Wednesday 2 October 2013

Sod's law

If anything that can go wrong eventually will, I might as well embrace pessimism now. I'm certainly working my way through a variety of disasters from the mild and faintly humorous to major and life-changing.

The four-year old, finally mature enough to remember house rules like: "Only draw on paper", drew on the wallpaper at the top of the stairs. A row with my husband cast a cloud over a day. The baby has a strange growth on her inner lip. (The doctor says it's fine and will go away.) A friend had bad news at a hospital appointment. Steam from the dishwasher has made the veneer peel away from the cupboard door, and I really need to fix that before the four-year old spots it and makes it irreparable.

But, "Sometimes things don't go, after all, from bad to worse..." (Sheenagh Pugh). Writing Magazine thumped through the letter-box this morning, and I turned straight to the short story competition, and saw my name in the short-listed column. Wow. Then I looked at the letters page and my name was there, too. Little successes are enough to sweeten a day, even if they can't erase worries about people I love.

Maybe there's a reverse Sod's law  - anything that can go right, eventually WILL. (I might as well be unrealistically optimistic as pessimistic - it's more fun!) What better reason to persevere, than believing that things will eventually go the way you imagine?





2 comments:

  1. Hi Abigail, just wanted to say that I found your blog through Writing Magazine (I'm running about 3 months behind the rest of life, but that's normal at this time of year, right?!) and really enjoy what I've read so far; so much so, I'm following you now (eek - I mean your blog, of course,otherwise it sounds like I'm a scary stalker!). I'm a fellow writer, WM subscriber, and blogger (who really needs to get her blogging behind in gear!) and wanted to say well done for keeping to your goal of a monthly short story submitted! Will you do it again this coming year? I'm deep into writing my second novel and struggle to juggle writing other things, but at this time every year I always think of writing goals I'd like to stick to... Hope you had a good Christmas, and Happy New Year. All the best, Deb x

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    1. Hi Deb! I'll check out your blog - good to have support, especially when life gets in the way of ambition! I'm glad you're 3 months behind on Writing Magazine as I have a stack of magazines (and books) to read and it makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one. No, I'm not going to write short stories this year, unless I feel the urge. I have learnt a lot, but it has deflected my attention from the things I really enjoy writing - novels. I was thinking of entering my first novel in a competition soon (I entered it in one last year with no success) but when I went back to look at it, I can see it needs way too much work. I suppose I can see that because of my writing challenge for this year, but it's a bit sad! However, my second one has been in planning since April, so I'm raring to get on with that. What have you done with your first novel? Were you just cutting your teeth on it, or are you sending it out/self publishing? Happy New Year to you, too x

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