75 not out!

Last night I was catching up with Vikings and Neil Oliver while the Indoor Writer updated her story catelogue. Two & half years ago she started writing short fiction and recorded the outgoings and success (or lack of it) for each story in a lined exercise book. The book is now full so she's transcribing the contents to a new and much larger book. OK she does track everything in a spreadsheet too, but still has a soft spot for the old fashioned paper method.

She was pretty astonished to count up a total of 75 stories completed and sent out. Most were submissions to competitions but several to Womags and ezines. How does that compare to other writers - is 75 a good innings for 30 months? Or is that total woefully small? How many short stories do you pen in a year or month?

And then the angels and demons started. First the Positive Thinking Angel is chirping on about the effort involved to finish and edit 75 stories. What an achievement and shouldn't she be proud to have such a portfolio to draw on etc. Then the Doubtful Demon sidles up and begins whining on about why has she only sold ONE story to date. And though she's had competition success then why doesn't every story win a prize.

I had to step in and ask which is better: Angel or Demon? And of course there was only one way to find out. They're still fighting, so I'll have to let you know the outcome another time.

Adding vinegar to the open wound out today came the results of Writers' Bureau Short Story competition. Her entry didn't make the named top 3 (don't think any other names are released). From the winner's comments it would appear this is his second major win for 2012 (a big achievement), but it also seemed these were the only two stories he's written to date. I may have misunderstood the brief comments, but if that's a true statement then the Doubtful Demon is going to town on that nugget and the PT Angel is hanging up her wings...

Keep writing... not sure if the Indoor Writer will...

P.S. Did try to find a suitable image of fighting Angels and Demons for this post but gave up after scrolling through too many posters for the Tom Hanks film/ Dan Brown novel. You'll just have to use your imagination instead.