Old Decathlon Olympics Journal

May 15 entry entered May 16 - Headache

May 15th, 2004 entered on May 16th, 2004

My brain is in pain from my efforts to catch-up on journal entries for this Olympic Decathlon Writing event. My pain is not caused from the actual writing, it is caused by the free flow of thoughts and emotions that I am allowing myself feel while I express them through my rambling writing. .

I have managed to complete an entry into the Bad to the Bone Poetry Contest and my entry into the Coolest Thing I Have Ever Done Contest on time. I don’t know if either of my entries into either contest will win, place, or show, so to speak. I do know that I did my absolute best. Unfortunately, I don’t remember if I participated in The Writer’s Cramp this whole entire last week. Although the Decathlon event did not require my participation in that event last week, the Writer’s Cramps prompts are an inspiration to me.

I know that I did get upset and created a forum entitled Petition to Writers Digest Magazine on May 12th. Upset because that glad rag had the nerve to ignore the contributions to writers of all ages on the website known as Writing.Com. The fact that Writing.Com was not on their list was a serious, almost criminal oversight, and certainly makes it appear to me that Writers Digest Magazine is not at all concerned about getting the best information available to their subscribers. I personally visited almost all of the websites on their list that Writers Digest published titled The Best 101 Websites for Writers, and I found all of the websites that I visited paled in comparison to Writing.Com. My views are not bias because of my own personal choice to pay for and maintain a premium membership on Writing.Com. My views are based on the fact that I have looked long and hard for a website that would provide me with the opportunity to show my work, and offer me the opportunity to improve as a writer. There are too many benefits to list on being a member at any level on Writing.Com. The point is I felt compelled to take action.

Again, the web technology provided by Writing.Com made it super easy to create the forum in no time at all. The statistics on activities in the forum that are tracked by Writing.Com are absolutely astounding. I have never seen such data readily available at what I will refer to as WARP speed. The point is that is what kept me so busy for the last few days that I did not realize until this morning that I have been seriously neglecting my Writing Decathlon Journal. The Olympic Decathlon Challenge requires that I write 500 words a day as a daily journal entry. I did not realize when I signed up for this event how much time other issues could possibly require, and I certainly forgot about the daily attention that my family requires. I just want to be left alone to write. I find it extremely amusing when my husband brings me food and drink because he has watched as I have spent countless hours at the computer writing, corresponding with other Writing.Com members, and generally totally devoting myself to trying to attain the elusive goal of being a published writer.

I look at the number of views that most of my work has on the Writing.Com website and it never fails to amaze me that so many people have taken the time to read my work. The overall feedback that I receive demonstrates that, while not perfect, there are real people who find my work worthy of being read. What a wonderful feeling that is for me. Through my membership on Writing.Com I have had the opportunity to read and learn daily. I have read some really interesting articles about every subject imaginable. I even learn something from what could be called really bad articles. This is proving to be a total refresher course in grammar and punctuation. All of which I just as soon have a editor to do for me, but if any writer wants to get published then any and all work should reflect some level of skill and concern. It is easy to come up with ideas, it is putting time and effort into developing those ideas into presentable work for a reading public.