no no no no no
are the words running through my head and out loud in this room (but with expletives in between) because, ****, it turns out that I have sent my story with a mistake - a paragraph which I copied and pasted to an earlier part of the story is also still in its original place, at the very end, meaning it appears twice.
I am so annoyed at myself.
It clearly states in the rules that entries cannot be altered after they've been submitted. I am so disappointed.
There's a contact name and email.
Should I send an email explaining what has happened?
I don't want to irritate the organiser by emailing, but I can't bear the thought of it being read how it is now, with that glaring error. It's so bloody unprofessional either way.
6 comments:
Hey, welcome to the literary world ... we all make mistakes it's part of the process.
I like reading your posts, I'm rooting for you.
Good luck. :)
I feel for you. I once muffed up a competition entry in a toe curlingly embarrassing way - can't bring myself to reveal any more details yet - one day I'll laugh.....
One good thing is that every word I have ever submitted anywhere since has been triple checked and then checked again so in the long run it taught me a good lesson.
Good Luck !
Anna May Mangan
Maybe, maybe, maybe, they'll judge you on the content and understand the tiny mistake! Rooting for you!
Thanks, everyone!
Nice to meet you, Sharon and Anna.
I'm still unsure about if I should get in touch with the organisers, I don't want to stand out - not for the wrong reasons, anyway.
I've stopped kicking myself though, and if I don't contact them, I'll make peace with whatever happens.
It won't totally ruin the story, but the error leaves the ending more heavy handed than I'd have liked.
It actually even says [end] at the very end - so there's no way they'll know it's a mistake unless I tell them.
Thanks again, I'll update on what I decide to do.
I'd like to just say, and please don't take it as boasting, but I recently won a 150-word short story competition and when I proofread the story I sent I found THREE typos of my own making, one quite serious. In 150 WORDS! And they hadn't noticed. So, don't worry at all about it, when they love your story, they'll love it anyway. They might even think the repetition of the paragraph is deeply artistic and poetic and clever :)
Ha, I hope so. Oddly enough, the first draft was like that, with lots of repetition, even ending with the very same final line this version I've emailed has. Must have been my subconscious trying to tell me something.
Your writing in the 150 word comp must have done its job to make those typos unnoticable, or unimportant, when weighed up against the work. Cool-io :)
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