I admit it. I sputtered out in the last two stages of the 2009 NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Short Story Championships. I finished 26th overall with 56 points total. The winner, earning 50 points for her final story soared to 111 points, prestige and a healthy cash prize. Congratulations to her. It's a long comittment, this contest. And I fully expect I'll participate in it next year.

I'm disappointed in my performance to a certain extent. I know I can write better than my last two stories. But if I look at my standings, I nearly made it into the top 10% which could be considered an accomplishment of sorts. If it were a grade, I would have gotten an 89, a B+, the correct grade I'd say. 

I think I overwrote in the last two months. Whereas I should have been making progress on my longer works when I wasn't involved with a contest weekend, I succumbed to editing the contest stories, so for nearly 4 months, I never enjoyed the necessary distance from them that I should have allowed myself. By the end of the contest I was so tired of these obviously prompted stories, only half of which I truly had a solid handle on.

Live and learn.