To keep myself from losing track of:
all the contests I've entered,
all the contests I've volunteered myself as a judge (or let myself be voluntold into judging),
all the books I've had to read as a contestant or as a judge,
all the deadlines,
a...
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Let's be clear: I know Ancilla doesn't stand a ghost of a chance. It's too long, too literary, too defiant of popular tropes, too uncommercial, too highbrow, too much work for the average reader of smut. I wrote BDSM erotica, but wrote it as if I meant it to be added to the Western literary canon a hundred years after my death - although I don't think I quite succeeded at making it literary enough for that.
It's too ambitious.
And it does not have a snappy plot with lots of cliff-hangers to end its chapters, it does not have a "hook," it does not have billionaires or alpha werewolves or mafia bosses, it does not have a Happily Ever After or Happy For Now, it does not have sexy fairies, it does not have suspense.
There is no Grumpy vs Sunshine. There is no Arranged Marriage or Fake Relationship. There no Only One Bed. There is no Love Triangle.
There is no way this will ever be a Wattpad Vertical, nor will any of the sequels be Wattpad Verticals.
The Wattys are only partly judged by humans now. To reach the hands of a human, a story has to get past a bot that looks for grammar and spelling mistakes, among other things. Grammarly keeps trying to correct my prose - I ignore Grammarly's suggestions because Grammarly is a frakking toaster and toasters can't write for shit. So say we all.
A snowflake has a better chance of surviving in Hell than Ancilla has of even making the Watty longlist, let alone the shortlist.
I entered anyway.
I saw the banner - this one here
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and entered. Heaven help me, I entered.
The die is cast.
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UPDATE(10/16/2024) -
Not unpredictably, I'm one of the many, many losers. But hey. I might have forced at least one vertical-minded judge to read a long passage of medieval Latin.
Yes, I write smut with Latin in it. You have to read the Latin to get to the spice. That's how I roll, baby.
Instant gratification? Oh, my, no. Good things come to those who wait! Work for your "happy ending!" Work hard!
