March reflections

Springtime sunrise, people!

(Image of a sunrise over some trees. My bare trampoline in the foreground, dark).

Here’s what I failed to do in March:

• I didn’t make it to the next round of the NYC Midnight challenge for short stories.

Frantically checking and rechecking my phone yesterday to see if the results were posted turned out to be a futile action. They didn’t send me the email at all. Instead, I had to go see the post on Blue Sky this morning (posted at midnight, ha ha I should have expected that) to find out I didn’t make it. Some of these other stories sound great, though. Good luck to everyone who made it to round two.

My writing has always gotten better after doing them, and I’ve explored some genres I never thought I’d ever write in. And honestly, I hope I don’t ever have to write in them again. I’m looking at YOU, political satire! (shakes fist in the air.) Yes, I’m signed up for the next challenge already (of course). As always, wish me luck, folks.

• I didn’t complete my self-set challenge of writing about music every day, for International Concept Album Month, aka InCoAlMo.

What I did do was write A LOT. Nearly every day I wrote some kind of fiction, except when I got sick, or the corporate job took over. But still, a ton of words flowed out of my keyboard.

I also submitted my first draft of a story as an entry into the Romantasy challenge at Forest and Fawn. Yes, Romance. It has nothing to do with music, but the creative group of musicians there, those who did compose during the month, were welcoming to me nonetheless.

After I hit submit, guilt stopped me from writing for a few days. Ridiculous, maybe, but I always lose myself a little bit when I don’t do what I set out to accomplish. In this case, I’d been accountable to a third party, so I’m not just guilty about it, I’m a little ashamed, too. I knew my original submission would be disqualified, it was simply too long (3000 words for a 2000-word requirement). But I’m learning! Every day I’m learning. I know I’ll get better.

Pick myself up. Dust myself off. Start all over again.

So for the rest of the month, I re-wrote! A few folks have seen the updated, edited story (including my darling husband who is my first editor, all the time). I’m going to give myself a few days away from it, do some final edits, and then I’ll post it here for all of you (my lovely, amazing readers and followers) to read.

While you are waiting, please take a minute and check out the other folks who created music for your pleasure: https://incoalmo.com/artist/albums

Check out the writing challenges and retreats at Forest and Fawn:

https://www.forestandfawnretreats.com/

Check out NYC Midnight for the titles of the winners of round 1:

https://www.nycmidnight.com/shortstory/2025-1stroundresults

Much love,

Janet