With the contest in full swing, member Roy Stucky shares a revised edition of his half of the February 2020 D5 presentation with Roy Beckemeyer. Both Roys are frequent entrants winning many prizes in the annual Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest.
Competition is life for authors. There is a finite pool of readers. More finite the less pornographic the work. At the same time, we strive to honor authorship's rich tradition. This puts authors under tension. The rich tradition demands an honest yet creative expression of life as reflected in your soul. Conversely, the marketplace demands we tickle the fancy. Potential responses are predictable. Pursue market and scorn art. We call that pandering. Pursue art and sneer at market. We call that starving. Being all market or all art is simpleminded. The road divides the ditches. Solitary effort and community feedback are both essential to the deft hand required to hold to the road.
Enter the Kansas Authors Club (KAC) literary contest. The road between pandering and starving is difficult because ditches trap us. The literary contest embodies the requisite balance. While open to expression, the categories are nothing like formless. The judge and competition demand structural accuracy and creative interpretation in each contest category. The literary contest provides authors a proving ground. If you spurn the category rules the judge will return the favor. If you slavishly follow the rules, competitors will expose your lack of imagination.
. . .
Enter the Kansas Authors Club (KAC) literary contest. The road between pandering and starving is difficult because ditches trap us. The literary contest embodies the requisite balance. While open to expression, the categories are nothing like formless. The judge and competition demand structural accuracy and creative interpretation in each contest category. The literary contest provides authors a proving ground. If you spurn the category rules the judge will return the favor. If you slavishly follow the rules, competitors will expose your lack of imagination.
. . .
Also from Roy:
The blog item above it, Zero Draft, is a small description of my method to avoid either failing of the wild-but-messy or the neat-but-dull.
The blog item above it, Zero Draft, is a small description of my method to avoid either failing of the wild-but-messy or the neat-but-dull.
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