Thoughts on the Iron Pen Experience and What I Learned From It

Yeah, I entered a writing contest

This is what came up when I did a free photo search for “Iron Pen.”

I briefly talked about my having entered the Midwest Writing Center (MWC)’s annual Iron Pen competition for the first time.

Just to recap, they give you a writing prompt at about 5 p.m. on a Friday (in this case, the Friday of two weeks past), and then you have 24 hours to put together a work of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry and submit it for consideration. Fiction and nonfiction submissions have to be less than 2,000 words, but poetry submissions have no word limit. This year’s prompt was the following:

Between the ocean and the mountains is a wild forest. That is where I want to make my home.

I was really happy to participate this year, and it was a great experience no matter whether I win anything or not. Here’s a few observations I had about it.

At This Point, Creativity is not an Issue for Me

I was not …