The First… in a hopefully long chain of submissions: today marks the beginning! I labored, long and hard, to make this piece what it is, something I can be proud to call my creation, and hopefully, the Writers of the Future judges will think the same thing.

I started this piece at the beginning of the year, perhaps even before that if you counted all those days world-building the universe I’ve centered my story around. Originally, I wanted to submit it to a dinky competition at Sierra College (maybe that would’ve been more realistic), but after I realized I didn’t want my story featured amid pornography disguised  as, “unimpeded, creative works of art,” I decidedly set my sights much higher: and that was to the Writers of the Future contest—much higher, indeed.

My biggest obstacle was my own self-doubt. Constantly, I waged a war against my weaker half, who always said that I could never do it, that I would never make it. My better half beat the other, and the story I’ve submitted is a testament to that, at least in my eyes, great feat.

I’ve learned far more from the doing of it: from actually sitting down, with butt in chair, and with hands on keyboard, and typing. I’ve learned a lot about storytelling, that it’s more than just fancy words, catchy phrases, and sentence variation: it’s about character development, their real and tangible emotions, and the journey they face—it’s about identifying!

Thank you, everyone, who read my many drafts and gave me the much needed feedback. Without you, I would never have written such a grand story. Again, thank you!