Of Yellow Chairs and the Writing Contest
29 April 2013
At the same time I did this last round of revisions on my CBAY writing contest submission, trying to turn a manuscript good enough to make the contest finals into a manuscript good enough to win, The Prince Consort transformed our old garden chairs.
The chairs needed new paint. The close eye of weather and the sun, had taken the shine off our chairs. So TPC took our lawn chairs and gave them a new coat of paint. It rained. The paint bubbled, cracked, and in some cases just ran off the chairs. We needed expert help.
So we went to the paint store and were advised to scrape and sand, paint on primer, and then put on the lovely glossy yellow paint.
When I made the CBAY finals, I got an amazing editorial letter and line edit of the full manuscript, expert assessment of what my manuscript needed. I worked on the revision, then sent it to four friends, and worked with their suggestions. When I thought I had it right, I sent the ‘painted’ manuscript back to the contest editor.
Like our chairs, my paint wasn’t secure; my manuscript needed more. The CBAY editor returned comments on where to scrape and sand, add primer, all before I could apply my shiny yellow paint. Words lie scattered on my office floor like the flakes of paint from scraping the chairs.
Last Wednesday I sent my scraped, sanded, and painted manuscript back to the contest. The online public voting starts this coming Friday, May 3.
So we wait.
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| NikkiCat waits. |
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The shiny yellow chairs wait.
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Kath: whose Contest anxiety has been salved by inhaling so many Cheezits and so much chocolate, she’s been banned from going down those grocery aisles. Not to mention how loudly her scales whine when she passes by.
