February's Contest Winner's
Alyssa Ast
every one that participated in this month's contest. Please help the
WMF congratulate the top three winners of this months contest:
1st Place- Kelli Robinson
2nd Place- Janel Van Beek
3rd Place- David Suresh Marumudi
Below are their winning entries. Check the WMF site on the 23rd for a
special guest post from Kelli Robinson!
1st Place:
By Kelli Robinson
What is your favorite genre in which to write and why?).
Is “parenting humor” a writing genre? God, I hope so! Otherwise what I
do on a daily basis is vent about life and offer meager solutions to
everyday situations. And people either don’t pay attention or laugh
hysterically. If I’m not a humor writer, I’m a politician, which makes
me about as likable as food poisoning.
Parenting humor is not classic literature. That’s because there’s
nothing classic or classy about toddler tantrums, sleep deprivation,
and kids’ obsessions with body noises. But writers tell stories to
which others can relate. Parents across the street and across the
country all relate to the frustrations of potty training, the frenzied
afternoons made up of soccer and dance practices, and the bittersweet
moments between preschool and high school graduations. Parenting humor
writing simultaneously makes parents giggle and nod their heads in
agreement. It is the written affirmation of “Been there, done that.”
Last September I wrote a column detailing my embarrassment at flunking
back to school shopping. Honestly, whoever heard of erasable crayons?
And was it really so awful that I purchased cardboard folders instead
of the required plastic ones? Will my son fail first grade because of
my errors? When did the school offer a parent’s seminar addressing
back to school shopping, because I totally missed it? I asked these
questions because I knew I wasn’t the parent doing so. I received
numerous supportive emails, which is a writer’s applause.
But I don’t write parenting humor stories for recognition or applause.
How ironic would that be, considering that parenting is so often a
thankless job (until your kids grow up, have kids of their own, and
realize how tough it really is). Writers must find a niche they’re
passionate about. I’ve got a husband, two kids, and four pets that
look to me each day for love, inspiration, food, and a clean bathroom.
There’s nothing I’m more passionate about at this moment in my life
than family.
I love them all so much it hurts. Yet sometimes they send me fleeing
to my bedroom. Why? Because if I don’t lock the door, scream into a
pillow, take deep breaths, and count to ten, somebody in the house
might not make it through the day. I’m amazed at my son’s talents. I’m
also amazed he can’t retrieve his wet towel from the bathroom floor.
My daughter’s dramatic flair will win her an Oscar someday. But right
now, it’s not winning my affection.
When it comes to emotional roller coasters, parenthood is the biggest
and fastest one there is. Roller coasters make you laugh and cry, make
your heart beat faster and your stomach lurch. And the wild ride seems
to last for mere seconds. That’s parenthood. I love that writing gives
me an outlet for sharing anecdotes and poking fun at this amusement
park adventure. I’m happy that a mom or dad having a bad day and
feeling very alone could read my observations and realize this roller
coaster ride is filled to capacity every day and night.
And I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to read my stories. To
see their expressions will make all of my late nights at the computer
worth it. I don’t scrapbook and barely keep up with downloading
photos. The essays and columns will give them a glimpse at what mommy
was thinking all of those years.
Yikes, I hope they still like me.
2nd Place:
By Janel Van Beek
The Last Bus of the Night
My favorite genre in which to write is fiction, because it allows my
crazy and often out of control imagination to have the spotlight.
When my imagination takes over, I am able to forget about the problems
in my real world and feel a sense of renewal through my work. It’s
some of the best therapy I know, right up there with fine, dark
chocolate.
Speaking of chocolate, writing fiction is like cooking from scratch.
It’s completely creative and often a Herculean effort to conjure up an
entirely new story with its characters and settings and drama. And
when an author hits their fiction recipe right, the story comes to
life and feels incredibly real for the reader. So real that they tear
through your novel, and even after the fantastic finish, they and all
of their friends and relatives are hungry for more from you.
My world isn’t quite like that yet, but my goal is for it to be that
way very soon. In the mean time, I have my share of life challenges.
Recently, I’ve been a magnet for far more than my share. Writing
fiction opens the door of my escape hatch from the negative and
dysfunctional things that tend to follow me around these days. No
matter how challenging my day, each night, I can find away to wake my
imagination and escape to my personal writing retreat. After a hard
day of life challenges that can’t seem to leave my brain alone, the
idea of sitting with a laptop doesn’t sound like an exercise in
renewal. Of course it isn’t. In order to achieve renewal, I must
look past my tools to my destination. Once I’m there, I can relax and
let fiction take the wheel.
It is true that if you work at something you really love, it usually
doesn’t feel like work. Yet there are nights when I don’t feel like
going through the effort to climb through the escape hatch to my
fictitious world. I am so tired that I don’t want to write a check
for the Visa bill, let alone work on my secret world of make believe.
Yet when I tell my lazy brain no, we’re going to do this even if you
don’t want to, and work for even a short amount of time on my fiction
project, I feel so much better! Not only did I accomplish my goal to
get some writing done that day, my shoulders are a little lighter and
the problems that dogged me earlier in the day no longer demand my
attention. I can easily wait until tomorrow or another day to begin
worrying again. I had better things to do like character development
and reworking that scene my writer’s group critiqued.
So fiction is my passion and getting paid for it is my goal. Let’s
take this conversation to the next level: what if the genre in which
I most love to write doesn’t bring out my best? What if I’m a better
nonfiction writer than fiction writer? I could be spinning my wheels
unnecessarily for years! Success rarely occurs the way we plan it but
no one wants to make mistakes. Could my success story have a twist in
that I had to write outside my perceived best genre in order to shine
a light on my true passion?
Glade Byron Addams once said, “Chase down your passion like it’s the
last bus of the night.” I like how that sounds. My plan is to work
hard at a few different genres in hopes that someday that work will
enable me to follow my fiction passion with wild abandon…
3rd Place:
By David Suresh Marumudi
What is your favorite genre in which to write and why?
As a writer, I consider this as a theme of perineal interest. Yet it
is tough to select and take a stand. It is like being faithful and
unfaithful at the same time to the profession as a writer. If I were
to say creative writing is my favorite genre, would I not be giving a
step-motherly treatment to the other genre? Like for instance, what
about my association with content writing, technical writing or
medical writing? What about them? How can I distance myself away from
others taking side with one particular writing genre—I am equally
indulged with them as well.
Affably accommodating, writing is a practice that conjures up instant
and insatiable thirst to create clean and poised expression
irrespective of any writing genre. Many a professional or an amateur
writer may write impressively with animated eloquence only under an
arduous quest for perfection. A writer with a calibrated precision
digs into details and derives antecedents to gratify an audience to
the core. Therefore, unless the writers are asked to extend their
tentacles of writing exclusively into a particular genre; they should
refrain from making any of them a favourite. Their target is to write,
write and write. With the exception of those writers having the
caliber to put a leg in many a shoe at the same time, for the rest
like me, I feel it would be the wisest thing to dodge an answer to
this question.
A hard-day’s work would go down the drain, if I were to agree that
fiction is my favorite genre. Agreed that writing fiction is writing
creatively; but while technical writing, being my profession, how can
one expect me to take a stand equal in magnitude with creative writing
or for that matter, medical writing which I admit would remain at the
top among my favorites on any given day. That is, once again I repeat
my personal opinion there! Fiction carries a little more flexibility
than any other writing genre.
While writing for many other genres has impositions and or
restrictions as far as the freedom of expression is concerned, fiction
for a writer is like being left in an ‘open prison’! Yes, of course
you heard it right. It is an open prison in the sense that, a writer
of fiction, will have ample of thoughts, expressions or ideas flying
around him like butterflies—some would ‘die of touch’ some would ‘fly
on touch’ and even worse some ‘inflict poison on touch’; but many
would come and rest on their own! So for a wise writer the task is
made simple—just chooses the best.
Finally I would say writing is my favorite genre.
Alyssa Ast
Note: We'd like to point out that we're aware of the typos in this
post. Due to the structure of Google groups software, we are unable to
edit the post once it's submitted. We apologize for any inconvenience
or stress this may cause our fellow writers.