When spring arrives, my writing discipline falters. After a lovely sluggish winter, when there’s nothing to do but write, the waking garden calls me. I want to spend my spare moments turning the earth, dividing perennials, and tending tree frog tadpoles.
Gardening is the chief rival of my writing. But it also has taught me how to stay motivated during fallow seasons — those long stretches when I’m working on a novel and the Big Goal of publication feels far away.
I think of it as planting seeds. At least once a month, I take on a small writing challenge that has nothing to do with my main project. I submit work, I try to forget about it, and then, weeks or months later, I’m pleasantly surprised by any green shoot of success. If a seed fails to sprout, that’s OK — by then, I’ve already planted one or two more. The trick is to always have something in progress.
Here, I’ve collected three of my favorite ways to plant seeds.
1. The NYC Midnight writing challenges. At 11:59 p.m. on a Friday, you’re issued a challenge: write a story or screenplay using your assigned prompts. You’re given a specific time limit to complete the challenge, ranging from 24 hours to eight days. The top finishers in each round are invited to compete in the next; the winners of the third round get cash and glory.
I love these contests, which kick off at various times throughout the year. (The next one is the 100-word microfiction challenge, which begins April 28.) The too-soon deadline and the constraints of the prompts will drive you to desperation — and the result might just surprise you. One piece I submitted to the 2022 rhyming-story challenge (genre: comedy; theme: childproof; emotion: embarrassed) ended up being some of the best writing I did that year. Of course, my second-round submission (genre: romantic comedy; theme: etiquette; emotion: grouchy) was a mess. But it’s all good fun.
2. Pitch calls on Study Hall. If you’re interested in getting more published bylines, I recommend paying $8 per month to get the Study Hall Opportunities newsletter: a weekly compilation of article and essay pitch calls from publications all over the globe.
Study Hall publishes pay rates when available and also includes writing gigs, fellowships, contests, and more. Many of the pitch requests are highly specific (e.g. “features on gravel cycling” or “profiles on San Francisco music venues”), but they might inspire you to write something you wouldn’t otherwise have considered. I successfully pitched one piece on the ancestral dens of the timber rattlesnake to Atlas Obscura for their forthcoming book WILD LIFE, and then got the chance to contribute four more. For excellent advice on pitching, read Constance Costas’ guide in the March Members Only newsletter.
3. Literary contests. Here’s my take on literary competitions: The point is to get good at losing them. The first 12 times you get the email that says, “We have announced the winners,” and your name fails to appear, it stings. But the thirteenth sting hurts less, and wonderfully, you find it doesn’t dissuade you at all from trying again. Thus you build the stamina needed to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers.
I do try to be strategic about entering contests. That is, I seek out competitions that are reputable but also offer a realistic chance of placing. In the fall, I spotted a call for submissions right here in the JRW newsletter for Charlotte Lit’s second annual Lit/South Awards. What caught my eye: the competition was open only to current and past residents of North Carolina and bordering states, and in 2021 it received around 450 entries.
The odds weren’t bad, I thought. I wrote a story, shared it with critique partners, rewrote it, and submitted it at the very last minute. In February, I got the standard “I’m writing with the results” email from the organizer… and learned that my story had won first place. “Holy sh—,” I said aloud.
One seed had sprouted. And I’m always planting more.
About the Author
Melissa Scott Sinclair is a fiction writer, essayist, and journalist. Melissa’s bylines have appeared in The Washington Post, Richmond magazine, Style Weekly, and other publications. She’s currently revising a novel, COLLIE.