Ready to Write!

I went on my community blog page today and noticed some things I had not paid much attention to before. Under my sign-in name, I am listed as a "new author". Other people have a designation under their names of "official member". I do not yet know how you get from one lable to the next. A week or two ago, I commented on some stories I read. Today, I found that one of the authors thanked me for my comment. Then I remembered reading somewhere that this community thinks highly of the amount of "thanks" you receive from others. It shows the community that you are making thoughtful comments in the interest of helping your fellow writers become better at their craft. It is also important for you to "thank" others. I like this idea and I am taking more notice of how people who have many "thanks" are responding. They really do take great care to encourage others, even if all their comments are not favorable. One person noted some very positive things about a fellow writer before sharing some confusion he had about another part of the writing. The author "thanked" him, and then explained why he had written what he did. This seems to me to be a very valuable exchange.

I also found a contest for prose. The contest initiators provide the theme and we provide the prose in 2000 words or less. The contestants are scored on grammar and mechanics as well as content and staying within the word limit. The theme is "unknown memories" and I plan to enter. I look forward to telling you how this goes...