📖 lisa writes stuff issue 🖋️ #37 I am a f*cking writing beast
Nearly 10,000 words in one day? No problem.
Welcome to A Most Unreliable Narrator, the slice-of-life newsletter of GenXer around town, Lisa Rabey. I talk about anything and everything with a bit of swears. I’m glad you’re here.
Dear Internet,
Yep, forgot this is Lisa Write’s Stuff week and I even have it in my calendar to keep track which weeks are blotter posts and what weeks are the writing stuff. One day late isn’t terrible but I was three days late on Ms. Scarlet Writes (that published today too) and that bothers me. There is a point to my schedule and routines!
But I must give myself grace. I have been a writing beast this week. Yesterday (Wednesday), I wrote an 8K word story for anthology. The piece is due Saturday. I started at 3:30 p.m. and gave myself until midnight to finish. I finished at 11:32 p.m. Yes, I checked the clock. I sent it over to my editor and hope she can get some clean-up done on it before submission. If not, I’ll do another self-edit check on Saturday morning before submitting it.
Today I wrote a 500-word piece for Ms. Scarlet Writes and I just finished a 1000-word graphic novel review for No Flying, No Tights and submitted it. (The graphic novel I reviewed is Crazy Like a Fox: Adventures in Schizophrenia which is right up my alley. I gave it 5 stars. A++ would recommend. Will link when it gets published.) Tonight, after the gym and dinner, I’m going to work on my synopsis for the contest (due tomorrow by 11:59 p.m.!) So far, I’ve prepped for it until my eyes bleed. Okay, not until my eyes bleed, but as much as possible.
My editor sent back notes for the synopsis and the plot and hoo boy. There is a lot. Waiting to the last minute seems to be my modus operandi lately which I don’t want it to be as I’ve had months for all these projects to be completed. But yet, here we are. The other two contests I’m thinking of entering aren’t due until the end of June so I have a bit of breathing room. Next week is no writing other than the Sunday newsletter and compiling the blotter. OK, maybe some private journaling. But really, no work. It’ll be all for my new business I’m trying to get off the ground.
The other two contests I’m shooting for are the first 5,500 words of a light paranormal manuscript (due June 23) which interestingly doesn’t include the prize. (I’ve emailed the contest email to see what the prize is since there is an entry fee.) The 5,500 can also be the beginning of a novella, which is 17,000 to 40,000 words, while a novel length is between 50,000 and 90,000 words. Unless you write fantasy as, for some reason, those bastards like to be wordy.
The second contest is a 1,000 words or less (pish. Piece of cake!) on a piece of art that is predominately pink. The prize is $100 CND (roughly $75 USD) which is fine. The contest organizers provided a chapbook of mainly pink art which you can buy for $10 CND ($7.50 USD) and that counts as your entry fee. This is another contest that I’ve known about for months but honestly, if I can write 8,000 words in one night, I can do anything.
These are the four contests I’ve been working towards and I’m not aware of any others. I’ve asked in a few writer communities of where they get their contest or anthology calls from. I’ll be done at the end of June. I’ll also pick writing my novel up. Even though I’m a fucking beast, I have no timeline when to finish it. Maybe end of summer?
Who the hell knows but I’ll get there.
What Ms. Scarlet wrote about recently:
May 20, 2024 Writing Diverse Characters
May 30, 2024 Planster 4 Lyfe
Submission update
78 submissions, including 63 rejections, 8 acceptances, 1 withdrawal, and 6 outstanding.
Publication
chapbook: commercial breaks
lisa x
(Fuck fascists and Nazis!)
You've just finished reading A Most Unreliable Narrator: the slice of life newsletter from the GenXer about town, Lisa Rabey. You can find me on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky if you're so inclined. I am everywhere. Copyright © 1996 - 2025 by Lisa Rabey