The Whyville Times Awards are back and the readers and writers of the Times are buzzing with excitement. I'm excited too! I'm looking forward to the voting and the ceremony, and just seeing who wins. I think The Times Awards are a great experience for those writers that deserve to be recognized. But to me, there's a big difference between those that deserve to be recognized, and those that beg to be recognized.
An article was published stating that it was time once again for the Whyville Times Awards. The BBS should be a fun place to say who you would nominate or make predictions. It should be a place to share the excitement that the awards are coming once again. But soon there was thread after thread of people advertising their own articles. "Nominate me!" they all said.
A fun activity was a thread started by Holiday50. "Who would you nominate?" Just a fun way to make your picks and get your voice heard even if you weren't chosen to be a panelist. Instead there were people getting mad when someone didn't pick them. There were people bashing other articles to bring their own article to the top.
Why does it have to be like this? Do we have to constantly be the best at something?
It made me realize the difference between a true writer and someone who just writes for publicity. A lot of these writers don't write for the right reasons. Some write to see their name in the Times, and then at the end of the year, they beg their way to an award or two. What does the award mean if you have to beg people to nominate and vote for you? It means you're a good beggar, good at convincing, but not a good writer.
Does a real writer just write for the few minutes of fame and a couple awards? No. A real writer writes for themselves. My computer is filled to the brim with pieces of writing I never share with anyone. Why? Because I don't write for anyone else. I write for myself. I write to let out my feelings and to make things clear in my head. It's nice to be able to share some of my writing with people and the Times has been my way of doing so. I'm thankful that the Times has been here to help me share my writing with the world, and improve greatly with the help of the BBS and other writers.
If I don't receive any awards, if I don't even get nominated, I will still write. I don't need a reward to keep me going. I'm a writer and I will write. I won't beg people to vote for me. If I'm not a good writer, than I don't think people should be obligated to vote for me. I don't need to be recognized by Whyville to know that I am a writer.
At first this made me extremely mad. It made me not want to vote for anyone who advertised themselves or begged for nominations. But I'm not going to let it make me mad. The people who win by begging will get a few awards, and after they've had enough publicity, they will stop writing, and move on with their lives. The people that deserve to win the awards, the people whose writing stands out among everything, the people we don't have to reminded of to nominate or vote for, are the true writers. Even if they don't win any awards, they will keep writing, and in 5 years, in 10 years, in 20 years, they will still be writing, and that is what will make them a true writer.
The Whyville Times Awards are fun and exciting, and I'm looking forward to them. But I am going to vote for who I want to vote for, not who tells me to vote for them. I am going to look for the true writers, and vote for those people, because to me, it's the people that enjoy writing, and that write for themselves, that deserve these awards.
