A critique partner and I were chatting the other day about the importance of contests. Contests push our competitive buttons. They push us to try a bit harder, to meet that deadline and submit. Contests are awesome for incentive. So here goes! I’m submitting to the “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest on GLA (see blogroll on right).  Wish me Luck!

I have little free time in my life these days. I occupy it with all things writing related. Except for American Idol. But I see a great deal of parallels in both.
The other day we saw the top 3 guys standing on the stage. Lee, Casey and Tim. Tim has been in the bottom 3 the last 3 weeks (or like every bottom 3 I can recall). Every week he’s safe and he has this priceless look of shock on his face. I wait each week to see his expression. Priceless.
I always try to draw correlations from the writing life to the happenings on AI. It’s fun, and gives me some insight. Yesterday I thought about the show and how Tim Urban always shows up, always does a good job even though his vocal skills are outmatched by his fellow competitors and he always has fun.
He is always pleasantly surprised that he’s still in the competition. The question I posed myself was Why? Why is he still surviving in the show when other very talented vocalists have been sent home?
I think what keeps the watchers voting for him is his upbeat personality and his willingness to keep trying, working hard and performing his very best. And we see it on the television each week.
We see him smile at the judges who sometimes ruthlessly criticize him. We see him give it his all each week. And most of all we see him enjoying himself.
This is what I hope I can learn to do with my writing. I hope I can learn to enjoy it more, to smile when the chips are down and keep moving forward. It’s what I wish on all my writing friends. Because this is a tough competition, this writing gig. So SMILE and keep on moving forward!