Finding Success in Losing

We all like winning and receiving accolades. Recognition for writing validates why we bother to spend endless hours suffering over a word or a sentence.

nobody sane does it.

Why bother trying when in that vast world of published material your body of work is just a comma? Why bother entering a competition with hundreds of other writers, most of who are wag better than you?
Because we need strangers to tell us our work is worthy. Our friends and family believe we are brilliant. Strangers tell you the truth.
I recently lost a contest. Didn’t even get an honorable mention. Yet this loss proved successful.

I had entered Under the Veil in the Writer's Digest Self Published. Awards in the middle grade/young adult division . Books were judged on four criteria with 5 being the top score. My marks were Plot 4, Grammar. 5, character development, 5, and production quality and cover design, 3.
My two highest scores were for the most important elements: craft and character. Plot is necessary, but it 's the weakest literary element.
but the judge wrote "this is a wonderful book…my favorite….it is perfectly written for the age group intended…it was very beautifully done.”

The only negative comments was the judge wanted to know more about me (There is an author page in the back with a photo. And I do explain my motivation for writing the book on that page. I don’t know how much more I can do there.)

So my design cost me an honorable mention, or even a prize, But I got what is truly important: validation from a total stranger that I am a good writer.
Tomorrow begins National Poetry Month. I plan to write a poem a day. Most of them wil be terrible because it’s hard to write a good poem in a day.

Even so, I will also READ a poem every day.

If you haven’t already, sign up at napowrimo.org to write thirty poems in thirty days.

Also here is a blog post from last year rife with exercises:
http://laura-moe.blogspot.com/2011/03/poem-day-for-all-you-april-fools.html



Happy Writing.

The Best Review

I have had several good reviews posted on my books, as well as face to face compliments, but the best one came recently from a 7th grade girl, who after reading Under The Veil, posted... "mom made me read an hour a day. I didn't want to do this, but after reading this book I am looking forward to more reading and more books.....I've read many books but this book is by far the best one I've read." As a writer it's the ultimate compliment on a couple of levels: 1) She liked the book, and 2) she was reluctant, yet the book changed her mind about reading. I suppose a third level would be that my words ignited a passion for more reading. Isn't that what our goal as writers is? To touch our readers in a way they view the world slightly differently? I know I like to walk away from a novel, poem, or even nonfiction and feel like I have gained new insight. We learn how to be human through narrative. The cave men knew this.


Happy Writing.