Tonight, one of the most prestigious contests for writers of romantic fiction, The RITA, has just come to its conclusion; the winners have been announced and the prizes have been awarded.
With the coming year end too fast approaching (as always), for some of us the time is right to begin planning for 2016 and our next career moves. Besides writing and publishing, hunting for agents, publicists, contract lawyers, publishers etc., some of us will be checking through the lists of contests to enter and deciding whether this is a worthwhile effort for us.
As Betty White once said, “I enter for the thrill of winning.” Winning a contest is fun. But what happens if we don’t? Let’s face it. As much as we want to win and as much as we don’t want to lose, in both cases, someone has to. And, much more often than not, it’s the latter. Does that mean we crawl into a hole and never come out? Hardly. Didn’t we have a great time anticipating the joy of winning? All those weeks or months of the positive thoughts count for something.
Every day is a win-lose proposition. We can be the kind of person who is overjoyed to wake up to try again. And when we do win, we can hold fast to that great sensation for a long time. But more important, we can let those losses fade while we plan the next effort.