A Prize In Itself

Last month I entered the Erma Bombeck Writing Competion, in the humor category, under my real name. I had very little hope of winning and I didn't. Not even one of the 4 global honorable mentions. Which is ok. It was a challenge I gave myself. One of the criteria was it had to be 450 words or under. Uh Oh. If you read my blogs long enough, particularly Mom of the Perpetually Grounded you will know that I find it difficult to write Anything in less than a thousand words and most particularly something meant to be funny. My 'comedy'  schtick is usually creating a very convoluted story line. That's how I roll. I consider myself a storyteller more than a writer and if I write a story I usually tell it as though I were speaking to you. Waving my hands around and all but you can't see that part ; ) So anyway....I worked very hard to edit a 1700 word peice down to 450. It was a great experience and really made me think. It made me work for it which is something I don't usually bother to do. In the end I did get a critique from my judge! The story had some funny parts but not enough of them. Well I agree. The other funny parts were in the 1250 words I cut out ; ) In all seriousness I felt it lost something of the humor in the editing myself.  Truthfully the more I worked on it the more I hated it.. though I felt I gained a lot of experience in exchange. And that is a good thing. 
In the end this is what caught my attention:

[Story is cute and well-written]

 well written....Well Written?   WELL WRITTEN. : ) : ) : )

It brought tears to my eyes. "well written." Even if I never do another thing,  those two words are worth more to me than 4th, 3rd, 2cd, 1st place, and the $500 prize combined. I worked hard for them. I am content.


Usually I would be content and even tickled just to find I wrote this post without any misspelled words ; )


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