Oh, yeah. NYC Midnight (NYC Midnight Movie Madness, LLC) is holding their annual Creative Writing Championships again. Starting at 11:59pm Friday, June 19th -- that's two days away (gulp) -- we get our first prompt: a setting, a genre and an object. Writers then have two days to create a single 1000-word story. This is called a "challenge." Each challenge gives writers a two-day window. Contestants are guaranteed at least two challenges and the most successful entrants will compete in as many as four. Each early challenge scores the writer points. Those with the most points in the first two challenges move to the second round. The cream of that new, smaller group moves to the final round.

• 1st Round (Challenge #1) June 19-21, 2009
• 1st Round (Challenge #2) July 25-27, 2009
• 2nd Round (Challenge #3) August 22-24, 2009
• 3rd Round (Challenge #4) September 19-21, 2009

I'm feeling pretty good about my chances to move along the rounds. I've put in my time and have some decent chops now but the deadlines can really screw with a writer's psyche. Then there's the genre aspect. I'm not as well read as many, so I'm guessing I'll find fitting my work in unfamiliar genres most challenging. 1000 words may not seem like a lot of work, but these all have to be beginning-middle-end, full stories, edited and reedited, all within two days. That's 48 hours, some of which must be assigned to sleep.

The bad luck of it is my older son has a crit North of Austin and it's Father's Day. The latter wouldn't be a factor is my younger boy were a bit older, but he's still just young enough that those sorts of holidays still carry some weight.

Getting the story completed with Sunday's obstacles will be a fun test of my dedication to the craft. I'm a website designer, so I have tons of experience working within a deadline. Maybe the ticking clock will work to my advantage.

Last year's winner was Chelsea Bauch, a NYU grad and a writer/editor working with such notable publications as The Onion AV Club, JC Report, Boldtype and Flavorpill.

Read Chelsea's post-win interview »
Also, visit her blog, Dorkscape, here »