Well, I finally did it. I submitted my little writing sample to Text Broker.
For what it’s worth, here is what I wrote :
Once a week, me and my friends get together at our favorite restaurant to eat, relax, and chat. We are an educated bunch and we often end up discussing politics, world events, philosophy, and ethics.
But this weekly summit does not take place at a chic bistro or a hip cafe.
It takes place at Denny’s. Does that surprise you?
Why Denny’s? Lots of reasons.
We are a relaxed, unpretentious bunch, and Denny’s open and friendly atmosphere suits us just fine. None of us are millionaires, nor do we have exotic tastes, so Denny’s reasonable prices for simple Canadian fare is just what we are looking for in a place to hang out.
And none of us are too worried about what the neighbors think, so Denny’s reputation as a place even poor people can eat does not bother us one bit.
What’s more, we have a great relationship with the staff. They know what we like, so that if we feel like it, we can just order “the usual” and they know exactly what we mean. In return, we are courteous, patient customers who tip well every time.
So if you ever want to find us on a Friday night, just go to Denny’s around 9 pm, and look for the table in the back, next to the fireplace.
We’ll save a seat for you!
Hopefully, that is some five star writing right there. It looks good to me. Simple, clear, concise, with just the right amount of generic charm.
The bad news : after I submitted it, the website said “most submissions are rated within a week”.
Which means it could be more than a week till I receive my judgment. This makes sense, as they probably get a ton of submissions, but somehow I was not expected that.
The good thing about it is that it means that they are not just using some computer algorithm to decide how good a writer someone is, which is what I feared. They are obviously getting a live human being to read over the submissions and assign a rating to them.
I am a lot more comfortable being judged by a person. Good writing is good writing. I am pretty sure I can write well enough to make people happy. Maybe not five star happy, but still.
If it was just some computer program, the only way to make it happy would be to know what things it was looking for, and I make all kinds of “mistakes” from a computer program’s point of view.
That’s why I always turn grammar checking off when I use a word processor. Computer programs do not grok my flow. They do not understand that good writers are not restrained by the rules.
Good writers follow the rules of English, of course. But they also know when and how to break them in order to make their point more clearly.
Computer programs are like mindless administrators who enforce the rules regardless of their intent.
Good editors are like good leaders : they know the goal is the most important thing, not method.
So I am glad I will be judged by an actual person. But I am not keen on waiting that long!
I was really hoping my neuroses would not have that long to fester. Oh well. I will do my best to put it out of my mind and find other vaguely useful things to do with my time.
Like, for instance, finding a publisher and sending them my book, or rather, a book proposal. They are not keen to get people’s entire books without even knowing if they want the damned thing yet. And that holds true even in this age of electronic submissions.
At least with electronic media, they do not have to worry about being burdened with someone’s one and only copy of their precious, precious manuscript.
Do you suppose that the word processor, by dint of making it way easier to change manuscripts, actually improved the quality of writing over the years?
Certainly, it is a lot easier to fix the phrasing of a sentence or rework a paragraph with a word processor than with an old school typewriter. It is even easier than it was doing things longhand with a pencil and eraser.
At the very least, were I an editor, I would be glad to having less Liquid Paper to deal with every day.
That stuff is ugly and gross.
It has been a sleepy day for me. This despite my attempts to medicate myself out of this condition with diet cola. Why can’t I banish sleepiness with caffeine like everyone else?
Most of the time, it seems, it only makes me sleepier. Stupid random brain chemistry.
But I am glad I got the whole writing submission to Text Broker thing done. That can be my Accomplishment of the Day. Gone are the days when just getting this daily chuck of writing done was enough.
All that editing has made me crave something more, and so while I will continue to write in this space every day, I will also get something else done.
Editing, submitting, writing fiction, that sort of thing.
I have a pretty good idea for a science fiction short story (might be more like a novella) and I really should get around to working up an outline for the thing, then actually, you know, WRITE IT.
I am going to become a more active, engaged, and above all visible person in the New Year. I will, at last, emerge from my cramped cave and walk out into the warm bright light of day.
I am super talented as a writer, and it is time I went out and proved it to the world.
Especially in that whole “getting money to do it” sense of the word.
Because god damn it, I do not deserve to be so broke!