Online Publishing Revolution

Remember the days when a writer was solely dependent on an agent, on someone who believed in their work and could sell it, that semi-god whose every comment had an effect on a budding writer? With the internet revolution that middleman's role has changed and has given every person the right to write and to be published without being scrutinized, without being turned down and what's best, your work is published at the speed of a click.

As a girl I dreamed about writing and being published as the one and only thing I would love to do for a living and as a mirror in which I could see my soul reflected in all of it's shades, depths and textures. Growing up and writing was always tantalizing, I was not always the one with the most interesting, the best vocabulary, the most grammatical or the best spelled amongst my classmates. I seemed like if there would always be someone with more more creativity, so much more audacious and more charming than whatever I could come up with. And in time what was once my dream even before I learned to spell right suddenly seemed unattainable and impossible. During my teen years I became my worse critic.

Being a young adult I gave up on writing and declared myself in a writer's block for more than 15 years before joining this publishing revolution. The way the whole writing business has been reinvented is marvelous! Now you can write, you can have people rate you, comment on what you write and besides if you enter a competition you can have the chance of making money! If ever you had a manuscript(s) stashed in your attic or just laying around now you can actually submit it to the right website and see what people think about it, real people, us the reading and writing community not just someone who's job is to read and discard according to his own point of view or subtleties. What writing competitions offers a gateway to expression and also a reason to exercise writing, to exercise our right to have a an opinion on a certain topic, lures us to show our viewpoints and give ourselves the chance to make our voices heard.

Now, I have no reasons why I shouldn't write, the process is simple, the community friendly. What's more, I've learned that writing is an art which improves with practice, with feedback, with the strength to keep on typing what you think and feel even though it hurts. Writing contests are a way to sharpen your skills, even if you're talented. Thus I am submitting this article in this section. I've decided to write again, my skills might not be refined, but for the first time in many years, suddenly that really doesn't matter. What matters is not to have my writings stashed away and being treated as trash, my ideas dismissed as not good enough for the market, and having my voice silenced because nobody cares for what I think or feel. Right now I am honoring the essence of my soul and by publishing online, I'm making a commitment to my personal growth and a tool for polishing my writing skills.

And yes! Writing contests offered on the web are not only a positive way to expose everyone's talent, they are also the the reason that I have for writing an article a day. They're the little pats on your shoulder that lazy people like me need in order to exercise both my gray mass and fingers.