Writing Contests & Writing Goals

I have several writing goals for 2010, after having made progress but not considerable success on my 2009 goals.

I'm going to join RWA-- Romance Writers of America-- for two main reasons:

• I have attended meetings of the local affiliate (Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers) and I like them. They also seem to encourage each other and prod each other.
• My work has romantic elements, and I know I could write more romantic fiction, and be good at it.

In the past, I was a member of HWA-- Horror Writers of America-- but they have time limits on how long you can remain an associate member. This of course means you have time limits to get published, or lose your membership. As someone still seeking a genre, or perhaps of mixed genre, I haven't done enough work to get published to make that kind of leap. The HWA does offer a superb network of information though, so I'd like to get reacquainted with them some day.

I'm a paranormal chick lit writer. No doubt that what I write is aimed at women. And I tend to include that fashionista style universe that flies well in chick lit. But with lots of sex, paranormal, violence and some suspense.

So, I've saved some info on contests. I want to enter a few. Why? I'm not sure. For exposure? Practice? Feedback? To say I'm doing something? (To waste money?) To get closer. To motivate myself.

I need to renew my subscription to Poets & Writers. That magazine was chock full of real info for writers. Not just how-to tidbits and wanna-be writing info like Writers Digest. I always hated Writers Digest. I liked the Writer. It was a good middle-of-the-road publication.

But I digress. These contests. I haven't read some of this potential submissions for probably eight months or more. My (first) manuscript was originally 167,000. It's now about 92,5oo, and I can't even tell they're missing. I say "about" because it's 92,646 I think... but I've already cut about 50 words from the first five pages.

The process never ends. Writing means constantly facing your inadequacy or your victories every day. What seems like a victory one day can seem grossly inadequate six months later...