Me!......Well okay, I'm mostly the winner! At least in my mind!....and in the minds of the judges! My short story The Children of Tsitsi that I submitted to the Writers of the Future contest, won! Sort of! While it didn't win win, it did get an Honorable Mention! And while that might not seem as good as being IN the book, it actually means a lot to me. I was judged by famous authors (like Todd McCaffery) and found to be good enough to be mentioned. To know that authors that I admire and look up to found my story to be good enough to beat out so many other stories and be only a handful of people listed as Honorable Mention was something I really needed!
I generally don't like bragging, but this contest is not normal--and a lot of people enter it. So for me to have placed so high (especially for my very first competition!), I felt it deserved at least one paragraph don't you think!? Well then, enough about that! Despite my horrible updating habits (I'm so sorry!) I've actually been very busy writing! I know, you must all be shocked right? A writer writing? Who does that!? This girl, right here!
.......okay. To be honest.....I've actually been knee deep in procrastination! It's a hard, mucky job, but some one has to do it! Now granted procrastination isn't all I did! I did write! I've a modern day sci-fi novel that's practically finished! Seriously! The downside is I had put a deadline on myself, which was to finish it by my birthday. And I did. But the ending was so mind blowingly badly written that I couldn't open my laptop open for a month after the fact. No joke! Every time I opened Word I shut it down again because I couldn't bring myself to look at it.
I do the same thing with bills. I think I have a problem......
I edited my book. I started writing concepts and fleshed out ideas for the next book I was going to write....I even edited several chapters of my Sci-fi before the ending, hoping I could ease into the ending and re-write. But reading a paragraph into it I lost my will power. It was just that bad. Has any other writer out there not written in 2 months because they hated their writing that badly? Is that normal? Maybe if I'd spent my life paying bills on time instead of avoiding them I wouldn't have this fear of not looking at something written on paper......
But I digress! So I hadn't re-written the ending. I was wallowing in self pity--you know, the litany of 'I'm not good enough' and 'why did I think this would work!?'--when a friend of mine (newly made friend, that is!) asked what was wrong. And when I told her, surprise of surprises, she offered to edit my book--because that's her job! I was stunned! A genuine editor for my book that has no ending!? It gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finish the ending. No matter HOW badly I don't want to look at it.
Being a writer is challenging, especially for me. I write because I genuinely love seeing people get excited over the words I put on paper. So to have a person whose an editor say "This story has me hooked!" and to win an Honorable Mention by famous writers...it was exactly the right way to start this new year.
This year is going to be challenging and fun. I do believe this year will be the year I'm able to stand up and stand out! No more procrastinating for this---oh is that a new book on the shelf!?
I generally don't like bragging, but this contest is not normal--and a lot of people enter it. So for me to have placed so high (especially for my very first competition!), I felt it deserved at least one paragraph don't you think!? Well then, enough about that! Despite my horrible updating habits (I'm so sorry!) I've actually been very busy writing! I know, you must all be shocked right? A writer writing? Who does that!? This girl, right here!
.......okay. To be honest.....I've actually been knee deep in procrastination! It's a hard, mucky job, but some one has to do it! Now granted procrastination isn't all I did! I did write! I've a modern day sci-fi novel that's practically finished! Seriously! The downside is I had put a deadline on myself, which was to finish it by my birthday. And I did. But the ending was so mind blowingly badly written that I couldn't open my laptop open for a month after the fact. No joke! Every time I opened Word I shut it down again because I couldn't bring myself to look at it.
I do the same thing with bills. I think I have a problem......
I edited my book. I started writing concepts and fleshed out ideas for the next book I was going to write....I even edited several chapters of my Sci-fi before the ending, hoping I could ease into the ending and re-write. But reading a paragraph into it I lost my will power. It was just that bad. Has any other writer out there not written in 2 months because they hated their writing that badly? Is that normal? Maybe if I'd spent my life paying bills on time instead of avoiding them I wouldn't have this fear of not looking at something written on paper......
But I digress! So I hadn't re-written the ending. I was wallowing in self pity--you know, the litany of 'I'm not good enough' and 'why did I think this would work!?'--when a friend of mine (newly made friend, that is!) asked what was wrong. And when I told her, surprise of surprises, she offered to edit my book--because that's her job! I was stunned! A genuine editor for my book that has no ending!? It gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finish the ending. No matter HOW badly I don't want to look at it.
Being a writer is challenging, especially for me. I write because I genuinely love seeing people get excited over the words I put on paper. So to have a person whose an editor say "This story has me hooked!" and to win an Honorable Mention by famous writers...it was exactly the right way to start this new year.
This year is going to be challenging and fun. I do believe this year will be the year I'm able to stand up and stand out! No more procrastinating for this---oh is that a new book on the shelf!?
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