Your freelance writing idol? Deb Ng is taking a new approach to choosing her new columnist – American Idol-style. First, she had an open call for auditions, where interested writers toss out their pitches. From there, the top twelve will be chosen. And then, it’s a weekly run-off with the writers submitting entries based on an assigned theme.

So why am I participating? For one, I think I can write twice a week on being a freelance writer. And it sounded like fun. Even if I don’t get it, it forces me to write on an assigned topic. It makes me exercise my writing muscles.

The contest is not supposed to be about who’s the most popular, although I’m sure a few people will vote based on name familiarity. The goal is to find someone who is not only a talented writer, but someone the FWJ community will be able to respect and enjoy reading.

The voting is going on here.

And the entries are here.

Please go take a look, and then vote for what you think is the best entry.