Comments on: Not Winning a Contest Doesn’t Mean Your Writing is No Good http://www.dailywritingtips.com/losing-a-contest-doesnt-mean-your-writing-is-no-good/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:00:10 -0600 hourly 1 By: Farah http://www.dailywritingtips.com/losing-a-contest-doesnt-mean-your-writing-is-no-good/comment-page-1/#comment-164414 Farah Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:26:33 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=1990#comment-164414 If you're just starting out in competitions, if you're old enough to enter them I mean, then should you just take the judge's statements as helpful criticism? Is it okay to enter the same piece in another competition? To get another opinion, or something of the sort. What kind of competitions can a person who just turned fourteen enter in? If you’re just starting out in competitions, if you’re old enough to enter them I mean, then should you just take the judge’s statements as helpful criticism? Is it okay to enter the same piece in another competition? To get another opinion, or something of the sort.
What kind of competitions can a person who just turned fourteen enter in?

]]> By: sherry roth http://www.dailywritingtips.com/losing-a-contest-doesnt-mean-your-writing-is-no-good/comment-page-1/#comment-106395 sherry roth Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:08:11 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=1990#comment-106395 Thank you, maeve. Except for the fact that I sort of felt obligated to vote for my own story, Katrina's was my favorite. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, and people who read Herman Wouk might not enjoy JK Rowling, and vice versa. As you said, you can't please everyone. Matthew Miller mentioned (in a previous post) that he likes to see an "arc" in a story. If my story has no arc, it's because sometimes life is like that; there are loose ends and unfinished business, unrequited love, dead ends, frustration and incomplete sentences. Could my "story" have been written differently? Sure. I could have given it a different ending, or the focus could have been different. Remember the movie "Vantage Point"? Same event, several different points of view (all shown in excruciating detail, over and over, I might add, but that's what made the movie). I wrote my story for myself, to document the event. It was almost a writing exercise. I wanted to capture the moment like an impressionist: what I saw, what I felt, what I thought, and convey that to the readers, to make them feel as if they too had seen this woman (and truthfully, have we not all seen people like this?) I had a vague intention of submitting this story if a second DWT contest came around, and to that end, I shortened it to under 500 words (because the first contest had that limitation). I was happy to get to the finals, but I knew I would not win, and am not disappointed. The WhiteSmoke software would have been wasted on me; I do not write for a living. On a practical note, the voting here is far from scientific, and can be thrown, as you know. This is not sour grapes; it's just an observation. It doesn't bother me one way or the other, and I'm neither surprised nor disappointed by the outcome. I'm not an authority on writing, so I won't go into what I look for in a piece of writing, nor will I comment on the other stories submitted here. I appreciate your "vote of confidence," and if even a few people were touched, in some way, by my story, that is reward enough. Thank you, maeve. Except for the fact that I sort of felt obligated to vote for my own story, Katrina’s was my favorite. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, and people who read Herman Wouk might not enjoy JK Rowling, and vice versa. As you said, you can’t please everyone.
Matthew Miller mentioned (in a previous post) that he likes to see an “arc” in a story. If my story has no arc, it’s because sometimes life is like that; there are loose ends and unfinished business, unrequited love, dead ends, frustration and incomplete sentences. Could my “story” have been written differently? Sure. I could have given it a different ending, or the focus could have been different. Remember the movie “Vantage Point”? Same event, several different points of view (all shown in excruciating detail, over and over, I might add, but that’s what made the movie).
I wrote my story for myself, to document the event. It was almost a writing exercise. I wanted to capture the moment like an impressionist: what I saw, what I felt, what I thought, and convey that to the readers, to make them feel as if they too had seen this woman (and truthfully, have we not all seen people like this?)
I had a vague intention of submitting this story if a second DWT contest came around, and to that end, I shortened it to under 500 words (because the first contest had that limitation). I was happy to get to the finals, but I knew I would not win, and am not disappointed. The WhiteSmoke software would have been wasted on me; I do not write for a living.
On a practical note, the voting here is far from scientific, and can be thrown, as you know. This is not sour grapes; it’s just an observation. It doesn’t bother me one way or the other, and I’m neither surprised nor disappointed by the outcome. I’m not an authority on writing, so I won’t go into what I look for in a piece of writing, nor will I comment on the other stories submitted here.
I appreciate your “vote of confidence,” and if even a few people were touched, in some way, by my story, that is reward enough.

]]> By: Deborah H http://www.dailywritingtips.com/losing-a-contest-doesnt-mean-your-writing-is-no-good/comment-page-1/#comment-106380 Deborah H Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:21:13 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=1990#comment-106380 Congratulations and best wishes to Violet Toler and Easton Miller! Maeve, the title on today's DWT reminds me of a question that I have wanted to ask for a long time: How do I choose between "no" and "not?" You wrote, "Not Winning a Contest Doesn’t Mean Your Writing is No Good." I would have written "not good." Is there a rule for using "no" and "not?" Congratulations and best wishes to Violet Toler and Easton Miller!

Maeve, the title on today’s DWT reminds me of a question that I have wanted to ask for a long time: How do I choose between “no” and “not?”

You wrote, “Not Winning a Contest Doesn’t Mean Your Writing is No Good.” I would have written “not good.” Is there a rule for using “no” and “not?”

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