[Project Participation] Towards the Creative Awards 2025 (and looking back at the Pirika GP)

Reading the reports on the awards ceremony, I realized I wasn't the only one whose feelings were a jumble of admiration, frustration, and envy.

Everyone felt just as frustrated, didn't they?

I didn't leave a mark in the Pirika Grand Prix announced today either, so I'm carrying that frustration here as well.

Tao-Tao-san launched a project encouraging us to write about our enthusiasm for next year's Creative Awards, specifically because it's "now" that we can write it.

Yeah, that's true. There are feelings that are burning precisely because it's right after the results.

■ Looking back at the 2024 Creative Awards

First of all, for creative categories like novels and manga drafts, the level was so high that I felt like I lived in a completely different world. To begin with, the ideas themselves were things I could never have come up with.
But that's something I only realized after trying.

As for the essay category... well, I felt that rather than the dark, gritty side of human nature, things that are heartwarming, light, and easy to read—like love or family—are more likely to be chosen. I still have a faint hope that the direction I'm aiming for might be in the same general area.

However, even though essays are written about such familiar subjects that they make you think, "Couldn't I write this if I tried?", they actually cleverly hide a lot of intentions and techniques...

So, if I dream that "maybe I could write this too" and vaguely head in the same direction, it feels like there's a difference between me looking 2km ahead and someone looking at a cosmic scale.

I wonder if I'll come to understand things like that as I read more of them...

■ Towards the Creative Awards 2025

Honoka Nagase, who won the grand prize in the essay category this time, is someone whose name I've seen in other public competitions. I've also seen the names of last year's winners in awards other than the Creative Awards.

As a complete novice at "writing" itself, I intend to start by writing and writing, and challenging many public competitions.

Essays, short-shorts, manga drafts, and so on... I don't even know what I'm capable of writing yet, so these are days of trial and error.

I was rejected from the Pirika Grand Prix, the results of which were announced today,but I believe there are things you can only learn by piling up many rejections like this. I'm feeling down, but I won't break.

Congratulations to everyone who won! ✨

I will challenge the Creative Awards once more with the following two works that I also submitted last year.

🦍 Gorilla Girl
⚾ Real Rookies
I'm thinking of rewriting these and changing their titles. Since so many people supported Real Rookies, I'm planning to enter it into the essay category next year. As for rewriting points, since it relies almost entirely on photos, I want to embellish the text so that the imagery comes through even without the photos.

Also, I think when editors are selecting for the Creative Awards, they probably look at what other works the author has written, so I want to write as many good pieces as possible. I'm going to go ask my family for permission to write about them.

・I am currently preparing a new work for the All-Category section.

🖊 Best Reviewer Award ← This is the one I'm aiming for the most.
I haven't decided on the method yet, but I think this is the one with the most potential. I believe the key is "for those who energized the Creative Awards," so I hope that with enough effort, I can somehow reach it.

I resonated with what Miku Mayutan said in this article.

I was the same; I hadn't encountered a single one of the works that ended up winning the grand prize this time. Even though I felt like I had read so many. And I thought the winning works would be among those I had read.

Looking only at the results, it was a "nice to meet you" situation with all the winning works and their authors.

On the other hand, I knew everyone who won the Best Reviewer Award (including those I only knew by name). I can picture all of their profile icons. Knowing their names = everyone knows them = I think they are the people who energized the Creative Awards.

Next year, I want to become that kind of person and go to that place.

I want to eat wine, fruit, and gnocchi.
I also want a medal, and I want a bouquet of flowers on my way home.

"I have an awards ceremony to attend, so please take care of the kids," I want to say as I open my front door, wearing a dress and heels, my hair flowing, and giving my husband a grand, smug wink. (I'd just be an annoying person)

I hope to see you at the awards ceremony next year.

▼ Works to be rewritten over the next six months (2024 ver)