Quick note before I get into this super exciting news; I’ve done a few of these ‘announcement’ blogs now, and there will be more to come in the future, but I don’t want them to take over too much from some of my more substantial ‘reviews’ or ‘creative processes’ posts – the one’s I feel like might actually be more interesting to read. So I’ll be discussing not just the announcement, but the lead-up to how this project started, or the opportunity came about. Hopefully, provide some ideas for you, the reader, on how you can start building your own good news announcements!
Hawkeye Manuscript Development Prize 2023
About 2 months ago, I submitted 30 pages of my Legacy of the Zashi manuscript to an annual competition run by Hawkeye Publishing; the Hawkeye Manuscript Development Prize 2023. Over the past half a year, I had been intermittently editing my manuscript, especially during NaNoWriMo in November, with a view to build a well-edited full first draft. 2 weeks ago, I got a call from Hawkeye about my manuscript, and to my completely unexpected joy (I’d totally forgotten about entering this competition – mind focussed on a bunch of other major projects coming up this year…) my manuscript had made it through to the Longlist; round two of the judging, coming out in the top 15 out of 93 entries across Australia!
Follow this link for the full longlist announcement, including all the other amazing semi-finalists!
I’ve poured a lot of effort into this novel over the past few years, and it has been a joy to write. It combines some of my favourite light fantasy elements, using influence from some of my favourite shows/franchises (Okami, Avatar the Last Airbender, The Dragon Prince), and featuring some cool monsters from Japanese folklore! The initial plan with it was to plod along, gradually editing/adding to it over the weeks/months. One plan involved self-publishing it, but I had also considered submitting the finished manuscript to a few publishing houses. Competitions, like this manuscript development prize, is always an option as well, and this, I suppose, brings me to the story behind this opportunity…
How it Happened
We all like to knock social media for being a waste of time, and I certainly subscribe to that notion at most times. This one occasion, I was hanging out in a motel in Busselton, between work, with a tired brain ready for some mindless feed scrolling. I was idly thumbing through instagram stories when I stumbled upon one shared by a friend of mine, Bianca (who I met through SCBWI), about this competition… that was ending in ~3 hours.
With about 2 hours to go until I was meant to get back to other work, I decided to go for it. My Legacy of the Zashi manuscript was 220 pages – finished, but only 140 pages were properly edited. This felt like one of those moments where I should just throw caution to the wind and give it a whirl. I was proud of the manuscript, and the competition only required me to submit the first 30 pages, which I knew I had edited thoroughly, and were my best work.
I suppose the rest is history… except that when I got the call that I’d made it into the longlist, I was required to send through the whole manuscript, and I hadn’t done a proper edit of the remaining ~90 pages… so my next four days were stressful to say the least. But, I sent it off, happy with the frantic edits I did (day four ended up being 8-9 solid hours of editing!), and now I eagerly await news of the next phase of judging (announced in March).
As I mentioned at the top of this blog, I wanted to discuss the process that led me to this exciting news, with the purpose of possibly inspiring others to try a similar thing. Am I trying to tell you to spend your days mindlessly scrolling feeds and stories with the hope that one of your friends/acquaintences happens to share something useful? Definitely not. But should you feel guilty for messing about a little bit on your social media? Also no. Sometimes its good to switch off your brain and laugh at silly videos, and sometimes that little break can end up giving you your big break! Ha!
So I guess what I’m really saying here; keep your mind open to possibilities. You never know where opportunities arise.
Oh, and important; I couldn’t have entered this if I hadn’t been gradually building up the Legacy of the Zashi manuscript in previous months. So, always be creating, building, and making. If you wanna be a writer, work on your manuscripts, and have them ready for when you suddenly have ~2 hours to enter a competition that could lead to something very exciting…
Thanks for reading, and sharing in my little exciting moment for this week!
Dapper Cranium 