I'm a winner! And a writer!

Yesterday I entered a five-sentence romantic story contest put out there by Jason Boyett on his blog. And guess what! Today, I was declared the winner of said contest.

Follow the first link above to view the rules which governed the entries, and then follow this link to read my prize-winning submission inspired by the photo below.
Yesterday I took a few minutes to write a simple story inspired by an absurd photo, but in a way I think I really needed to enter this contest (and winning certainly doesn't hurt). Why? Because in the busyness and stress and activity of moving and wedding planning and juggling the responsibilities of life over the past several months, I'd forgotten that I'm a creative soul who's perfectly capable of writing something more interesting and far more profound than another to-do list or chronicle of recent events. And that doing so can be extremely satisfying, and even a little relaxing.

I want to write more. I think I need to write more. Because writing requires reflection. It necessitates stillness of body and activity of mind, when these days I am more prone to ceaseless activity of body and distraction of mind. I also need to write more because it makes me a better editor. I'm generally more eager to mess with someone else's paragraphs than I am to generate my own, but writing keeps me in touch with the process, strain, and frustration felt by those other writers in producing their product.

Writing my contest entry yesterday rekindled my verbal creativity, while at the same time reminding me that it's a good idea to write from what you know - in this case, PMS and engagement. And that unitards are always hard to take seriously, but funny to write about.