TITLE: Hearing the Negative Voice By Cynthia Carter 12/03/11 |
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This is week two for me on the Writes Challenge. I can’t believe that I am going to put myself through this nightmare again. My face reddens as I remember clicking on Download/Upload and waiting for the topic to download or upload. I even sent an email asking what the topic would be. The only email I received was a welcome that said everything would not be available for 24 hours.
Since I couldn’t download the topic I had decorated my Christmas tree. No sense in wasting my creativity. That night as sugarplums danced through my head, it hit me. I jumped out of bed and woke you from your peaceful slumber. Download/upload was the topic.
With only hours remaining I quickly kicked my muse into overdrive and dashed out a story. I was so excited. I knew my story was a winner. I hit the submit button and to my horror my story appeared all jammed on the page. It was not spaced out like the other beautiful stories I had read. It looked like a 10 car pileup on the highway of my computer screen. I quickly looked around for an”Unsubmit” button but there was none to be found. Maybe edit was the word I needed. To late there was my story in all its smashed glory.
Well, I thought surely they can plainly see I am a beginner and not hold that slight infraction against me. They will quickly see my genius as a writer and will know how lucky they are to be reading my story.
I continued my day with a smug satisfaction. I had entered my first writing contest. I could check this off my bucket list. My body tingled as I thought of my lovely story. I couldn’t wait to write another. This was wonderful. I gave myself a big hug.
I was even more delighted when I noticed someone had commented on my story. This was like being a kid at Christmas. Like a child ripping into a carefully wrapped gift I clicked my way into the carefully thought out comment. I gasped in stunned silence as I read;
"Double-space between paragraphs to give the reader extra white space. Though you mentioned the topic in the end, it felt a little forced. Writing on topic is something that is really difficult to do. A good way to get better is to read the entries in At level 3 and 4. Don't hesitate to leave your thoughts. It's a wonderful way to help one another become stronger writers."
The words"forced ending" ricocheted around my brain like a bullet bouncing off the walls of a canyon, rocketing around my brain and then piercing my heart. How dare her call my ending forced. Well she could just stick her comments where the sun doesn’t shine. I would not waste my time on another dumb writing contest.
I pouted around for the rest of the day but my mind kept coming back to Social Media. At least I know the topic this week and my mind was in a spin to write something about it. She was right my ending was rather forced. I went back and read the comments. There was more positive than negative in her comments. The negative had jumped up and gobbled up the positive.
So here I am Roxie, banging away on your keys, as my story about Social Media flows out so fast that my hands can’t keep up.
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