Remember a few weeks ago I wrote another short story for a Writers Weekly 24-hour contest? Well, results are still not in yet, but what I read on the Writers Weekly site today still cheered me up somewhat.

Angela Hoy of Writers Weekly wrote a post this week about the common themes that she found in the several hundred short story entries for this contest. Remember, every story has to be based on the given topic – that’s one of the ways they ensure you really do write it within the 24-hour time period – and apparently, this means that many writers end up writing pretty similar stories. Her post included a long list of themes or plots that were common across several or more stories, and the reason I’m cheered up is this: the themes from my story didn’t make this list at all. So if nothing else, it seems that my idea was somewhat original. Whether the idea is good or not is another story, but being original is certainly a positive thing from where I’m standing.