lucky to be obsessed...

I've just discovered an exercise for painless editing. I'm sure most of you have already discovered this but I'll share it anyway...I've begun to enter contests and calls for submissions for short fiction--So far I've been taking small sections of longer fiction I've been working on, editing and re-vamping slightly to make it a complete piece and submitting. I'm talking about 2500 words to 12,000 words. It's a good exercise in any case, especially if it takes you out of your comfort zone.

Excerpts don't always work but with slight tweaking a lot of them do. And whatever has been added to make it a complete piece can be left out of the original...I tend to work really hard if I'm submitting something, trying to make the language and imagery as perfect as I can. And it gives me a time constraint that is extremely helpful.

So if you find yourself putting off the dreaded editing, take a look online. Glimmer Train  (www.glimmertrain.com) is a well respected literary magazine and submissions cost nothing, and for a nominal fee you can enter their contests. Writer's Digest is another avenue to explore but so far all I've received back from them is ads for their services. But getting a prize is not the point, although, I have to say it would be nice--(this is where I gaze into the distance to the neon sign where my name, in HUGE letters, is surrounded with lights) If you are a member of Goodreads, you can join the writer's group and participate in the monthly writing exercises. The more you write the better it gets...and the more you write...etc...etc...