Why I want to go to She Speaks Conference ‘10
I scrolled down the page to find my Christian Writers' Guild mentor’s critique. The underlined red font read:
Sarah,
You are very creative and you have FABULOUS ideas that would make most novelists jealous.
My heart soared and a smile pulled at the corner of my lips. I could be a novelist! All my stories hidden away on my computer could be published one day. With new found confidence, I wrote a few short stories and entered them in contests. But the questions still circled my head, “Are my ideas really good enough? Is my writing good enough?”
My mom heard about a devotion writing contest where the prize for winning was a scholarship to She Speaks, a writer & speaker conference. A devotion writing contest. Not a short story contest, or even any kind of fiction for that matter. Non-fiction devotions. Which I was sure I could never be good at. I thrived on the fiction lessons in my Christian Writer’s Guild, and barely limped through the non-fiction (especially poetry, but that’s a story for another day).
I prayed continuously about it, and strongly felt like I was supposed to enter this contest. I wrote a devotion and entered it, not expecting to win (you can read more about that experience here). When I got the phone call letting me know I’d won, I knew writing was what God wanted me to do.
The She Speaks Conference was an incredible opportunity for learning and becoming a better writer. It was a great platform for me as an author and God gave me numerous writing opportunities with some of the acquaintances I made, such as writing for realteenfaith.com and radrevolution.blogspot.com, and starting a blog with some girls I roomed with. I knew I wanted to go back the next year as soon as I left.
To be honest, I have no idea where I would get the money this year, and if I wait, it would be two years before I could possibly go back again, because of college and the financial situation it would create. Does God want me to go back again? I’m not sure. I’m still waiting for that question to be answered.
(this will be linked to the post on Monday at http://lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com/2010/03/she-speaks-scholarship-contest.html in hopes to win another scholarship!)
Sarah,
You are very creative and you have FABULOUS ideas that would make most novelists jealous.
My heart soared and a smile pulled at the corner of my lips. I could be a novelist! All my stories hidden away on my computer could be published one day. With new found confidence, I wrote a few short stories and entered them in contests. But the questions still circled my head, “Are my ideas really good enough? Is my writing good enough?”
My mom heard about a devotion writing contest where the prize for winning was a scholarship to She Speaks, a writer & speaker conference. A devotion writing contest. Not a short story contest, or even any kind of fiction for that matter. Non-fiction devotions. Which I was sure I could never be good at. I thrived on the fiction lessons in my Christian Writer’s Guild, and barely limped through the non-fiction (especially poetry, but that’s a story for another day).
I prayed continuously about it, and strongly felt like I was supposed to enter this contest. I wrote a devotion and entered it, not expecting to win (you can read more about that experience here). When I got the phone call letting me know I’d won, I knew writing was what God wanted me to do.
The She Speaks Conference was an incredible opportunity for learning and becoming a better writer. It was a great platform for me as an author and God gave me numerous writing opportunities with some of the acquaintances I made, such as writing for realteenfaith.com and radrevolution.blogspot.com, and starting a blog with some girls I roomed with. I knew I wanted to go back the next year as soon as I left.
To be honest, I have no idea where I would get the money this year, and if I wait, it would be two years before I could possibly go back again, because of college and the financial situation it would create. Does God want me to go back again? I’m not sure. I’m still waiting for that question to be answered.
(this will be linked to the post on Monday at http://lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com/2010/03/she-speaks-scholarship-contest.html in hopes to win another scholarship!)
Sarah: I am so proud of you! I hope to see you at She Speaks again this year. You will be a novelist someday. I have no doubt about that :)
ReplyDeleteI, too, wonder if I might get the opportunity to attend again...
ReplyDeleteBe blessed,
Tyler