My mother was one. On the sunniest and most spectacular of days, her favourite thing was to sit inside a dark room at a machine and drip feed coins into it hour after hour (I believe they take notes now – oh dear!). She barely stopped for food in those days – a ciggy and a Riesling usually did the trick.
Not for me! You wouldn’t find me inside on a sunny day, sitting in front of a machine and....oh dear! I guess you would.
It appears I’m addicted to writing. Worse still, I’m addicted to writing competitions. To me writing competitions are the ultimate tease. It’s just like mum used to say, “One more coin – just one more. I can’t walk away now. The next one might be the winning coin.” I now hear myself saying, “Just one more writing competition. The next one could be it. If I walk away now, I’ll never know, or worse, another person could step up and take the winnings and I’ve spent so much time feeding words into this blasted thing...blah, blah, blah."
Oh dear! I think I need help. Straight-jacket, anyone? Better still (since it's hard to type in a straight-jacket) is there a Writers’ Anonymous out there anywhere?
Hello...my name’s Jenn...and I’m a writing-comp-aholic.
Jenn,
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see someone keeping the blog alive!
I don't know about competitions. Anita says, wisely, to go for it because if you enter one comp you can refine/hone your ms from the feedback and then enter it in another later comp (eg: Emerald and then on to Valerie Parv). I can see her point, but I don't handle criticism well, so I become tres anxious. Then I get upset because in the several comps I've entered I can't seem to 'please' all the judges.
But you sound like you've got the right attitude. Just do it or be damned!
PS: My mother in law likes the pokies and occasionally wins dinner at the casino on her gold membership card. We walk through the casino on the way to the bistro (which smells funny) but I've never been tempted to use the pokies. It's a bizarre addiction.
Jenn, what a fab analogy.
ReplyDeleteAnd as quoted by Shayne, I do see comps as a way of improving. But Shayne, if you can't please 'em all, take the ones you like best and toss the rest :)
LOL, Jenn. It could be worse you could be addicted to writing challenges like me. Drives me nuts, but I can't help myself.
ReplyDeleteWriting competitions I can take or leave them, this year I'm leaving them because I'm not happy with anything I have finished. I've decided I'm not entering anything unless I have a completely edited MS. Good thing I'm editing for the next seven months.
Sandie
Who has to write a blog for the RAWus NaNo blog.