Saturday, May 2, 2015

Literary Contest Reflection

My experience on the Forty-Eighth Annual Literary Contest was different than I had expected. I decided to write  a short story about a mountain biker riding a trail for the very first time, as he recalls the lessons he’s learned while mountain biking. I changed my mind and ended up writing the topic as a poem. Even though I didn’t win, I’m satisfied with my personal achievement in being creative and expressing my ideas.
As for my writing process, I first outlined the ideas for the topic and then began writing my first draft. Almost immediately, I thought of writing a poem of the same topic. I felt like the poem allowed me to better portray my message, since I saw the short story turning into a fable. That was not the direction that I wanted to go in, so I decided to make a poem. I went through numerous drafts and ended up reducing the new trail experience to just one stanza, then having one stanza for each of the three lessons learned, and then one stanza summing up the entire poem and giving closure to the message.

I feel like I did a good job. I like my poem and I find that it has good literary value. I didn’t plan on winning, nor did I set it as a goal. Still, since I saw it as a good poem, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I won. I was not surprised nor negatively affected by the fact that I didn’t win. I’m still happy that I was able to express how I feel about mountain biking and be creative.

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Click here to read my poem entry for the Forty-Eighth Annual Literary Contest.

3 comments:

  1. If you had chosen to write the short story instead of the poem, how would it have ended?

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  2. I like how you wrote your entry about something you feel passionate about, despite how unconventional or uncommon it is. I can't really say I've read any poems or stories about mountain biking.

    Maybe it would've been cool if you finished and submitted both the story and the poem... I know it's a lot of extra work though, and I certainly wouldn't have done it in time. Still, a cool idea for if you're ever bored and feel like writing.

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