Agonies of a Young Author

So I got an email yesterday that said:

Hi there, and thanks for participating in the DWT Poetry Competition.
Your poem went live today. You can see it here: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/dwt-poetry-competition-eleventh-round/

Me: *blink, blink.* OH right!.......


So I entered this poetry contest. I didn't realize that the winner is chosen by popular vote, but as it is, you should go over to DWT and scroll through the poems and vote for your favorite.

Not that I'm hinting at anything. I admit to nothing. But I might have (generously, against my baser nature and first inclination) voted for someone else, which redirected me to the results of the poll, and saw that my own humble work got no votes. At all.

Ah, well. It was not the best fit in the world. poem and contest, and I probably should have sent something else in. Again, my fault for not doing better research beforehand. I might also have been overly wordy. Not exactly lyric. I haven't revised that poem in a while, and it might be due for a little tune up in the Ye Olde Poem Repair Shoppe.

In other news-- I joined Read Write Poem, a sub-group of NaNaWriMo for the National Poem Writing Month (that is, April). I haven't really done anything for April/ NaPoWriMo (argh! too many acronyms) but I'm trying to take advantage of the prompt-a-day so that I can build up my reservoir of poems again. I am depleted, and I am currently just waiting (waiting, waiting, waiting) to get my rejections so I can send them back out again.

Stupid life, that. Therefore, ONWARD! More poems! More writing! More! More! More!

... oh right. Burnout.

Gasp! I said the word. I think I might be suffering from a touch of burnout. So I'm using the prompts and other ways to force myself to write. And I'm trying to focus on fiction, because I have no self-imposed publishing goals, and there is not the same kind of pressure. But I may think seriously about backing off from poetry and switching to fiction (seriously) for a while. We'll see.

I don't know. It's all in a muddle, and my head just hurts, and I'm in the mood where I just want to curl up with a book and do NOTHING.

Oh right. I did that yesterday. And the day before. And likely will do again today. Trips to the library are bad.

I still haven't heard back from the Flat Hat people. They'll announce the results in another week or so, or so they say. Must be more applications for the position than I thought. *Gulp*

I guess I'm not officially in the journalism business yet. I have been surprised by my eagerness for this position, and for the whole idea of writing a weekly column for a newspaper. After so many years of saying "No" to journalism I now find myself saying "PLEASE!!!!!" and it's rather astonishing to hear the longing in my voice.

Well, I was that way about writing in general (see website bio) so should it really come as a surprise? In addition, I write this blog, which is like a newspaper column in miniature (Opinion section, obviously).

So no news. No news on the news position. No news for you. No. No news. No, don't touch!

Sigh.

*must wait patiently, must wait patiently*

Right Now:
What I'm listening to: "Falling Slowly" from the soundtrack "Once"
What I want most: news, news, news news news.....