Meet the young amateur writer who has won many awards...

Every contest is an opportunity to assert yourself.

Having failed many times, his articles were not published and did not win any prizes, but Nguyen Van Cong (Thuong Tin, Hanoi ) did not give up. For him, participating in competitions, testing his abilities and meeting and interacting with journalists is a joy and happiness in life.

On May 19, 2022, in order to contribute to spreading love, emotions, memories, and reminiscences about the Capital of those who have been, are, and will be attached to the "heart of the whole country", Nong Thon Ngay Nay Newspaper/Dan Viet Electronic Newspaper launched the writing contest Hanoi Memories.

For Mr. Nguyen Van Cong, participating in competitions, testing himself and meeting and interacting with journalists are joys and happiness in life.

At the end of 2022, the contest's Secretariat received more than 700 articles from readers sent to the contest's email. Passing the preliminary and final rounds, Nguyen Van Cong's work "Remembering the street flower vendor" won first prize.

He shared: " The work is like a story about my own memories, remembering the past, remembering my parents who worked hard to raise us. I always love and am grateful to Hanoi. Hanoi is where we are attached, live and work. Receiving the grand prize that time gave me more motivation to write more meaningful stories."

Winning the Hanoi Memories Writing Contest is one of dozens of awards that Mr. Cong has received. For nearly 10 years of participating in writing contests and journalism awards, each contest is an opportunity for him to assert himself.

I still remember, in 2015, the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism organized a writing contest on intangible cultural heritage. The article on the cultural heritage of the Gióng Festival was one of the first articles he won a prize for. Although the prize was very small, it was a great source of encouragement, creating more joy in life, motivating him to write more articles throughout his later journey.

Every time he searched for topics, developed and completed articles, he was immersed in the feeling of competition, watched with excitement and when he heard that he had won an award, he was overwhelmed with joy. But most of all, he also had the opportunity to meet reporters and journalists from other press agencies. He learned how to do journalism and write professionally, thereby continuing to nurture his creative dream, searching for topics, and having many works and articles that won awards.

Recalling one of the first times he won an award, Mr. Cong said: “I remember participating in a journalism competition launched by the Capital Women’s Newspaper, most of the winning authors were women. At that time, I was the youngest author, and also a man, so I left an impression on the organizing committee. I was also fortunate to receive encouragement from many journalists, helping me to try to have more works to participate in the competition.”

The Lao Dong Newspaper held a closing ceremony and awarded prizes for the first writing contest "Kindness around us" in 2022-2023 on June 21, 2023. Mr. Nguyen Van Cong (middle) was honored to receive the prize at the contest.

To make each work more and more perfect

He always believes that writing well is not as good as... being familiar with it, so he tries to write more and more to "improve" his skills, trying to maintain a regular practice so that each article is better than the previous one, practicing his own abilities. He often takes advantage of weekends and holidays to go "on duty", spends time in the evening to write articles, arranging and regulating between work and family. He spends a lot of time reading newspapers, especially press agencies that organize writing competitions. Reading works that reporters have won awards, focusing on characters who are good people and good deeds, with the hope of contributing to spreading meaningful actions in the community.

Journalist Luu Quang Dinh - Editor-in-Chief of Today's Rural Newspaper, Head of the Organizing Committee (far left) and Poet Tran Dang Khoa - Head of the Jury (far right) awarded the First Prize to author Nguyen Van Cong.

He confided: “Fanpages in communes, towns, and districts have a lot of positive information, with social and charitable figures, typical examples of studying and following Uncle Ho's teachings... In reality, there are topics and figures that other press agencies have exploited, I have to find other ways to exploit, avoid going back to the old ways. Write in my own way to create quality articles. To do so, I have to invest more time to research, spend more time writing.”

That's the theory, but in reality, when it comes to implementation, there are many difficulties. Without a press card or a letter of introduction, many times he had to go home empty-handed. There were individuals and organizations when he claimed to be a contributor to this or that newspaper, the person refused to answer or politely refused. He had taken the trouble to contact them, but then couldn't meet them. Sometimes he was discouraged, but he still told himself to try, to find other people, other people, always remembering the principle of respecting everyone's privacy.

Since graduating from school, doing nothing related to the field of journalism, the young man Nguyen Van Cong has taken his first steps with small journalism awards, he gradually matured, becoming more and more confident in many writing competitions. The difficult challenges have further trained his will so that he can continue to constantly create new things ahead...

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/gap-go-cay-viet-tre-khong-chuyen-da-co-khong-it-lan-am-giai-post262057.html