You wrote the story. You edited the story. You scrapped it. You rewrote it. You edited the story again. You asked friends for input, then ignored them. You continued editing. You cut, you cut, you cut. You asked friends for input and listened to them. You put it into proper manuscript format. You sent it in.
Now what?
This story is done.
There is nothing you can do to make this story more likely to succeed. This counts whether it’s an Alpha submission story or a story sent to a market. Right this second, the story stands on its own. Do your best not to worry.
Have you seen your cat today?
Get up from the computer. Stretch! Go outside! Take the dog for a walk. Take someone else’s dog for a walk if you don’t have one.
Shouldn’t you be in school?
You may have some real-life responsibilities to take care of. Whether it’s homework or a perilous stack of coffee cups, tend to it. And watch out for the civilization in the next-to-bottom coffee cup. They’ve developed beam weapons.
The words crawl in….
You know, there exist stories you have not written. They can be found in books.
…the words crawl out.
You can also write something new. Something absolutely different from what you’ve just written. Something frivolous, something no-pressure (remember the postcard stories I mentioned a while ago?) …or something you know will be dreadful but eh, why not?
2011 Applicants, we will get back to you as soon as we can. For now, breathe. Talk in the comments. You’ve met a deadline. Rest.
You’ll need it, come July.