September 20, 2004

nope, didn't win

Bummer. Didn't win a contest I entered. I didn't really expect to, both on the logical premise that loads of other people were bound to be entering, some of them more talented, and on the less-logical grounds that I had a strong hunch I owuld win and my strong hunches are so invariably wrong as almost to constitute real psychic powers, just in the backwards direction.

I can console myself on two grounds. First, I honestly thought my own essay was better-written than most of the several winning ones I read, much of the credit for which should go to my proof-readers. It was just a different sort of thing, less personal than any of the winning ones. (Except perhaps the one about mushrooms. How you can give a "power of purpose" award to an essay on mushrooms with only a small and inconclusive digression on an unnamed person's story defeats me and my logical brain.) I mean here "better written" mostly in terms of style, I should say; several of the winners had excellent substance, delivering more emotional impact than my essay.

Second, I entered because Mer told me to. She thought my writing would suit the contest and was good enough, and I take that as a huge compliment.

So now I have an essay on the common theme of a driving purpose and its power to unite people to a common and difficult goal, and no idea what to do with it. It's sort of an exhortatory thing. I can't think of anyone who does much with that except motivational organizations like Franklin Covey, and they seem to lean more towards epigrams than essays. Oh, well. I suppose honing a skill can never be entirely a waste, and I probably got enough fun to be repaid for my work just in thinking what I'd do with $100,000.

Posted by dichroic at September 20, 2004 02:43 PM
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