Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Sudden Fiction Contest

This is topic Sudden Fiction Contest in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Some while ago we had a flash fiction contest and one or two people said they'd like to do it again. I held off because WOTF was exercising several people, it was summer vacations, and so forth.

Now seems like a good time to offer another.

Several people last time had difficulties with the 1000 word limit, so I propose to increase the limit to 2000 words (hence "Lite Fiction") -- still short enough, I hope, to get the benefits of flash, not too demanding to crit, yet giving a little more room for the story.

Triggers (which I hope will work for any genre) would be:

The tallest tower on the planet
Merchant of rarities (rare goods or services)
A flowing together (confluence)

Your story would be inspired by one or more of the triggers, 2000 words max. (Using all the triggers gains kudos but isn't mandatory.)

Timescales would be about four weeks to write the story, and another two to trade crits, vote and determine winners.

Detailed rules would be as before, as at

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum7/HTML/000046.html

If there are ten or more takers, we'll run it. If you'd like to sign up, please post "I'm in" in this thread by Weds 10th, and we'll start the contest in Writing Challenges the following weekend.

Cheers,
Pat

Posted by LAJD (Member # 8070) on :

I'm in. Sounds like fun.
Leslie

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

I'll bite!

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

She bites!

Posted by Reagansgame (Member # 8149) on :

I'm in.

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

I bite, I ping, and I glom.

If only I could write!

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited September 03, 2008).]

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

Count me in.

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

"Do you suppose 'She bites' means 'I'm in' ?" asked Zac.

"Let's assume so," I said. "IB's usually in these."

"And, does 'I wish I could write' mean 'I'm sharpening my craft' ?"

"Yep, something like that."

"We just need four more takers. The list so far is:
LAJD
annepin
InarticulateBabbler
Reagansgame
Unwritten
TaleSpinner"

"Thanks, Zac." I said. "Could you bump the thread for me?"

"Sure," said Zac. "... Um ... how do I bump it?"

Welcome, everyone.

Let's wait a day or two more to see if anyone else bites.

That said, I think it would be silly to not run it with the six so far, so unless anyone objects, we'll start the contest over the weekend regardless.

Cheers,
Pat

Posted by oliverhouse (Member # 3432) on :

I'm in, Pat.

If you want to follow the conventions of the people who coined the term "flash fiction", this is a "sudden fiction" contest. Robert Shapard and James Thomas, who edited the Flash Fiction anthologies, have other anthologies with stories of up to 2000 words, and that's the term they use.

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Okay, sudden fiction it is.

I found more on the topic here: http://www.quickfiction.org/features/story.php?pk=47

Thanks, oliverhouse.

I've started the challenge here:
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum7/HTML/000081.html

If anyone else wants to join us, please feel free to do so.

I'm looking forward to seeing some good, fresh stories ...

Cheers,
Pat

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

Gosh, 2000 words! I feel like cat in a tuna-processing factory.

Looking forward to this, guys!

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Don't glom them all at once, Anne!

Pat

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

I'm going to change the title of this topic to match the one in the Writing Challenges. I hope that's okay.

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Thanks Kathleen.

Pat

Posted by billawaboy (Member # 8182) on :

Well...I gotta jump in sometime.

I'm in.

Can someone direct me to writing format? i have OpenOffice Suite - it's like Microsoft Office, but i'm not sure how they cross over.

Thanks,

~bb~

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Hi billawaboy, and welcome to Sudden Fiction.

Open Office claims to be entirely compatible with MS Word and I've found no reason to doubt it, except that the reviewing and commenting feature doesn't look quite as neat as Word's. You might want to ask people to avoid using it when critiqueing your stories and instead just put comments in-line with the text, in CAPS or [brackets] or somehow--several people comment that way anyhow.

Please be sure to save your file as document type Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP .doc -- not the default .odt type.

It's not a reqiurement of the contest, but many people like to use "standard manuscript format" for their stories, because this means they can iron out the wrinkles with it and don't have to reformat prior to submission to a market. (Late reformatting can introduce errors which, if the formatting had been done earlier, might have been spotted by readers or the writer during reviews and revisions.) Here's Robert J. Sawyer's guide to manuscript formatting:
http://www.sfwriter.com/mschklst.htm

To summarise it simply: one inch margins, Courier 12 pt font, double spaced lines, half inch indent for paragraphs--which are 'aligned left', not right-justified. Also, dumb quotes and em-dashes shown as two hyphens. (No, it ain't pretty, but this is largely what publishers say they like, certainly the majors like Asimov's, Analog and F&SF. That said, some people prefer to ignore (some of) these rules and some electronic publications don't care about them.)

Hope this helps, and looking forward to a contest full of fun and great reading,
Pat

[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited September 08, 2008).]

Posted by Grant John (Member # 5993) on :

I am in

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Cool, Grant John.

Here's the list on the fridge:

LAJD
annepin
InarticulateBabbler
Reagansgame
Unwritten
oliverhouse
billawaboy
Grant John
TaleSpinner

Welcome, everyone.

There's still time for others to join us, since the closing date for entries is Oct 4th.

Cheers,
Pat