On Failing Up Part Two: Winning Writers of the Future

It's so easy to lose sight of the goals we have--to feel like we won't fail up, but just keep failing.

When I submitted the Clarion application that was ultimately (but kindly) rejected, I also submitted the attached story someplace else: the Writers of the Future contest. For the first time, I wasn't nervous about my submission. I had written what was literally the best story I could at that time, so if I failed it was just because I wasn't there yet and that's OK.

Then June rolled around. I went through the WotF forums and found that a lot of people were receiving rejections, so I waited patiently for my email. Only I didn't get an e-mail--I got a phone call. The director of the contest, Joni Labaqui, called me to tell me that I was one of eight finalists for the quarter and that she'd let me know in a couple weeks if I was a winner. I thanked her, and smiled, and did a little dance.

Settling in for the wait, I did my best to stay calm, but by week three I was biting my nails raw. I almost wished she hadn't told me at all, as the contest slowly became the only thing I could think about. I searched obsessively for other finalist experiences online; read through the website, blog, and Wikipedia pages for the contest (again); and cyber stalked former winners. Every conversation somehow made its way back to the contest--likely to the (tactfully hidden) consternation of friends and family.

Eventually Joni did call me back to let me know that--drum roll--I had won third place in the Writers of the Future contest! My story would be officially published in volume 35 of the anthology! It felt like a dream that would dissolve into thin air once I hung up the phone.

But it didn't.

I got the contract, the prize check, and my name on the website as an official winner. I went from honorary mention last year all the way to third place this year--failing up indeed!

In all my cyber stalking, I read through a post on the WotF blog written by Preston Dennett--one of my fellow volume 35 winners--which you can read here. In the post, he mentioned submitting 47 times to WotF, which was impressive, but he talked about something else I found even more interesting: in Preston's early writing life, he submitted frequently but gave up after too many rejections. When he finally started up again, he found something strange: a forum thread by an editor about a mysterious writer who was so close to making it before they disappeared into thin air. After some researching and e-mail sending, Preston confirmed his suspicion that the writer they were talking about--the one that was so close to publication--was him. He'd given up too soon.

It's easy to get lost in our heads, and to feel convinced that we're destined for mediocrity and invisibility. However, if we stay focused on the important parts--not the rejections, but how we've progressed and how we can continue to improve--we will fail up until we succeed.

That's what I did, anyway.