The Mother Centurion: 2011-03-20

Enter a Writer's Competition With Me!!

Here is a challenge: Enter a writing competition!! In our writer's club, The Promise of the Pen, we announced on Monday the Writer's Digest 80th Annual Writer's Competition.

Details are listed in the link below;

http://www.writersdigest.com/annual/?r=wdgppcg&gclid=CI7s3bnV6KcCFQgPbAodUSeMbQ

There are numerous genres to choose from. The entry fee is minimal and the opportunity to potentially "place" in the competition is.... well.... we can dream right?

I would like to know WHO would like to join me? Please share with your friends, have them join the blog discussion and follow. Let us take this journey together!

Think of it this way; consider it an exercise in "the craft". I thoroughly believe in entering contests, submitting to literary magazines and writing short. In my opinion writing "short" is work shopping for larger work. The short story can be very challenging to write, I completely agree. It also sets before you an opportunity to work on a great idea, revise, share and submit. The "process" from short to longer pieces of work is still the same; Write, revise, write some more, share, revise, share, revise, submit..

Let it go, kiss it goodbye, wish it farewell and you have done what you set out to do.

You are a WRITER!!

Deadline: May 2

Trapped in Analytical Mind-Numbing Dialouge!!! Please Help

Well, I am in a 3 1/2 day All Hazards Operations Sections Chief class. Oh yea.. you say? What is this? It enables participants, upon successful completion to eventually be signed off as part of an All Hazards Incident Response Team. The kind that work incidents such as floods, earthquakes, catastrophes and other major events and incidents that overwhelm local resources and require assistance. I am finding the comparison to a writer's conference mind numbing and suppressing, to the creative mind that is.

I am having to mentally turn off my intuitive and creative brain and seek out my analytical side in order to decipher the inner perimeter, identify resources, establish objectives and implement strategies. AAAHHHHhhhgggggg...... don't get me wrong, it is very interesting and I do enjoy this part of my job.

Well, now that I am home, cooked dinner, family has eaten, dishes done, dog fed, medicine dispensed, guitar and drum lessons completed, phone calls and emails returned... well then I get 5 minutes to jot down a quick post and then sign on to my Master's class and do some homework.

I did, thankfully and to my surprise, worked out the first few sentences to Chapter 2. I have a start and I actually pulled it out of my sneaky little left brain as it tapped on my shoulder during break.

Thank you!!

Have You Ever Written Something and Thought.......????

My question is possibly a question writers ask themselves each day, week, month, year;

"What the heck is this garbage?"

I find myself getting into the groove, writing something my inner self says is "profound, multi-dimensional, gripping, moving!" And then I put it away, happy with myself. (You know where I am going with this).

I return to it to savor the tasty words that put into perspective a moving moment in my life that is to become the building block of my memoir and I am disgusted.

Okay, maybe disgusted is too strong a word. Maybe jaded and then disappointed. That is what first, second, third and eleventh drafts are for.

So, my writer friends, do not dispair. Do not feel you are alone and of course share your insight into the turmoil of writer challenges.

When all else fails, a little Pinot usually helps.