One of the nifty things about Institute for Excellence in Writing is that they have many great ways to inspire wonderful writers!  One of their terrific ideas is to choose one piece of writing at the end of each year to rewrite to utter perfection...a magnum opus.  In the last few years, they have made this idea more exciting.  IEW now offers a literary magazine by the name of Magnum Opus for IEW students to submit articles to be published.  Those who are published, apparently get cool prizes too.  Last autumn, my dc submitted some of their writing.  Although they were not printed in the magazine itself, they did get their names printed for having submitted a work.  Those who did not get printed in the magazeine, got published on line...except my dc.  I am certain they still have much to learn to reach that pinnacle of success.  

However, a few weeks ago, ds received snail mail from IEW.  It was the article he had submitted to Magnum Opus.  The editor had marked some suggestions for improvement.  She also wrote a lovely note telling him she enjoyed the piece, and asked him to rewrite it and send it back to her for the Magnum Opus!  Wow!  I'd have to pay dearly for a service to get editor's markings like that!  And an invite to resubmit!  I'm impressed! 

This was a valuable process for ds.  Of course the editor had some great ideas I had not considered.  In addition, she marked some of the same things I've been telling ds over and over that needs to be worked on.  In the process of rewriting for an editor, ds learned some valuable writing lessons.  The article has been strengthened and resubmitted.  Now we get to wait. =)