Last Saturday, I entered the Writer's Weekly 24-hour Short Story Contest this last weekend. The site (www.writersweekly.com) hold these quarterly, As with most of these contest, a prompt was given along with a time- and word-limit. In this case, entrants had an 800-word max and 24 hours. At noon on Saturday, they posted this prompt on a hidden web page:
The cast iron pot was blackened and warped, but had provided years of delicious concoctions. Movement caught her eye through the cracked window. She turned her head, but saw only red, orange, yellow and brown leaves racing by in the fierce wind. She shivered as cold air leaked through the window's cracks, and leaned down to stoke the fire.
Until the contest is judged, I won't post the story itself. I'll discuss my experience at that time. Still, here are a few words about contest itself.
I hear these contests are a dime a dozen; however, it was my first real writing competition, so I didn't know how I'd respond to the pressure. 800 words is not a high word limit for 24 hours. On the contrary, it is very low, and for that reason, it is difficult.
As the drabble contest the San Antonio Writers Guild (www.sawritersguild.com) held a few months back proved, the shorter the work the more challenging the storytelling. Anyone can tell a story at novel-length, novella-length. The further under twenty pages the more challenging the task becomes.
800 words is about three pages...a touch over. In that space, introduction of character, setting and conflict and hook must be accomplished simultaneously (and transparently if done well) from the first sentence and continue no further than the first concise paragraph. By then, one has already used up a substantial fraction of his allotted words.
of The contest officials promise results would be announced a month after the deadline. The winner is awarded $300 and a few of their products. Second pays $250 and third pays $200. For a $5 entry fee, that's a good return.
The contest was capped at 500 entrants, but I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad thing. A writer friend of mine mentioned that some contest have so many entrants that the best story in the lot has little to no real chance of winning. Her implication was that a good story would likely win, but probably not your story. I think, given the relatively short 800-word max, 500 entrants and a full month, the judge (or judges) should have ample time to read all submissions.
Crunching the numbers that's a max of 400,000 words or 1600 pages, assuming that everyone wrote the max, that everyone followed the contest guidelines, that everyone remembered the contest was being held. Subtract from that a certain number of stories that can be scrapped due to obviously poor writing. There's no telling how many pages remain, but it seems a manageable task at that point, even by a committed individual.
The cool thing is that I can still submit the story to publications whether I win or not.
Send positive energy.
