I know that all y'all know that the drabbles can be fiction

See, I'm glad you posted this, because I haven't been doing the drabbles and want to start, but I don't like writing only non-fictional autobiographical stuff, and I wasn't sure if made-up stuff was allowed.

And your drabble made me laugh: My step-mother sent me all my stuff that was still in my old house (hers now), including a box with my homecoming corsages. I'm from the part of the world where girls get decorated like prize heifers for homecoming, so these were masses of 3-foot-long ribbons with random shit attached to them. Little gold football helmets, horseshoes, things like that. One of them had a rabbit's foot.

Let me tell you, when your husband pulls a 20-year-old skeletal rabbit claw off of the grease spot it's stuck to, he's going to want an explanation.

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So, writerly types: help me? On a whim I submitted a story for a contest. Wrote it in a couple days, mostly because I don't do enough creative stuff anymore and wanted the exercise. It got selected for publishing (don't they know I can't write?), but the editors have asked for revisions. What works for you when revising a story? I've revised term papers and government reports, but I've never let anyone see my creative writing before, so this is new to me.

The editors comments are slightly helpful in some respects, but, and this is the weird thing, they've decided that the anthology will be fantasy/sci-fi stories on the original contest theme. So they want me to make my story fantasy/sci-fi. And provided no insight as to how I might, or what they saw in the story that made them think it could work as fantasy/sci-fi.

I had a brief urge to stick in a telepathic dragon and call it good, but I'm now thinking there will be serious re-writes. What if it comes out way different than the story they originally selected?

blink

Raq, wow. That's a bit of a shift on their part.

I have no problem with revisions, but this sounds like more than that. If you think it would be helpful, I'm happy to take a look (I've been deciphering copy-editor stuff in the past few days, so my brain is actually in that space anyway), at least at the basic, with the editor's suggestions as a guideline. The caveat is that scifi/fantasy is the one (two?) genre set/subset in which I'm completely clueless.

But I'm happy to take a look, if you'd like.

Thanks, deb. Once I get this next pass done and add in the fantastical elements, I will beg for readers.

Reading back over it, I think it's better than the last book I read, but that was a vampire-with-a-soul Navajo cop thing. Wait! That's, like, fantasy, right?

(grinning) Sounds like fantasy to me....

Raq, going from whim to getting published is pretty darn cool. The editors switch to sci-fi is odd. It sounds like you have it figured out, but if you want help adding something fantastic, well, let's just say that I kept expecting a time-travel reveal in Great Expectations and I'd be more than happy to look for seeds of fantasy in yours.

So... the application for the position of Librarian for the US Marine Band asks for an optional writing sample...

o.0

I've never submitted an app that asked for that... any thoughts on what kind of writing sample they would want?

What kind of writing does the job entail? I would think something like that. Do you have any press releases or something that you've written?

As far as writing, it entails "researching and writing content for the website," and "formatting and editing concert programs and program notes."

I don't have anything that really fits that bill, but I suppose I could take a look at their website and make a mock-up. Is that kosher? Or would this be something where I would have to use something I've already done?

The writing sample is optional, but since I think I'm a decent writer, I'd like to toss it in there.

I think you could do a mock-up. They just asked for a sample, not a published sample. Maybe do a write-up of a composer or something.

Yep, I agree with Chi - they want to see what you can do that fits their bill, not see what you've done to fit someone else's bill. A mock-up should be fine.