For A Reason

"Everything happens for a reason." It's an old adage that you've probably heard before, usually in trying times when we are struggling to understand why bad things happen.

There's no good answer to that one. But, I do have a fun little example that I may or may not be currently going through in my writing career. A fun set of experiences that MIGHT lead to something incredible.

It started with a random call for submission. Anthologies and zines will often put these out for short stories and what not. One day, I saw a call for a short story about a super hero. Science fiction is normally my bread and butter, but I figured, "Hey, why not?" I wrote a story, edited it, had a buddy read it, made corrections, and sent it in. A few weeks later, I received an email saying that my story had been accepted! My jaw hit the floor. This was my FIRST accepted submission! Finally, after years of honing my craft, I was going to be a published author! Now, if only I could get paid for it (this was a non-paying market).

I was over the moon. I posted on social media, I showed my friends and family, and I squirreled away a copy for myself that I intend on keeping forever.

With renewed confidence, I kept at it and eventually, I sold my first short story for actual money. It wasn't much, but it was an important milestone.

Bear with me, because we are about to embark on a series of unrelated events, but they will all tie in later.

As a writer, I felt the urge to be around other writers. My friends and family are very supportive, but they won't always understand why I have to put characters through the wringer like my fellow writers do. This need for writing kinship drove me to seek out a screenwriters group that met in Santa Monica, Ca every month. They are a great group of welcoming writers who look at me with amazement whenever I tell them I write novels.

"How do you put in all that detail?"

"That is a lot to write."

"You measure your books in thousands of words?"

In turn, I am constantly in awe of their ability to get right to the point. Because in a half hour comedy or an hour long drama, you have to.

The screenwriters were great. Are still great. But even though we are all storytellers, our formats and experiences in publishing/filmmaking are fundamentally different.

So again, I found myself wanting to be around a more specific group of writers. Science fiction writers. Lo and behold, the last two Nebula conferences have been close enough for me to drive.

The first year was nothing short of magical. I met so many people and learned a ton about craft and publishing. I left the conference with the feeling that my writing had gone up a level. My editing friend even commented on seeing an overall improvement in the things I was writing.

The second year lacked the magic feeling of the first year, but was still incredible. And it also leads to the crux of this post.

Because at this year's Nebula conference, myself and a group of other writers had dinner with a guy involved in interactive fiction and he was on the hunt for writers. Naturally, we had questions. I'd never heard of interactive fiction, but apparently it's been around for a while and has roots in the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books I read as a kid. By all accounts, it sounded fun.

"What kind of stories are you looking for?"

The guy told us that for some reason, science fiction didn't sell for them. Bummer. That's kind of my thing. But the next words out of his mouth were more encouraging: "Superhero stories do great though."

My brain took all of two seconds to put it all together.

"I wrote a superhero story."

The guy perked up. "Have you published anything?"

"Yeah, the superhero story I wrote got published."

His eyebrows went even higher. "You're telling me that you published a superhero story?"

"Yup."

I'm fairly good at reading people and I can say with some confidence, the guy was excited about recruiting me. We exchanged information and I vowed to contact him after the conference ended.

Since then, we've had some communications and I am in the process of submitting an outline. It's not locked in yet, but I've got a really good feeling about where things are headed.

To summarize, if I hadn't seen the call for superhero stories, or written my story, or sought out other writers, or gone to the Nebulas, then I wouldn't be in the hopeful position I am today. If any one of those events had not happened, I'd still (probably) be an unpublished author with bleak prospects. My advice is to do the thing. Follow your gut. Be where the writers are. Listen, absorb, learn, and participate. Because today's random call for submission might lead to tomorrow's writing career.

Everything happens for a reason.

-Chris