LITERARY CONTEST 2018

     For the course, “Journey in Literature” by Prof. Pittmann, we participated in the 2018 UPRRP Literary Contest which this year was the 51^st the university has done. It was a very good experience to write for a contest since I have never been to a literary contest. I was able to enjoy writing and really focus on my idea. I wrote a short story on a previous course and finally, I was able to make a sequel. I have never found a passion for writing until now. I loved writing short stories just as I live them in my head. Mostly I write sci-fi related content. I can really picture all the actions of the story in my head and I  can write paragraphs fluently. I now understand how you can express basically worlds of contents using only words. When the professor told us I felt pumped to do it but also nervous about what I’m was going to write. I learned to let the fingers flow and write. Firstly I just lookup up what was a short story and I found on Google Dictionary “a story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel” so that helped me understand was the objective of the short story.

In the story, I was able to extract myself from the current situations and things, and just enter an imaginary world. A free theme short story is very nice to write because specific themes can limit the writer and lessen the quality of the written work. It was hard at first to see how I can write a sequel but still remain fresh, meaning without looking at the first story, the reader can enter the world without previous knowledge and understand. Well, at least that was the final outcome I wanted to portray. I don’t know the comments of the judges but I handed out to some of my friends and they liked it. Writing is about expressing but also a great way to connect with people.

Writing for a contest is not easy. You have to write not only keeping in mind the likings of the reader but also the judges. “Keep it universal” my mom said to me as advice. Although my short story didn’t win, I congratulate all the people that participated. I now know it’s hard to write not only for ourselves but for the liking of others. I recommend the Literary contest to everyone, just to write and enjoy the experience and if you win, it’s a plus. There is joy in writing and there is fun. You can express a lot of thing trough writing. Also I can now say, writing is an art, but an art that all people can do and express themselves. Now with the computer, writing I think it’s easier and can easily be shared. I am very proud of all my classmates that made it to the finals of the competition. Thank you Prof. Pittmann for letting us be a part of the contest.