 5000 word limit, is worthy of even a 'special mention', never mind placing first, second or third.
Despite the potential disappointment, this is something I am willing to do. After all, isn’t this what happens when we make our books available to the general public? They become the judge, jury and executioner deciding whether or not our books are worthy of encouraging others to part with their hard earned cash. So I’m prepared to allow a panel of critical judges to do the same with my short stories. I may end up regretting it the first time around, but at least I know I'd got my priorities straight.
