So this week I got my first "Your story sucks but thanks for participating" consolation email from the Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition. The top 25 stories get printed in an annual and you get exposure and such. Suffice it to say my story "Grounded" about two unconventional superheroes is still, well, grounded. But this past week, after a night of staying up late, too much dark chocolate, and some divine inspiration I hit the ground running on expanding the story into a novel. This rejection is further fuel for me and I intend to burn it. Though inspiration is 1% of a novel, the other 99% involves Mondays at work where you feel absolutely useless, leg cramps and tension headaches from sitting for hours as you try to find the perfect adjective for your characters eyes, and a lonely pet rabbit that starts thumping loudly in his cage until you come pet him and appease him with carrots. But it's all worth it when you read something and say, wow, I wrote that? Then you read the line that follows, and you're like yikes, I wrote that too, no one's going to read this. It's like pride and humility are always in a fistfight. So, where or when do you get your inspiration???
