Make the Most of the Learning Experience

Only three more full voting days left in the ‘Search for the Next Great Crime Writer’ first chapters contest – thank goodness! I have read probably 50 or more entries myself, and have been mildly perplexed by the lack of substantive, helpful comments on many of them. Perhaps comments have been sent private message, which could be why more critiques are not showing up in the comments following the entry. Personally, I think that’s too bad.

This makes me appreciate the wonderful feedback While I haven't received a lot of votes, I have been honored by several  fellow authors who have taken their time to review my entry, and provide really thoughtful advice on how to improve my writing.  Being a brand new author, this advice and guidance has been the best thing I could hope to receive during this contest.

I wanted to invite the authors, particularly the new authors, out to my entry:

 Identity Crisis (http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977174352) 

For the learning experience, if nothing else. Read the entry, and read the comments, and learn from my mistakes! Don’t get me wrong, I think I have a pretty good entry, but it’s certainly not perfect. While I don’t totally agree with everything that the commenters have said, I do appreciate their feedback, and the fact that their thoughtful analysis has helped force me to take another (probably hundredth!) hard, critical look at my own work. 

Round one will be over soon, and those of us who don’t make it on to the round 2 can breath a sigh of relief – and hopefully learn even more from those authors who do move on! As I always tell my children, winning isn’t everything, it’s what you can learn in the trying that counts. As long as you’ve done your best and learned to make continuous improvement, you come out ahead! 

Best of luck, everyone!! Happy reading!