Have a go, you never know ...

My writing motto is always 'have a go'.  Even with the giant competitions like Bridport, Manchester and Fish (to name a few) if you have a suitable short story that meets the entry rules then why not have a go and submit it.  You can't win a competition if you don't enter - that's Litpig logic for you.  The same approach applies to other areas of writing, where any opportunity to become involved in a literary process could be embraced.  You never know where it may lead...

Over 6 months ago the indoor writer emailed Mslexia magazine (a quarterly publication primarily aimed at women writers, click here for more details) offering to join their Focus Group.  Didn't hear anything and assumed she hadn't been included.  Then last week was contacted and asked to participate in providing feedback for the new magazine layout - now has 2 copies to closely review and compare (old and new format).  OK - some work involved here without any income, but in the literary universe surely it all adds up (though I wonder who's counting).

Another opportunity to get involved is book reviews.  Sally Jenkins highlighted on a recent blog the Waterstones book review scheme.  If you have a Waterstones store loyalty card then you can sign up to receive and review books before publication.  You may not get picked but if lucky you get a free book (and who would turn that down) and your review published on the Waterstones website.  The indoor writer signed up for various new books, selecting several that fell into her normal reading list and also a couple that were outside her usual genres (good to challenge yourself).  A parcel arrived last week with the first book on the list - Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan (to be published Feb 2012) - showing that if you put your name in the hat there's a chance of being picked.  So now we have some reading to do and a book review to write, but any opportunity to write is an opportunity to be taken ...

Keep writing ...