Why the writing process is a mystery by Amy Arora

I recently started writing short stories for the Reedsy Prompts weekly contest. This is a fantastic competition for kickstarting your writing if/when you feel blocked. The prompts are always thought-provoking with great scope for exploration. The best part is that you get to read the other stories submitted to the contest once the winners are announced. Exploring hundreds of different ways to interpret the same prompt is a wonderful testament to human creativity, as well as reassurance that AI is not going to steal all of our jobs just yet. 

In all my years of entering writing competitions, I’ve never won a single thing. I don’t take it to heart. It’s a writer-eat-writer world out there (I’m kidding—I love learning from other writers. I’m also a vegetarian and not a cannibal). But in all seriousness, I enter these contests not with a hope of victory, but with the knowledge that it’s a great way to improve my craft. 

Well, dear reader, guess what? The very first story I entered to Reedsy was shortlisted! It made my year and probably all my years to come. The only thing is... I don’t think it’s actually that good. I dashed it off quickly, close to the deadline, and it’s extremely silly. When I compare it to some of my other writing that I have agonised over, editing and redrafting and starting over, I was astonished to be shortlisted for this. I wrote it with my tongue firmly in my cheek. I guess the concept was good, but I really could not have been more surprised. 

I think it just goes to show that one of the mysteries of being a writer is that we never quite know how our writing is going to be received. That’s the gamble, every single time. And, of course, conventional wisdom says that we should write to express the truth in our souls, and not do anything as calculating as considering our effect on the reader. But maybe that’s smart sometimes. Maybe we do just need to give the people what they want. I have no idea. I’m still learning. 

If you’d like to read my silly story, here’s the link. And I’d love to know what you think of it. 

Have you entered any writing competitions? What was your motivation and what was the outcome?