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Young Writers Society


To the medal-less



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Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:37 pm
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Elinor says...



Hi everyone,

With the Olympics drawing to a close, there's inevitably going to be a lot of disappointment if you didn't place in any of the events even though you entered all of them, or even if you just entered a couple, so I thought it would be good to remind everyone of what things like these are all about.

Everyone is talented, so its impossible to recognize everyone. It seems like a cliche, but as someone who's spent my entire life pursuing the creative arts, and also judging my fair number of contests I can say with surefire confidence that it is a very true thing. A lot of goes into who wins and who doesn't is really beyond your control. The best you can do is work hard, and eventually you'll be rewarded.

In my own experience, for every good thing that happened to me creatively there have been about ten bad things. And even when something good does happen to you, the bad doesn't ever go away. That's the life you live if you want to pursue any creative arts, especially writing.

Each and every one of you is amazing and deserves so much, I promise. If you entered every event, and even if you didn't, that's worth something. Because you can only become a better writer if you keep on writing. Just don't lose hope. All of the judges are friendly people, and we won't bite if you poke us for feedback on your work. It really sucks a lot to not get recognized for something you're proud of, but every writer--every artist, for that matter--goes through the same thing.

Just don't lose hope guys. <3 We sincerely and truly mean it when we say we wish we could give medals to everyone. Each and every one of you is very extremely talented and we want you all to keep writing and growing.

All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.

-- Walt Disney
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:30 am
pony123 says...



Awww thanks :)
My name is Katherine Storm!
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:47 am
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ongoeslife says...



This is my 3rd or 4th Writing Olympics, and I've never won anything. When I did my first, I was either 10 or 12, so I really didn't expect to win much, and I didn't participate very much. This year, though, I realized that not only had my writing matured, but so had my discipline. The events made me sit down and write, sometimes things outside of my comfort zone. And I'm thankful for that. =)

YWS is awesome!
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:54 am
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AEChronicle says...



I would also like to add something.

Each of the judges (those who hosted the events) had their own judging criteria. I believe that they had something specific in mind when they came up with the idea for the event, and that's why certain works were chosen over others. It's not necessarily because they had the highest "rating", meaning perfect grammar, great sentence structure, wonderful flow, etc. etc. It's not like they had a list of "if they say this or use this word they get so many points" things, and then graded the works off of that. They looked for what they thought fit the challenge. So, if you felt that your work was the best, or you rose to the challenge the best, and you didn't win, don't feel bad or cheated, because that's not what these events were about.
I am a machine, but it's only skin deep. Once you break through the crust of my humanity, you'll find the soft clouds beneath. Just don't squeeze to hard, or I'll disappear.
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:56 am
Elinor says...



Exactly, @AEChronicle!

Personal taste and what the judges were looking for certainly played a big factor in it.

All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.

-- Walt Disney
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 1:11 am
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WritingWolf says...



Thank you Elinor Brynn. Reading this made me feel much better about my skills. :) I really don't know how to tell you how much this means to me, even though it was aimed at everyone.
~You can only grasp what you reach for~
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 1:36 am
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Iggy says...



I'll tell you guys something: judging a contest is hard, especially when there are so many entries.

I'll tell you guys another thing: each and every entry was hard for the judges to judge, because they were all so good. Each entry for each event had so much thought and power behind it, and the fact that you guys can whip up a story or a poem, (or even a Ban The User Above You post) in less than 24 hours is truly awesome. Don't you dare start thinking that you sucked or you didn't give enough, because it was you that made the judging hard. It's easy to pick the best entry out of a bunch of bad ones, but when you get an event that has all kinds of good entries.. talk about intimidating! ;)

And not to exclude the people that participated in the scavenger hunt: remember that those two old ladies in red are, indeed, old and have been on YWS for years and purposely made those last questions almost impossible to answer because they are evil. So don't feel bad if you didn't get those last questions right! And, hey, exploring the unsung depths of YWS is always fun; plus, you gain more knowledge about YWS, eh?
“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then."
- Lewis Carroll
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:16 am
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Magenta says...



Nothing's bad when I'm here with all of you! YWS is the greatest place on earth. Well...besides the kitchen. Food. ;)
Spoiler! :
It's a tiny little mystery, that makes no sense to me...
  





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Wed Feb 19, 2014 8:42 pm
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Holysocks says...



:3
100% autistic
  








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