Enthusiastic local writer Carol Nelson won the first and second place in the annual Writers 200 competition.
Writers 200 is an interest group for people who have a passion for writing.
Nelson explained the competition comprised of four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and back pages. She entered for nonfiction, poetry and fiction. The talented writer won the first place in the nonfiction category and second place for her poetry.
She said although she has always loved writing she had not always been a writer.
“I had English as a major at university and had some creative writing modules but that was all,” said Nelson.
After she had read an article about the writers’ group she thought that this could be something for her to do. The wordsmith explained that when you are young you tend to get caught up with the need to make money and once you are older, you have a little bit more time to pursue your interests.
Along with their annual competition, the group has monthly competitions too. With these, writers are given a phrase or a word, to which they have a strict word count of 65 or 200 words respectively. Nelson shared that apart from the competitiveness you are also encouraged to do better. She added that these monthly competitions helped her keep within a word limit but also gave her discipline.
“The strict word cap showed me that there are a lot of unnecessary words one can put into a sentence.”
She has been a member of the club for the past year and said that it has been very helpful to her in terms of competitions. “It is all about the effort because once you try it, you realise that it is not as easy as it might sound,” concluded Nelson.
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