Contests, Microfiction and Stuff
Blog: July 2020: Writing Contests and Other Stuff
Writing Contests
From time to time I discover new Microfiction and Flash Fiction writing competitions and sometimes I even manage to create something half-decent and enter. I have started to look forward to the Furious Fiction Contest each month — that $500(Aus) would come in very handy.
Furious Fiction
The Furious Fiction writing contest is FREE to enter and lives up to it’s name by having only 55 hours to write up to 500 words to win 500 dollars(Aus).
This writing contest is held every month on the first weekend of the month.
There is a convenient countdown clock on their website to tell when the next contest starts, so you don’t even have to worry about time differences (they are based in Australia). Once the contest starts the clock then reverts to countdown the 55 hours to the submission deadline.
Being a prompt contest there are various words and conditions that MUST be included in entries. They are given at the very start.
For some idea of what they are looking for see the June winner and short-listed.
Weird Christmas
The web site Weird Christmas promises all things holly, jolly and odd-ly…
Just looking at their many vintage Christmas Cards they certainly live up to their name. They are just plain weird!
Weird Christmas is holding the third annual Flash Fiction Contest (2020).
This contest is also FREE to enter with a deadline of November 1, 2020 so plenty of time to create some Weird Tales.
Note: Entries can be about any winter holiday (Christmas, Hannukha, Kwanza, solstice celebrations, “Yule,” etc.) and not just Christmas.
For an idea of the sort of weird they go for see last years results. There is a podcast AND the full text of the winners.
There are many more examples of weird vintage Christmas cards on their web site. Look out for the “Galaxy” front pages showing a Santa with four hands!
53-Word Story Contest
Just found this contest. FREE writing contest to a prompt. 53-words not including title required…
If you are into doing writing competitions Christopher Fielden has a list that is updated regularly. Also, don’t forget about Submittable where there are options to search and list available contests.
Microfiction-Word Limit
We at Adlers Writing define Microfiction as a story with a maximum length of 300 words not including title.
We appreciate this given length is arbitrary and are increasingly aware of other lengths used just slightly more than this. For instance these three:
- Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine
360 words including title. - Weird Christmas
350 words, not including title. - Best Microfictions
400 words.
For now we will stick to 300 words, but this absolute limit may drift over time and become softer. Microfiction is not just a limited number of words it is a style of writing — one of extreme brevity (Microfiction Defined).
Microfiction on Medium
Here are the numbers of stories tagged Microfiction on Medium,
each month over the past year or so:
— — — — — — — -Pay — -Free — —ToT
May. . 2019 . . . . . . . . 41 . . . . 25. . . . . .66
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 . . . . 17. . . . . .60
July. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60. . . . . 21 . . . . . 81
August . . . . . . . . . . . 106 . . . . 26 . . . . 132
September . . . . . . . . . 81 . . . . 25 . . . . 106
October. . . . . . . . . . . 150 . . . . 33 . . . . 183
November . . . . . . . . .123 . . . . 19 . . . . 142
December . . . . . . . . . . 56 . . . . 29 . . . . . 85
January 2020 . . . . . . 115. . . . 35 . . . . 150
February . . . . . . . . . . 151. . . . 22 . . . . 173
March. . . . . . . . . . . . . 171. . . . 23 . . . . 194
April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200. . . . 32 . . . . 232
May. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 . . . . 52 . . . . 380
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 . . . . 59 . . . . 333
— — — — — — — -Pay — -Free — — ToT
There are now some 3.4k stories tagged Microfiction on Medium. Over the recent past there have been an increase in numbers of Microfiction stories on Medium. This, I believe is due to two things:
- The NYC 100-word Microfiction Challenge. Some 7,000 100-word stories were written on the first round on 9th May which are looking for a home. Round two was last weekend, so more to come.
- The Friday Fix has weekly prompts that encourage the writing of Microfiction. Their number of followers have nearly doubled over the last couple of months, to over 700!
Tiny Life Moments
Just discovered a newish publication on Medium called Tiny Life Moments (editor Keno Ogbo). It has a whole bunch of “slice of life” moments from the lives of contributing writers, in 120 words. Interesting idea and worth a look in.
Reading
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
-Stephen King
I enjoyed reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, though it did feel a bit flowery and long winded at times. Recently I started to read some Edgar Allan Poe to get a feel for Gothic to see if I could write it but am finding it a bit stodgy. I’ll have another attempt at reading later.
I just came across my copy of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon again. Since I’m not reading anything of interest right now I re-read this in three days. The only things I remember from the first time is that a dog is killed, Christopher “investigates” and travels on the London underground which he finds traumatic. Oh, and chapters are strangely numbered using prime numbers 2,3,5,7 etc rather than the normal 1,2,3 etc. One of the most unusual books I’ve ever read. It’s about, and written by, a fifteen year old boy that has Asperger’s syndrome. A different perspective that is weird.
A Favourite Movie
I’ve always liked to watch movies with ghosts and scary things in (though I’m not into blood and gore). One of the scariest I’ve seen is 1408. This is about a researcher that goes round the country staying in hotels that claim to be haunted and then write about them. He is a particularly cynical person that has never witnessed anything spooky until he stays in room 1408 . . . 1+4+8=13!
News- Libraries
My local library (Peterborough UK) is run by a not-for-profit organisation (Vivacity) and I have just found out that because of Covid-19 they have handed the running of these libraries back to the Council! Shocker!
Long term this shouldn’t affect me too much as the Council HAVE to provide “some” library service and my closest library is the central one. But it is worrying and may result is closure of some smaller branches. I only recently rediscovered libraries.
Writing
Words have appeared on paper recently into quite a few microfiction stories originating from prompts (I’m a bit of a procrastinator).
It’s difficult to compare one’s writing to others because one is too close, but, a thing I have noticed about my writing is that it feels like a newspaper report, journalistic. First one thing happens then another and finally that.
There is no sub-text
This fits my taste in what I tend to read: I don’t like literary — I just don’t get it! I like to read Young/Adult (YA) and younger stories (Hunger Games, Divergent Series, Lorien Lagacies-Pitticus Lore, Roald Dahl…).
In literary type stories I know that there is some hidden meaning in text but what it is usually evades me. I am starting to get it though, like in the recent winner of the Flash Fiction Festival ‘Eye, Aye, I’ by Kathryn Clark so I might be getting better.
What to Do to Improve?
- Could change to a younger target audience? These readers have not reached that level of sophistication yet.
- Could try to educate myself to learn the craft of sub-text and metaphor. Not sure how one goes about this, yet. Most of you reading this will have naturally progressed through this skill and take it for granted?
- Perhaps I need to read and dissect more. Read the equivalent of Cliffs Notes and engage in more debate. This will be a hard slog but as usual there is always something new to learn, if not this, then what?
Alternatively, or in addition, I could write better rollicking good yarns since there will always be a market for these.
Podcasts
I, personally, am late to listening to podcasts. They seem to now be all pervasive -everyone and his dog has a podcast. I have just listened to an interview of Nolan Bushnell the creator of Atari. He goes through how he started and how he was an early adopter in Silicon Valley and how he supervised Steve Jobs, AND he is still excited for the present and near future. The interviewer could have done a bit more homework, but it’s a hugely enlightening interview. It does last for just over 50 minutes though. One of many Tales of Silicon Valley from acast.
Summary
Thank you for stopping by to read my thoughts about this and that. Good luck if you decide to enter one of the contests listed — Furious Fiction is fun and quick to do and I look forward to it every month.
Bye for now
Stevie
