I was pleasantly surprised last night and am still on cloud 9. I belong to a writers group that meets weekly to discuss our writing submissions, anything from short stories to novels to poems, and we had our annual meeting. It’s mostly discussing the previous year in review and what’s to come in the next. There are also two awards that are voted on by the members. One is an award for the person who has done the most to support the organization, manage meetings, and support members throughout the writing process. The other award called the Foot Award, named after the piece of art gifted to us by a local artist, is awarded to the member whose work has shown the most promise and improvement over the last year. Last night, I was delightfully surprised to win the Foot Award for the second time!
Though I wasn’t at the meeting last year, I won the award but didn’t get to collect the artistic statue as my prize. This year, I got my picture taken with the award to make up for last year and ended up being awarded it again later in the evening.
Winning this award and actually being able to hold it in my hands is, I think, a major piece of validation for my writing that I need. When you write a story and self-publish it or send it out, many of your family and friends will tell you what a lovely story it is, tell you they enjoyed it, and then that’s about it. They don’t offer critiques, they certainly don’t tell you what you didn’t like, and they move on. That’s okay, I’m just happy they took the time to read what I wrote. But that lack of depth in their responses doesn’t tell you if you’re a good writer. Part of the Impostor Syndrome of being a writer involves dissecting every piece of shallow feedback and wondering, “Do they mean that or are they just being nice?” It can be tough, it can eat at you. But having this group full of writers who have given me in-depth feedback on my stories and writing has been so incredibly helpful and humbling. For them to give me this award for a second time tells me they really enjoy my work and aren’t just being nice about it. It validates my work and that is something I could never express how much that means.
What’s kind of funny is last year, when I won the award for the first time, I thought it was for the most promising new member of the group, of which I was one of three people I think. I wasn’t at the meeting so I wasn’t sure what the full understanding of the award really meant. This year, I came to find out that ANY member of the group could win, from veterans to FNGs. That gave me a much better understanding of the award and what it means. It’s truly an honor to win the award and I couldn’t be happier.
Drew Schroeder 