Putting Yourself Out There

Regionals

Alyssa stood alone at center ice.  The pounding of her heart was all she heard in the silence before her music started.  Hundreds of eyes looked down on her, watching her every move.  She wondered if she really belonged here competing against all these more experienced girls.

Reminding herself that this was a great experience, she took a deep breathe and pushed the negative thought aside.  Her music started and she glided across the glassy surface.

Two and a half minutes later, she smiled, bowed to the crowd and skated off the ice.  She had just skated her personal best and nothing could make her happier.

****

 That's how I would describe our trip to the Regional Skating Championships last weekend.  Alyssa had a great skate and it was a fantastic experience.  She ended up 12th out of 18 girls but she was happy because most of them had quite a bit more experience at that level than she did.  She proved to herself that she did belong there.  

I was proud of her for even having the guts to be out there.  It takes a lot to stand in front of your peers and elders and be openly judged.  But if you don't, you never know where you stand.

Then I thought how similar writing is.  If you never put yourself out there and have other people read your writing you'll never know if you're improving.

So get out there and let others see your writing!  I'm trying to find as many opportunities as possible, that's why I entered WRITE CLuB.  It's been great fun so far.

 ****      
Healthy Writer's Club

Started by Shallee McArthur as a way to inspire us to get out of our chairs!  This is what she says about it:

As writers, we hear a lot about the "butt in chair" tactic, which is great for our manuscripts, but not so great for the actual butt in the chair. Every Friday, I'll be posting about how healthy I've been that week and how it connects to writing. If you're game to join the fun, you can run, walk, bike, make a healthy dinner, play tag with your kids, etc. Then, you post about it on Friday (or whenever you want)

This is what I did this week:

Mon: 1 hour skating; practicing for my test (I might be almost ready to take it!)
Wed: 1/2 hour of light aerobic workout
Thur:  I was supposed to run stairs with the girls, but we were all too tired, maybe today!


Check out what everyone else did here.


Have a great weekend, get some exercise and let someone read what you've written!
Oh and don't forget the next Knights of MicroFiction is coming up soon so be ready!

Kathy :)