If you found my Tumblr because of the post I wrote about my epic battle with my high school English...

If you found my Tumblr because of the post I wrote about my epic battle with my high school English teacher, you may want to read this.

The reactions to that post made me think I should maybe turn that story into a novel, so I started writing it last year. Then, on a whim, I entered the first 50 pages into the LaunchPad Prose competition, a contest with the goal of finding books that could be turned into films or shows. (I say “on a whim” because I swore off writing competitions years ago, but I had a moment of weakness.)

In mid-December, I found out I’d made it to the next round of entrants. Plus, my book had landed on Coverfly’s Red List (kinda like the famous screenplay Blacklist… but, red, I guess) in the Drama Manuscript category.

Today, I was notified my book made it into the competition’s top 100. And it’s back on the Red List.

And that all comes on the heels of this announcement…

It’s my fifth humor/nonfiction book and is very much in the style of my first, just tackling a different topic.

Now, I obviously can’t know if my novel will make it all the way to the end of that competition. But, I have a chance because I took a chance—the same way I post stuff here, personal stuff, that could be torn to shreds (and often is). That’s how I got the opportunity to write my first book, which turned into another opportunity for another book, and so on.

So, sometimes it’s just yelling into the abyss or welcoming criticism. But, sometimes a post will connect with people. Sometimes, opportunities to grow stories are found in the dirt. But, you gotta till the damn soil.

I guess what I’m saying is, it’s not about “shooting your shot.” That phrase implies you only have one chance. You have endless shots and you should never stop shooting them. Try everything because you never know where that next opportunity will appear or what form it will take.

And if you’re a writer, get writing.