What were you doing in April of 2020?

Working from home? Zooming friends and family on the regular? Watching all the TV shows and overeating? Me too!

As an introvert, I indulged in the solitude and got back into some serious writing.

Spending more time on the internet than ever, I followed several writing contests and sent in my work, hoping for the best.

It was something to do, like puzzling to ward off the boredom.

I didn’t think much of it as I’m not usually a short story writer. I’m more of a novel-length concept gal.

But, one evening, I struck upon The Moving Type’s call for submissions.

I was more eager to be a part of this project than any of the other contests that I’d followed.

This book was the brainchild of Devika Sharma.

Looking for a fresh way to engage readers with long-form content, she’d creatively developed an online collaborative story-writing platform.

Each chapter was written by a new author. 

Contributors submitted their chapters for review, hoping to become a small part of this collaborative project.

Writing contests can be an excellent way to get our toes wet when we have dreams of publication.

But, it can also be intimidating to know that an unknown person is reviewing your work. 

The opinions that matter the most to me are always from those whom I’m closest to. They know more of the story behind the story which makes each work richer.

I’ll consider other people’s opinions, yet at the end of the day, their thoughts are weighted differently. 

This philosophy kept me from chickening out.

It allowed me to put my best writing forward and take the proverbial leap.

I was lucky enough to contribute early in the story (chapter three to be exact!) which left a lot of the adventure for me to follow afterward.

With writers from around the world, no one knew where this little story would end up and that was the fun of it! 

Just as hoping your chapter would be chosen is exciting, waiting for the next chapter in the story to be released was a dose of anticipatory magic in the dullness of pandemic living.

As the digital story ended, those of us who had contributed to its creation were excited to hear that Austin MacAuley Publishers had picked it up for publication!

Can you imagine how excited I was to know that my name would be published in a novel? Even if it wasn’t all my own?

It was a dream come true and I was ecstatic.

Seeing my name announced on Instagram was one thing, but finally being able to hold that bound book in my hands and share it with family was amazing.

One small yet mighty step toward my spublishing dreams! A little dose of encouragement to keep me on the writer’s path.  

Props go out to Devika Sharma who made this all happen, who creatively figured out how to breathe life back into novels, and took us all along for the ride.

For me, this was a small but important moment and I’m happy to share a piece of my writing journey with you today.

This is not a story that is typical of my writing style.

Still, I know that this was an experience that would stretch my abilities and I am grateful for it.

I don’t receive any money from the purchase of this book, but if you’re interested in checking this novel out then you can purchase it here.

If you have publication goals and want to boost your confidence, consider entering writing contests.

One of my favourite reasons to enter these contests is to gain feedback from editors and reviewers.

Sometimes, they’ll share a spark of wisdom to help you improve your WIP!

There are so many contests out there! I’m sure that you can learn a lot from the process.

Have you ever submitted your work to a writing contest? How did it go? What did you learn?

Any advice for newbies who’d like to give it a try?

Let’s build up a bank of contests that we could submit our work to. 

Who knows, maybe one of our names will show up this coming year!

Talk soon!

Julia