Why not?  What do you have to lose?  ALL writing is a risk.  Placing words on paper is a scary.  Writing those words from you soul into the atmosphere is brave, but actually printing them out and placing them into the mail for a contest is even MORE honorable and courageous. 

Have you ever entered a contest before?  Submit any creation for publication?  If you have, pat yourself on the back. Stand up proudly.  Take a deep breath and do it all over again.  Each time it gets easier to mail those entries off. 

Think of it as hope in the mail.  Or hope is at the click of your mouse, if you’re submitting through the Internet. 

Why do I speak of contests now?  Because once again it’s that time of year when our Mt. Diablo Branch of our California Writers Club’s April 1st deadline approaches for our Young Writers Contest.  Any middle school student who lives in or attends school in Contra Costa County may enter.  Just follow the guidelines and enter as many times as you like . . . in as many categories. 

Where are the guidelines?  You’ll discover them at the right-hand side of this blog as well as on this website:   http://cwcmtdiablowriters.wordpress.com/young-writers-contest/

I’m having a good time going through them now.   The good news is that most everyone is following the guidelines.  Remember to put your name and grade level on EACH PAGE of your manuscript please.  Thank you! 

If you have any questions, ask them here.   As soon as the contest deadline closes, I pass the entries out to the judges and the judging begins. It takes us a few weeks, so don’t worry.  We WILL read all of them several times. 

Next, the judges notify me who wins, and I call the winners.  Then I post their names here.  Honorable mentions get mailed at a later date, once the banquet concludes.  (The banquet this year is on May 19.) 

So get busy!  Write your best poems, short stories, and personal narratives.  Follow the guidelines very closely.  (They changed a bit from last year so read carefully.)     Most of all, have fun!