Bold, brilliant and brief

Writer's Digest are holding a short story competition for stories up to 1500 words long: "bold, brilliant and brief"! And it's open to non-US residents. Deadline: 1 December 2009.

Ugh, I need to have so much writing ready by the end of this year. I've decided to apply both for the MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University (in Wellington); and for the Graduate Diploma in Journalism at Massey University (the Wellington campus). If I get in to either, it'll mean a crappy commute; but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

But I need a 20-page "sample" of excellent writing for the Creative Writing course; and a portfolio of previously-published stories for the journalism course. Eep! Both courses only accept about 20 students a year, and competition's tough. So I really need to get working.

I would much, much rather do the Creative Writing course. I don't want to be a journalist; I want to be an editor. Problem is, it's hard to get directly into an editing job without some journalism experience, so I'll probably need a few years up my belt as a journalist first. I'm also going to apply for a journalism internship, which would at least give me a foot in the door.

But I'd much rather do Creative Writing. I'm thinking a section of my current WIP (immaculately polished and revised) as my writing sample.

My problem with the Creative Writing course is that you're meant to give a proposal of what you'd write about. But what would I write about? I write most easily in the fantasy genre, but many literary folk seem to look down on fantasy — I don't want my genre to be a reason not to accept me into the course. If I could write a fantasy novel, then it'd be easy; I could write the sequel to my current WIP (which would just as easily be a stand-alone novel, if my current WIP comes to naught).

Either way, I've got a lot of work to do. It's kind of nice to have two plans; but on the other hand, I've got a lot of work to do. In the (likely) event that I'm accepted into neither course, I'll just keep on working — or possibly look at doing Honours in English at Victoria.

But I don't want that to happen — so rather than continuing to ramble on about it on my blog, I'm going to go get a good night's sleep and get up nice and early — and write!