Nothing Ventured; Nothing Gained

By Gayle Allen Cox

If you never take risks in life, you'll never see anything new.

~Blake Lewis

In 1990, I sent a letter to the editor at The Dallas Morning News. I was a young mother with strong opinions, and I thought my local newspaper would be the perfect outlet for whatever was bugging me or blessing me at the time. Never mind that hundreds of other readers had the same idea. I figured: Nothing ventured; nothing gained.

When my letter was selected for print, I was beyond thrilled. Although it was only three paragraphs long, seeing my words in a major newspaper was a huge reward, and I determined it wouldn't be my last.

One letter led to another, and after almost a decade, I had a bushel of printed letters about a myriad of things. Around 1997, the Letters to the Editor section launched The Dallas Morning News' Golden Pen Award. Here's how it worked:

At the end of each month, a printed letter was selected for clarity and writing style. It was then reprinted in the Sunday paper, along with a short blurb about the writer's accomplishment. I really wanted to win the award. Not only would it solidify my abilities as a writer, it would give me the confidence I needed to pursue bigger things.

However, I didn't want to "write to win" — that's never a good idea. So I resolved to keep expressing myself about topics that affected me and let the words fall where they may.

Imagine my shock a few months later when I opened Sunday's paper and saw that my latest letter had, indeed, won the Golden Pen Award. Within a day or so, a delightful Dallas Morning News coffee cup arrived in the mail. It was love at first sight, and you'd have thought I won the lottery. Fifteen years later, the cup still brings me cheer.

While that's all well and good, I'm really writing to share what happened next.

Winning the Golden Pen Award was a defining moment in my writing journey. Not only did it give me that boost of confidence I needed, it propelled me to do something I had always dreamed of doing: write an op-ed piece.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term "op-ed," it is abbreviated from "opposite the editorial page" (though often mistaken for opinion-editorial), and it is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board.

I was an avid reader of op-eds and had my favorite writers. Not only did I follow them faithfully, but I dreamed of being one of them — of seeing my words next to theirs, of sharing my thoughts and having people "listen." For the first time in my life, I felt my dream was within reach.

Of course, writing a full-fledged column would require lots of research, editing and time — much more than a letter did. And the competition would be fierce. But no matter the odds, I had to pursue my passion. Nothing ventured; nothing gained.

I remember exactly where I was the day the Viewpoints Editor called to say that my article would be running in the Sunday paper. I had seen this man's name in print for years, and here I was speaking with him on the phone, listening to him say gratifying things about my writing, and giving me goose bumps, head-to-toe.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink Saturday night. As soon as the paperboy threw the paper in the front yard, I was out the door and all over it.

That was the first of many published op-eds, I'm happy to report — years of op-eds, in fact. And it began a writer/editor relationship that I draw strength from even now — all because I wrote a letter to the editor, once upon a time, and had the chutzpah to mail it in.

I can't guarantee where your writing journey will take you, of course, but you'll never know if you don't start driving. Nothing ventured; nothing gained.

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