Obstacles

We all have our obstacles keeping us from our writing.  Some of the hardest to overcome are those in our own heads.  But outside of that?  There's "real" work, and all the other things one must do during the day.  My personal obstacles keeping me from enjoying the peace and quiet while I write away?  My three little boys.  Only the oldest is in school, so that leaves my day full of a two year old and a four year old.  Enough to wear out any sane person, and I'm not promising I'm that most days.  Today has worked out well in that I got in about 45 minutes of relatively uninterrupted fiction writing time, which, btw, is not counting the time I'm spending blogging.  Blogging is easier-- just writing about writing instead of actually doing the writing in question.  Procrastination, so therefore it's easy as pie.

My precious writing minutes were spent on a small project for a writing contest.  I'd actually intended to let this writing deadline pass me by, as I don't have anything in mind that's the right length.  It turns out the competition is running short of their goal number of participants though, and that hits me right in the guilt.  So I'm trying to get something cobbled together in the next two days to enter the competition.  Let me tell you about this contest though, it's one of the cooler ones I've heard about.

From the sixfold.org website:

How It Works

Upload your own short-story or poetry manuscript PDF for a $6 entry fee by October 24, 11:59 pm ET. Then, vote within your genre to select the three prize-winning manuscripts of $1000, $200, and $100, and everything published in each issue. Sixfold is a completely writer-voted short story and poetry journal. Every writer who uploads a manuscript votes to choose the prize-winning manuscripts and all the short stories and poetry published in each issue. Everyone's equally weighted vote selects what's published, instead of one judge, or one or a few editors. With a fair, transparent,  rule-based voting process, all writers find the best writing together.

Sounds spiffy, right?  I'm excited to take part, so I'm hammering away at my little piece that takes place in a specialty bar.  Sounds intriguing, right?  Hope so.  You also get a lot of feedback from the other writers who vote, which is so valuable.  Getting an honest critique is hard.  Who do you ask?  A friend is afraid to hurt your feelings, so holds some info back.  What stranger are you going to tie down and ask to give you information?
But these writers, they're also putting their own hearts on the line, getting their works reviewed.  Hopefully this keeps people from being cruel, but manages a nice balance between with fair and honest reviews. Fingers crossed and all that jazz.

Back to the work in question now.
-Meagan