The Final Countdown

I’ve submitted my selection for the National Poetry Competition. Of course, there had to be a mistake:

This, unfortunately, is a consequence of my ASD brain, plus a last minute word change that was missed via spell checker. This stuff happens all the time, and would undoubtedly not hamstring me if the rest of the content works. However, I have no idea if you get that kind of attention in these contests. In fact, as this is only the second time the thing’s been entered for, we’ve reached a significant milestone. This time last year was when the whole desire to write in this form properly manifested.

It’s been a hugely transformative process ever since.

There is now a significant range of work and styles in the collection. Starting next month I’ll be upping the contest entry count even further, because that’s the kind of challenge that is now required. Once I have rejections for various pieces of work they can be considered for my own chapbook, which is the next stage of this process. That can then be sold to recoup the cash spent on contests this year, whilst being forwarded to publishers in the hope I might catch someone’s eye.

It also provides an opportunity to continue my graphical adventures. Designing the weekly layouts to accompany poems has become nearly as enjoyable as the writing process, because it has become further means by which my competence can be measured. It also provides inspirations for projects such as Symphony, which will debut on the Twitter feed starting Thursday.

I really don’t expect to win a major contest any time soon, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to keep trying. In fact, I have another submission to work on tomorrow in-between getting other stuff scheduled for November. Eventually, I might get lucky.

Until then, it is all about doing the best I can.