So, It's Been Awhile...

No, I haven't dropped off of the face of the earth. I just got busy. Really busy. So, I'll do my best to catch you all up on some of the more exciting and/or important elements of my life in the past few months.
You remember that little thing called "Camp NaNo?" Yeah, that didn't happen. I mean, it did, but not for the whole month. Don't get me wrong, I loved the story I was working on, but I just ran out of motivation to write it. Which is something I'm going to try harder with this July, when I do Camp again. Wish me luck!
Hey, you remember that little writing contest called Write Out of This World that I entered last year? My whole big thing about rejection? Well, brave little me entered it again this year. And this time, I won 2nd Place! Yep! Pretty cool, huh? Honestly, though, the best thing about that wasn't the award ceremony (which was pretty awesome) or the prizes (50 bucks to Barnes and Noble was just one of the many prizes) but the community. I mean, I got to spend some quality time with fellow writers! How awesome is that?!
Anyways, if you guys want to read my WINNING story, just go here and look for "And the Stars Sang."
Also, just to show you how epic my award ceremony was, here's a picture my dad took of me reading an excerpt of my story.

Well, not much else has really been exciting in the past few months, but I CAN tell you that I've been working on a few short stories, so stay tuned! I may be sharing them with you guys in the future! In the meantime, thanks for reading, and stop by anytime!

Adios!

Trials in the Life of a Writer

(I'm just going to ignore that fact that it's been forever since I've posted.)

Look above. At the pictures. You see that? That is my first rejection as a writer.
Yeah, it kinda sucks. The funny thing is, I see it as a milestone. A crappy one, but a milestone nonetheless.
Sure, it's a rejection. But it's a rejection as an author. Every author goes through a rejection. Even the absolute best ones.
Like Abby told me when I was moping and broken up about this, "J.K. Rowling was rejected 5 times when trying to publish Harry Potter." (That's not an exact quote, but you get the point.)
It's true. And J.K. Rowling, as we all know, is considered one of the greatest children's authors of her time.
So I'm trying my best to see the positive in this whole ordeal. Even if I still get teary when I see those pictures or look at the list of winners in the contest.

*

But on a different note, the hardest part of this is being motivated. I mean, who wants to go on writing when their first piece ever to be seen by another's eyes is rejected?

I'm trying so hard  to get myself writing again. Besides all the obvious factors that hinder me (school and life), I just can't sit down and write. It's painful. All I can imagine is being rejected again.

My short story for the contest was inspired by the band Metric. One of their songs (Speed the Collapse) has a line that says "Auctioned off their memories." My main way of inspiration is finding little phrases or ideas like that and building off of it. I was thinking, if I did well in the contest, I wanted to find some way to send my story to the band. But now...I still kind of want to, but I'm afraid. I have that awful little critic in my head that tells me no.

But in those cases, you have to be brave. I know that I want to write. But if I never take chances, how can I be a writer?

I think it was about a year ago I told myself I wanted to write. Not for me, not for the community, but for God. I realized how incredible His gift of language was, and I wanted to be able to use that for His glory. But then again, you know, a rejection. All I could think was that He didn't want me to write. But I have a feeling it was the enemy telling me that.

And so, I will write again. And this time, I will be brave. I will write for the glory of God. And I won't be afraid of rejection.

 

<3