Dot Day On writing
1/2/2016
This is the breakout year, the one in which I will breakout of my prison that says I really don’t have a story worth telling, that the story has no God-redeeming purpose and will not glorify my Savior in any way. That is a lot of pressure for any story, yet I will submit only if I think those things are true. However, I will not know if they are true until I actually write. My inner editor must be silenced. My critic of self-doubt must be pitted against my belief in a God that gave me skill, desire, and hope. So, I start.
1/2/2019
It has been three years since I started a record of my writing journey. I have amassed a great amount of reading and research. I have learned minutia regarding writing and publishing. I completed my family history alienating some family members and published it in 2017. I sold close to 300 copies although I thought I would have difficulty selling 50. I sold companion journals, lost money with a predatory publishing company.
I have talked with my cousin Shirley Madden, the surviving granddaughter of Houston Roberts and with the great- granddaughter by his marriage to Etta McRaney. I have the verbal okay to write their grandparents’ stories, my novel in waiting.
I wrote a short story of approximately 10,000 words. I joined thenextbigwriter.com and the Mississippi Writers Guild. I write the church news for Gallman Baptist Church in the local paper. I have a writers blog called Mississippiwriterspathways.com. I do sporadic work with other blogs.
I am taking courses in writing from James Patterson and Joan Dempsey. Much of this has been a distraction from the story I was talking about three years ago. Writing this is also distraction. I’m not questioning my procrastination nor denying that it exists. I am busy living life.
BIG SUCCESS: By God’s providence and Dr. Rich’s mercy, I was granted entry into a contest for free editing by Dr. Bob Rich despite the entry’s being after the entry date. Because of my lateness, I did not get the advice for editing by his chosen panel of judges. This advice could then be used in a revision. Mine was not revised.
Regardless of those deficiencies, my thousand-word sample was chosen as one of the 10 finalists. We then had to use our email list and friends to vote for us on his website. Unfortunately, he gave us more time for them to go to his website a 2nd time to vote.
We were working on the program for our 50th wedding anniversary celebration and doing holiday-related activities. I ran out of either time or energy and I did not ask my friends and social media acquaintances to vote again.
Despite my own shortcomings and failures to get everything right, I came in as the second-place winner. Dr. Bob said that 1/3 to 1/2 of his voters also chose mine, accounting for my second-place win. Most of his votes came from high school students, so this part at least appealed to young readers.
Results of the free book edit contest
Posted on 24/12/2018by Dr Bob Rich
Voting on my free book edit contest ended on 23rd December 2018.
A total of 1205 votes were cast, by 510 visitors. Twelve were disqualified because my response email bounced, so 498 had their votes counted. If you’re good at arithmetic, you’ll notice that a significant minority only cast one vote. Oh well…
The winner is W for Wrestling by Keith Manos.
Keith is a teacher, and devised an excellent way of gaining publicity: he contacted teachers in various schools, who instructed and motivated their students to study the ten entries, and vote for three. Naturally, since the teacher had talked about Keith, almost invariably one of the three votes was for his entry.
Keith’s theme is the effects of bullying, and the way a combat sport (in his case, wrestling) can build self-confidence and inner strength in victims. His 1000 word sample vividly shows a victim’s internal reality. So, this is excellent education for these young people.
I’ve had comments from visitors who responded to my email to them, letting me know that they found all the entries excellent. Nan Pokerwinski made hers public: “So hard to narrow my choices down to three! Some intriguing stories and fine writers here.”
Here are the votes cast:
| Glory for the Brave Georgiann Baldino | 89 | ||
| Looking Through Rose-colored Glasses Janet Rose | 77 | ||
| Summer Dreams Helen Dale | 118 | ||
| The Lip Reader Michael Thal | 120 | ||
| Trains only go one way Genya Johnson | 77 | ||
| W is for Wrestling Keith Manos | 353 | ||
| The Long Lake Journal Chris Zantow | 69 | ||
| A Taste for Death Dorothy Day | 145 | ||
| The Sleeping Ground Lynette Willoughby | 73 | ||
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