Holy Freaking Cow, I still can't believe I've won!

Monday night, I got the phone call I’d been waiting for from Writers of the Future. My short story “The Graver” won second place in the third quarter. I am so excited! Come April, I will be flying to LA for the awards ceremony and book launch. But the real prize is the week long conference leading up to the ceremony where I get to learn from professional editors, agents and authors. From what I've read on other blogs, classes in the past have consisted of things like "how to give radio and television interviews" and "how to decipher contracts". But mostly, I get to network with all those editors, agents and writers!

It’s been a weird couple of days. You enter a contest like this, and you spend a lot of time fantasizing about what winning would be like. At least, you do if you're like me. You picture yourself getting off the plane. You imagine conversations you might have with other winners. You think of questions for the editors and agents that you might not otherwise get the chance to ask. You pre-write an acceptance speech about a billion times in your head.

But then, you make yourself forget everything because entering isn't winning and there are literally a thousand other stories that are bound to be better than yours. And all this is empty fantasy anyway. It's wasting time you could be using to write your next story that might actually have a chance of winning. Because this one was awful and it's a good thing the judging is anonymous because no one wants to be laughed at by a professional.  

Only, since the phone call I've had to put my brain into reverse. I actually get to get off that plane. I have to start thinking about how I'm going to interact with the other winners. Editors and agents will happily answer my questions and Holy Freaking Cow, I actually have to write a real honest to goodness acceptance speech!

So, so weird.

I keep telling myself that it's real. At some point in the next few months, I'm sure I'll come to believe it.

This is the moment when it starts. I'm a Writer. Technically an award winning one. Someone wants to pay me money for my words on paper, for my imagined characters and worlds. And sooner or later, someone else will pay me a second time for the same. And then again.

There will be rejections. This is going to be hard. No writer starts a career with nothing but acceptance. Writers start with 2ft tall stacks of rejection letters and then struggle up from there. But with this first acceptance, it's begun.

The first act of a story has always been my favorite part!