Deacon's Diary

Deacon's Diary for Sunday-April, 27th

deaconlwg | April 27, 2008 05:10

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the First Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

A winner every time.

A couple of weeks ago I entered a writing contest. I found this place on the computer one day while 'surfing' the net. It's called 'Faithwriters.com'. The purpose of the site is help rookie writers of the world, like me, get their articles read. Then maybe, just maybe, get some of them published too. If they're good enough.


Here is how it works. They give you a subject matter to write about, and then they limit the word count to 750 words. You must title your article with something other than the simple subject matter word or words. And finally, you must not put your name on your submission. Your work will then be 'judged'. These judges will not only pick the winners of each weeks entries, they will also critique all of the entries.


My entry did not win the contest. It did get read. It did get judged. And yes, I did get some constructive criticism. It seems that they think that I need to put more space between my different thoughts, and I need to make use of more paragraphs.


Okay. I can do that. No problem at all. And doing that does make it easier to read.


Other than that, the judges seem to like my work just fine. I think I'll enter the contest again. I will try to take any criticism to heart and make some changes. The judges are just trying to help. That is their purpose. I will listen to them.


There was a day and time when I was not so willing to listen to any criticism.  I can remember times when my reaction to such criticism was, let's just say, less than what it should have been. It is not necessarily in our nature as human beings to receive constructive criticism well. One's knee-jerk reaction might be to repel from it and become defensive. As I have gotten older, however, I have learned that when I make those kind of knee-jerk reactions two things usually happen. I wind up with a sore knee, and looking like a jerk.


As for the writing contest, like I said before, my entry did not get picked as the winner. But if I take their instructions to heart to improve and hone my writing skills I will have won any way. If I take their advice maybe these bulletin will improve in quality. That means that you good people of my church family will have won as well. That's makes for one of those coveted win-win situations for everyone involved.

 

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