Writing and Publishing Fiction

Vaporware fiction: a story that is promoted when it may never be written

I completed most of a book proposal for a collection of short stories about Ambrose Bierce and Jerry O' Connell having adventures together chasing after Bierce's run away moustache. Many writers would begin by writing the story first and then writing a proposal to submit to publishers and agents. I, on the other hand with my background working for software companies, have done the reverse and created fiction vaporware.

photo by Pitel

Last week I was pondering what contests I should enter this month, and I created a short list of 24 writing contests based on due date and topic or genre of the contest.

This week I'll need to determine a basis for evaluating the remaining contest candidate and narrowing the list to 2 or 3 finalists. Since I am being shallow, I can think of no better criteria than calculating the ROI (that's return-on-investment in business parlance).

Does Entering Fiction Contests Feel Like Playing the Lottery?
photo by Jeffrey Beal

Last week I announced that I would rework the incomplete novel that resulted from July Novel Writing month to enter a short story contest. I could take one of two approaches to begin this task. I could be true to the vision of the artist and complete the story first and then shop around for a suitable contest. Alternatively, I could take the shallow route by selecting a fiction contest first and then rewrite the fiction to improve the chances of winning that particular contest. I'll be taking the shallow route.

An Unpublished Guy visitor made an insightful comment to a previous post about fiction writing. This individual, who has a blog of her own, observed that I used the writing equivalent of leftovers and recommended that I try starting fresh.