My days of scientific pursuit are long gone. I exchanged them for children and children’s literature. To stretch my writing this past year, I have been entering the Institute of Children’s Literature (ICL) contests [http://www.childrenswriter.com/contests.htm]. I tried writing a mystery story, but failed because I only had some dead chickens, a couple of dogs and a boy. I had no plot, no motivation; therefore, no story. I’m definitely not a mystery writer. But I tried. In other categories, like picture books and nonfiction, I thought I submitted a good story, but when I read the winning entries, I knew I wasn’t even close. When the sports stories came up, I thought, I am not athletic, never have been and don’t know a thing about sports except how to play with ropes and sticks and stones. But I took the challenge, writing about a game that I played with sticks as a child in India. It placed in the top twenty. Wow! I was stretching. Getting better. Perhaps I should draw more upon my own experiences.

I bought Writing from Personal Experience by Nancy Davidoff Kelton. It’s a keeper. It made me examine my own life and draw upon it for emotional truths. I suppose I’ve always done this instinctively – all my stories have some element of truth in them. But I didn’t dig too deep. Too emotional. Too painful at times. But I’m learning that there’s gold deep down. For one of the writing exercises, I wrote about the time I taught my mother to drive. It made me laugh. And cry. I miss my mother, even now, after she’s been gone from this world for twenty years.

When I saw the ICL contest for contemporary young adult fiction, I knew I could write a story about a girl teaching her mother how to drive. It felt fresh – it’s not the typical teenage experience – the tables were turned. I anchored it in Pullman, Wa. where I spent many years, and the details made the story come alive. Perhaps because I was missing my mother so much, the story, which started out funny, took a sharp turn with the mother heading to her grave. I drew upon those memories when I knew my mother would die. I cried when I wrote the first draft. Two Advils later (I always get a headache when I cry), I knew I could shape it into a story that was cohesive. It took me a month to polish and I submitted “Driving Lessons” to the ICL contest, with all my hope.

The day that the Caldecott and the Newbery winners were announced, I got an email as well. Sandy Stiefer was one of the ICL judges. I knew then, that I was in the top five. Why else would she want to talk to me? But imagine my happiness and inflated ego when she told me that I won! I cried again. Quietly and quickly. After all, this was going to be my first time to be interviewed as a writer. Sandy told me that there were over a thousand entries. And my story stood out the very first time she read it! My kids peeled me off the ceiling. I carried this wonderful secret inside me for a few hours. That night, I wrote to my family and friends. I wished and wished that I could talk to my mother. She would’ve been proud of me. I dug deep, stretched a bit more, and won my first writing contest.

I have stories to tell. You do, too.

"Stretching and Winning" was first published in June 2005 issue of Kid Magazine Writers.