Encouragement

"When you first start writing, you never fail. You think it's wonderful.  You think it's easy to write and you enjoy it very much, but you're thinking of yourself, not the reader.  He doesn't enjoy it very much.  Later, when you have learned to write for the reader, it's no longer easy to write." - Ernest Hemmingway

Last week, my writing club, Sierra Writers, awarded prizes to the winners of the Young Writers Contest. It was fabulous to see the talent and enthusiasm pouring out of these teens. It brought back a memory from when I was a freshman in high school, and I took first prize in the school-wide creative writing contest. The $5 represented so much to me—as a freshman competing against upperclassmen, a writer, and as a teen with no self-esteem. Now my only question is, how much money did the 2^nd place winner get?