I want to say that this is the year of submitting dangerously, and when I think about it, it is. This year, I submitted my work a lot more and I made an effort to get it out there. And it’s true. A lot of writers on panels tell budding writers to submit everywhere, but I think I still have been holding myself back until now.
Submitting to literary magazines can be very intimidating. I always feel like I’m not writing in the style they want, whatever they mean. I also try to read the submissions that strike my fancy and see what they are looking for, but when I read writers who seem to write in the same way, I feel intimidated again and that my submission wouldn’t be accepted. Sometimes, my submissions are accepted, which is great. At other times, they don’t, so I try to take rejection well.
A lot of the time, editors don’t have the time to write down why they reject someone’s work because they receive a lot of submissions, but some writers take the time to give constructive criticism and point me in the right direction. If someone ever does that for you, be grateful, even if your piece is not published. Take the feedback and use it to help your future work.
So this year, I submitted the play that I wrote a long time ago to Late Night Texting. I don’t really consider myself a playwright/scriptwriter and I was surprised that it got picked for the Night Festival’s Eat My Shorts portion of the programme. That made me very happy.
[I think once, a long time ago, I wanted to make my own movie, but after working (sort of) and trying to find work in the creative industry with the pathetic salary that would be given for so much work, I just kind of gave up. A lot of the time, execs or whoever is in charge will make changes to compromise the integrity of the story, which I hated and still do. The alternative was to work in advertising– I could have sold my ideas in order to push products, but that made me feel sick (and still does) .
Don’t get me wrong — I’ve seen these funny, well-made advertisements, but it’s never really about the story. It’s “Oh yeah, that really touching Thai ad that’s about insurance”, and it disappears into the mind of people. When someone is made to push a product, it doesn’t last. A corporate agenda sullies it.]
But regardless, it was nice to submit something and have it somewhat performed in front of an audience. My friends came to support me, too. The audiences laughed really loudly and it was wonderful to see them appreciate the play, for what it is. It was also published into a zine, and I got a small honorarium for it. It was wonderful.
You can view the video here:
All my readers also know that I submitted my book to the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award, and I won. I know, I know, I wrote a post about it, but it honestly was wonderful to get it. It showed that speculative fiction was something that could be accepted in Singapore, as opposed to the pile of literary fiction that we print and try to get people to read, with varying degrees of success.
I had never submitted my book for an award before, or had someone else judge my play and deem it worthy of performing. It’s the year where I went for other courses to help with writing, such as voice acting, game writing and I’m submitting my short stories to other places, too.
Maybe I can slowly be a bit braver and submit more. I wasn’t when I was starting out, and I’ve been very lucky to have so many supportive people who have bothered to read my work and tell me whether it was good or not. I’ve been so lucky to have been picked by professionals in the publishing industry, who thought my work was good. Even the people who rejected me bothered to read my work and pointed me in the right direction — they didn’t have to, and it was kind of them.
Next year and the year after that, I think I’ll try again and again, even if there’s rejection.
At least I attempted to get my work out there. That is better than keeping everything in the proverbial writer’s drawer, after all.