At the beginning of the year, I made a goal to enter a few contests. At that time, I believed that my dad would be celebrating his birthday in Washington in the summer, and so I decided that I would enter the PNWA (Pacific Northwest Writers Association) literary contest. I had done so before and what's great about it is every contestant receives feedback on the 25 pages submitted. Not to mention, if you win you get to walk around the conference wearing a winner's badge--that would have been cool--plus, you get to meet with editors and agents.
But here's the thing-- I'm indie-published. I don't need to meet with agents and editors. Feedback would be awesome. A winners badge would be fantastic. But the conference is expensive, and when my dad decided to hold his party in Utah and not Washington (where he lives) I talked myself out of entering the contest and attending the conference--because who wants to travel to Utah and Washington in the same month? But the last day to enter the contest was a constant internal argument. Enter the contest, whispered a little voice. No, it's expensive, whispered reason.
I listened to reason.
And a few weeks later, my dad decided that he wasn't up for a trip to Utah and his birthday party was rescheduled in Washington, four days before the PNWA conference.
Sometimes we win and sometimes we fail--but we never get to wear a winner's badge if we don't enter the contest.
I looked over the schedule of the PNWA conference, was impressed with how many classes being offered on indie publishing, and decided to attend, after all, because it's not really about winning. It's all about enjoying the process and learning to trust that little voice inside of you that whispers, this is right.
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