How Construction Prepared Me for Writing
On Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:00 pm, the local construction market can count on projects closing. You don't call people then. You don’t send emails. You know that time is off limits for appointments. Unless it’s about a bid closing, it can wait. And it’s so exciting, getting those last minute prices and filling out the budget and playing with the numbers. You pray you didn’t forget anything. Make sure you didn’t double count. In those last minutes you add everything up again and decide exactly how much margin you want to include. If a line sits empty, you fill it with something. And then you submit your bid.
If you’re in person, it’s time stamped. Most owners don’t take numbers by fax anymore. Often the forms can be uploaded and submitted through a portal. When the envelope is in, that’s it. Walk away, hope you didn’t screw it up too bad and then wait for the award. Occasionally they’ll gather all the bidders and open it publicly, but that’s only on old fashioned government projects. Sometimes they don’t tell you. If you’re lucky they’ll tell you where you sit compared to the other proponents. You might not hear anything, and then a phone call comes months later. Or never.
But you don’t stop bidding. You can’t count on them all turning out, on a good streak it might be 25% of your attempts. Sometimes funding falls through or the project is cancelled. So you look through the posted tenders and you keep pricing and you keep bidding. You win? Cool, that project isn’t going to set you for life, you’re still going to have to find more work. Again, and again, and again.
When I finally had the courage to do something with my writing, I was ready. I looked at the posted “tenders”, the calls for submissions. I reviewed the closing criteria, the submission guidelines. And I made my spreadsheet for tender closing, the due dates. Then I started bidding. When I’m lucky they’ll tell me what they thought of my piece. I consider a response a win. And sometimes acceptance comes months later. I’m on a good streak, successful on about 25% of my attempts. I look for the calls for submission and I keep drafting and I keep submitting. One published poem isn’t going to set me for life. I’m going to have to make another pitch. Again, and again, and again.
