I found out about a quarterly publication called The First Line, that gives you the first line and then lets you go from there. It has to be between 300 and 3000 words, and the fall issue needs submissions by 1st August. I'm going to submit something. I found out about the contest on Monday, wrote a first draft on Monday. Got a friend to look over it, see if it works as a story (there's a few reasons I only talked to him about it, and they'll become apparent later on, depending on what happens to this story). He suggested a couple of changes, some of which I used and some I didn't. Second draft I finished around 430am Wednesday morning after a great night, and the almost final draft I finished this morning.

It's a little like being back in school. I have an assignment and a deadline. The only differences are I've chosen to do this assignment, and I'm ready well before the deadline. And I suppose I care more about this than most of the stuff I did in school. I turned in papers on Freud, Tolstoy, McEwan, Shakespeare, and a tonne of others, and all they were to me was assignments that had to be done to get a grade so I could move on with my life. This is much the same, but I feel that by actually submitting something with the possibility of getting published, I'm no longer going to be talking about just writing. I'm not going just for a grade, but recognition that I can write and should write.

Now, if I don't get into the publication, is that going to disappoint me? Of course, but I'll just have to do what I did in high school. I'll keep going with what I'm doing, and see if anyone else likes it (like the AP english examiners did). If I do get in, then I'll frame the cheque along with the one I got for being background in Race To Witch Mountain, and I'll be able to add author to my list of jobs. And I'll try not to be too cocky.

And I'll tell you about my great Tuesday sometime. Probably.