The Thomas McAuley Fantasy Writer Blog
These are all the Blogs posted on Monday, 20, 2009.
Monday, 20 July 2009
Summer '09 Writers Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest

Saturday (07/18) at noon, I received the odd prompt from Writers Weekly for another round of their wonderful 24-Hour Short Story Contest. Last Fall, I had great success, winning one of 10 honorable mention spots. I joke with people that  consider it a 4th-place finish when it's just as likely I placed 13th. Still, it was my first contest entry and any recognition was a great boost to my ego and fueled my writing for another couple months.

This year's prompt was difficult for me though:

She was licking the cotton candy crystals from her fingertips when she felt the first raindrops. She joined the other visitors in racing for shelter as the drops turned into a summer afternoon torrent. She ducked into the nearest red-and-white striped tent, almost running into a woman with caked make-up and large rings on every finger. As the girl started to offer an apologetic smile, the woman looked up. Her wrinkled face registered instant recognition and she screamed, "It's you!"

I've been trying to pinpoint what made the prompt so difficult for me and I've decided it was the setting. I have never enjoyed fairs or circuses or the atmosphere that surrounds them but I have had fun writing about setting I wouldn't enjoy being in. The difficulty that, in a circus setting the weird is completely expected, so making something odd happen there loses its contrast with the normal. Go to a creepy or weird place and, of course, weird stuff will happen. What I enjoy is going to the safest places, the commonest places, and have hell break loose.

I suppose I could have thought about the prompt in a different manner. It could have been NOT a fortune-teller. It could have NOT been a circus tent. It could have been cotton candy that she happened to buy at the corner market, but c'mon.

The curious thing about not being immediately taken with the prompt is the story idea came more easily than ever before. I pride myself on having pretty good ideas and coming up with them relatively quickly. I've even learned how to push past a common pitfall among creatives, that being having difficulty choosing between a pile of good ideas. No, I took pretty much my first idea and ran with it, never considering a sidestep to another idea. Doing so made the process move smoothly. Never once did I feel rushed. Compared to the NYC Midnight contest [which I'm in the midst of] which gives me 48 hours instead of 24, this story was a cake walk as far as the amount of stress experienced.

What I came up with was a story about...Well, I suppose I need to wait. Never know who reads things these days, eh?

The results of the contest should be published about this time next month. I'll keep you posted.

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Posted on 07/20/2009 8:05 AM by Thomas McAuley
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