Okay, despite my checkered past with National Public Radio, it has sponsored something of which I whole-heartedly approve -- a flash fiction contest! Dubbed Three-Minute Fiction, it has (naturally) three requirements: Participants must 1) write a short short no longer than 600 words that 2) starts with the sentence "some people swore that the house was haunted" and 3) concludes with "Nothing was ever the same again after that." Pulitzer winner Michael Cunningham (The Hours), who will judge the competition, says that he chose opening and closing lines because he loves ghost stories. Read all about the rules and rewards at NPR.org. FYI, the submission deadline is Sunday, September 26th.(Picture: CC 2010 by julianlimjl; Hat Tip: Bill Gozansky Photography)
10 comments:
Oh great another deadline. lol
Thanks for the headsup, Loren!
Fantastic! I love the final bit of advice from Cunningham: "Please amuse me. Amaze me. Let's go."
Geez, I just wrote a 4000 word story that would work. Can I get it down to 600 words?
Nevets,
Optional deadline, sir. That is the (oh so very) key word.
B.,
That reminds me of ChiZine's submission guidelines, which are essentially: "Dark. Well-written. 4,000 words or less. Go to it."
Patti,
I have faith in you. Didn't you pare one down from 10,000 to 1,000 once with very pleasing results?
Fun, I'm definitely in... thanks for the heads up, Loren!
Welp, I gave it a whirl. Lawd, but them was some awful lines to work with...
Tony,
Huzzah!
SC,
I've been wondering how I could give them a creative twist of some kind. Alas, the well's a bit dry right now.
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