WORDY WEDNESDAY: How can you "win" at writing?

I am not much of a television watcher but I have become a total "Gleek" (along with my husband, which is a serious part of his charm, and my kids because we're raising them right--as musical theatre buffs). While every episode is not equally strong, I enjoy watching each effort. Glee is unabashedly theatrical, full of sudden coincidences (accompanists are "always around"), interested in the interplay between performer and material (form and content), and hey, nobody loves a good show tune more than me.

With their music program on the brink of extinction, last night's season finale brought the kids of "Vocal Adrenaline" to the regional show choir competition where they performed with great heart.  Watching, I felt I was celebrating not only awesome medleys of Journey and Queen and satisfying dramatic moments, but also the season's journey of the actors, writers and everyone else involved this unique and delightful series. You could see in the performers' faces, hear in every written line and artfully arranged song, that these people had been changed on so many levels. Success? Yes, but I felt that their joy also came from the knowledge that, to a medium laden with reality, celebrity and depressing "news," they have brought something fresh, special and creatively ambitious.

I turned off the tube with a satisfied sigh and this thought: Winning is only really satisfying when YOU feel it in the deepest part of your heart. I think it's the same place your stories come from.