A Well-Deserved Win

The 75th annual writing competition was beginning. Only the most accomplished, respected writers and literary critics would be in attendance from around the world. What a site to see! Walking now into the event center where the workshop was being held was a young writer who went by only one name, Tim. Tim was an unknown writer, truthfully, he had not the slightest idea as to how he had got invited. Any of his works that got into the hands of the public would receive ridicule, for a reason that will be touched on later. Regardless, he still had that young, naive glimmer in his eyes. Tim wanted to be brave and do something that had never been done before. Every year the sponsor appointed committee would assign a strict rubric for the essay that every writer would then submit. The writer that was closest to the rubric would win.

The banner strung on the roof of the event center read, “Originality is a curse brought upon by the feeble human mind”. Any creativity that was needed would be brought upon by The Computer™. The writers at the event would serve as a database for the computer to further optimize itself.

Tim was just now coming up to the judges panel to get his essay judged. A few minutes passed and Tim could see the disgusted faces the judges were making. The face one makes when they step on gum on the street. One in particular seemed to be shooting icicles at Tim with his cold, angry stare. They stared at Tim for a few more seconds before revealing their thoughts. “Awful”, they said. “The worst piece of literature I’ve ever had to lay my eyes upon,” another remarked. Tim ran out of the event center. Tears were still in his eyes as he was boarding the plane back home the next day.

That was it. The originality label would be marked on Tim for life. Everybody in the industry would know that he was creative! He would starve to death. He would disintegrate from the writing community. Ostracized and embarrassed Tim had no choice but to switch

professions. Tim found a tolerable job as a writing consultant for upcoming writers. All the students that Tim worked with knew that he only had one, golden rule, “Don’t be creative”.

The winner of the writing competition that year was the widely acclaimed Mark Richards. His essay was released to the public and met with praise such as, “beautifully unoriginal”. The judges called it, “a great work that shows how little humans would have been without The Computer™”. A well-deserved win indeed.