I did a thing back in May, where I decided to pull Jaeth’s Eye from World Tree Publishing and republish it myself in order to join Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO 3. The decision was made in hours, and it took me within the span of two days, working around the clock, to get the manuscript in better shape than before. That meant one additional round of edits (mostly to address typos–goodbye roast peasant!), but I also decided to add a new POV in the first Interlude that I felt like would further enhance the story. I also pushed my lovely cover artist to create a cover for me within a couple of weeks. I don’t deserve her love.
Yet despite all of this hard work, I don’t really keep track of SPFBO news. I see related news on Twitter, or see my friends and other people from the community get tagged for relevant content, but I really don’t like the “contest” atmosphere. The idea of elimination. The idea that writing can be ranked by any sort of parameter: “I think that should be number 2 instead of number 3, it’s a lot better. I think you shouldn’t have eliminated X because Y is a lot more exciting.”
I mean, there’s the obvious, of course: bad writing is bad writing. Plot holes, wooden characters, shoddy prose. But beyond that? Different things speak to different people, and it seems like an exercise in frustration to even try to keep track of what’s what.
I judge things by heart, for example–the amount of emotional depth and love the author pulled out from within themselves in order to produce this piece. Give me a well-executed story with beautiful prose, fantastic action, amazing twists, and a truly unique concept, but if I catch a whiff that the author didn’t feel a damn thing while writing this story (other than smug pride over how well it’s made), I’ll look at it poorly. Heck, I may even hate it.
My firm belief is that writing isn’t a competition. By all means, feel inspired about what others are doing, but at the end of the road, it’s you and your work and how far you’re willing to take it.
My feeling is that Jaeth’s Eye is more of a niche title that won’t get very far in SPFBO–the story has to be experienced as a trilogy, and many people can’t tolerate the style far enough to see how it unfolds. It’s a valid criticism, one that even the people who’ve liked it have made. I’ll still join the next contest with one of two titles I have in mind, but that’s only me rising to the challenge of creating something that’s an improvement from what I had before. I do like seeing how people react to my work–the visceral hatred or love for the characters are a big thing for me. And I like seeing what worked and what didn’t, and filing those away for future purposes.
What this really is for me is the pure joy of creation, of being knee-deep in a manuscript and feeling the story unravel around me, and then trying every single time to do a little better. Right now, for me, that means going a bit deeper into characters’ lives and baring a little more of their souls while trying to form an entertaining story in the first place. It’s a lot less frustrating, and a lot more fulfilling. And it gets the words out of my head and onto the screen like nothing else.
I completely agree that writing isn’t a competition. I really dislike the notion of authors being rivals, especially when it leads to resenting the success of other people.