Let’s shake things up briefly and do a small 2k challenge before we tackle the larger 4k one. For the moment, let’s focus on brevity. We started with a dialog contest, to help us focus on bringing our characters to life. Then Dark/Light for a wider range of possibilities. Now let’s sharpen our sense of the big picture. And that’s easiest to do when that big picture, is small.
Writing a ‘short’ story is an excellent training exercise for writers. And it’s easier to do and don’t take much time. Plus it forces us to focus on important things.
So this next challenge is a strict 2000 word limit (based upon Word or Pages word counts, not what this website reports. This website is a bit buggy and adds 5% or so, so just ignore that).
And to further shake things up, we will try something completely different in terms of voting/awards. Basically they will be completely visible and in the comments.
So how does it work?
Well you read a story and whatever like about it, you give it a written ‘award’ about that.
For example say there are two stories. ‘Mary’s Haircut’ and ‘The big Rock’.
‘Joe the reader’ reads these stories. He likes how Mary’s Haircut ‘started’ and also the ‘dialog’. So in the comments he types.
Mary’s Haircut (comment section)
“Great Start Award, Good Dialog Award.”
Then Joe read the second story, The Big Rock, and noticed that it had an excellent ‘Ending’ and a ‘good start’ as well. Plus he really liked the ‘character’. So he assigns some awards.
The Big Rock (comment section)
“Good Start Award, Excellent Ending Award, Likeable Character Award.”
There is no limit to the awards. You can dish out as many as you want, even the same award to multiple stories, without any limitations. And you don’t have to wait until you read all the stories first. You can Award instantly after each story is read.
This is helpful because it lets the writers know what they are doing right. And also, by what we omit, indirectly lets writers know where they can improve. Awards are only ‘positive’ statements.
So the focus is 2000 words max. As always, we expect to see a little skin in the game but it doesn’t have to be the main focus.
There really is no limit to how often and how much readers can heap on the awards to any story, so go crazy!
Here are some award examples: (But creative awards are also welcome)
Great Start Award
Great Character Award
Amazing Dialog Award
Fun Atmosphere Award
Good Location Award
Great Conflict Award
Great Ending Award
Classic ENF Award
Note: Writers should try to refrain from giving themselves awards. 😉
Rules: It should be a stand alone story. Not a chapter in some longer story. It needs a proper ending. To enter the contest just put (2k) in the title. The contest starts NOW and will go for one month until June 15th (changed to June 19th).
Good luck!
Sounds like another fun story contest, ReaderMan. Thank you for coming up with these and challenging both writers and readers.
Aww. 😀
Third Time’s a Charm Story Contest Award.
512 words about writing 2000 Award.
Hope You Enter this Contest Yourself Award.
Thanks for Making the Site a Fun Place to Hang Out Award.
Your guys are funny. In the spirt of having fun, and trying to avoid a rebellion, self awards are totally valid!
Can I start giving awards now or do I need to wait for contest entries to be posted?
I was thinking —
Cave: Most likely to not refrain from giving herself an award.
lol
Poor ReaderMan, he must be thinking “what have I done?”
It’s all good. I’m looking forward to seeing you award yourself Cave. 😉
I think I might wait for the video of Cave awarding herself. I am sure it will be Emmy worthy.
As to the contest, it is harder to write a good “short” story than a full length novel. As American author Mark Twain commented on writing such a long letter to a friend of his he said, “I would have written a short letter, but I didn’t have the the time.”
He was channeling the French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Paschal, who in 1657 wrote: “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.”
For us time-challenged individuals your contest is indeed a difficult one in order to produce quality work. I might enter if can find the time. LOL
Yeah, I have heard that one – mostly from Blair. Regardless, I think it will be an excellent exercise. We only grow when we challenge ourselves. And who said it has to be ‘good’? The fun is in the participation!
I understand the time-challenge. I’ve been deeply time challenged for the last week as well. And probably will continue to be for another week.
I hope my previous post wasn’t taken as being sarcastic or derogatory. To be clear, your challenge is an excellent one. It does indeed push any contestant to grow in their craft. Your idea of “reply awards” was also pure genius as it encourages ALL of us to get more active and provide feedback at the same time.
There are indeed those who can write a short story with a minimum of effort and have it come across well. Alas, I have in my writing career found such individuals to be rare and I certainly am not one of those so gifted towards short stories. Kudos for the idea, ReaderMan.
I will give it a try. I will write a long novella and then follow author Kurt Vonnegut’s advice who once said of his novels, ” . . . then I will go back and edit out all the boring parts and what is left with be the perfect short story.”
Good advice for all of us with time on our hands. Stephen King also emphasized revision when he encouraged authors to write the first draft of a complete novel in thee months then spend the rest of the year editing it. (Although he ended up with unbelievably popular novels using this process – his novels were anything but short . . . LOL)
Thanks, yes, I hope the Award idea catches fire. For my own 2k story, my loose plan is to focus more richly into a small 1k scene. Take a small 1k idea and try to make it bloom with the additional 1k. Not sure if it will work, but if it does, then I expect it will benefit my writing in general. Basically, less plot, more attitude.
My first thought was that the shortness might inspire me to have better word choices and be more creative with sentences, dialog, and spend more time polishing the start and ending. All things I never seem to have time for.
And if I accidentally go over, then I get to enjoy the fine art of cutting out the fat. Usually I can’t bare to make such cuts, (because we writers tend over-value our paragraphs as ‘creative masterpieces’ or we just feel insecure about removing anything) but this time we have no choice. The cutting part might be the ‘skill’ I want the most. Actually, it’s not even a skill. It’s just plain willpower.
Therein lies the work that makes writing short stories harder than writing long full-length novels. This contest might be educational for all of us.
That is a rather large exaggeration. We already have a first short story and it was probably at least 50 times easier to write than a full length novel. Or even one of my hour long chapters. I don’t know why, but despite what you, Blair, Mark Twain and Blaise Paschal say – I don’t think its hard at all. Its probably only hard if we try to put more into the container than it can properly hold. Or hard if we expect it to be. A short story is basically just a stand-alone scene. From the perspective of wanting to have a better start, ending, and more polished sentences, without too much word count… I’m kind of delighted that, because of the shortness, we will have time to address all those things. Instead of managing lots of plot items, and characters, and other grand items, we just have this short scene we get to focus on just a few things. What’s not to like or enjoy? I can hardly wait! But yeah, if you set out to write the worlds best short story, then it’s probably hard. Or if you simply can’t reduce how much you want to put into it. That’s hard. But if you just try to have fun with it, then I think you will surprise yourself. The first story challenge ‘At the Office’ was a perfect example. And it didn’t even break 1k. Blair’s story about the girl in the cake, that was a LOT of content for a short story. So it was probably difficult because he was cramming so much into it. Don’t be greedy. Make it easy. This is supposed to be a ‘fun’ exercise. At least, this is what I think currently. Perhaps after I start I will learn differently?
It’s all about managing scope with the idea. Like for example, I just thought of this ‘throw away’ idea, a young woman in McDonalds asks the counter guy – ‘why do you always give me extra chips and stuff?” He stammers… she presses… ‘is it because I wear sexy clothes?’ He stammers… but nods… she is delighted with the news, looking around she leans over and flashes him her nipples in a non-obvious manner. Then she waits.He get’s her a free milkshake.Gradually she realizes she can get free food! and so over the next few days or hours she gradually escalates. Maybe she get’s carried away…That would be a fun story I would like to read. I hope someone takes this idea and writes this story. Even if more than one writer writes it, probably each different version would also be fun to ready. At the end of the day, that’s all we want. Fun to read.
See? THAT’S a mark of a talented writer – someone who is at home with a book length novel like “The Resort Ambassador” (still hoping for more chapters, BTW) or a brief short vignette of a story. Not everyone can do that so easily I think.
Practice might be the key.
I have been working on an outline. You have inspired me to try. Great contest.
I’m not at ‘home’ with writing a short story. I haven’t written one this short before. But I am excited to try it.
The older I get, the less I believe in the concept of talent. With any skill, the more you do, the better you get. Support from friends is also huge, especially writer friends. It’s no different for the first time writer, or the famous writers. We all ‘thankfully’ have mountains to learn, and the more we enjoy the process the funner each step our ‘writing adventure’ will be.
TRA is actually on the third novel. It probably should be just one novel. I got carried away, but then that was my intention to just keep writing and see what happens. What happens is that we gradually, slowly, learn to write better.
So you can see why I’m up for this 2k challenge. It’s all about focus and execution. Strong start and ending, and try to make it fun in the middle. Polish a few key sentences and call it a day. If we don’t like it, then try again with a different idea. Most important is to just have fun with it. Don’t try too hard!
The 2k Challenge officially goes until June 19th, Sunday. But don’t let that deadline worry you too much. This time we do not have voting, but rather Award Comments instead. Award comments that can be created at any time. Also we are not going to count up the awards and declare a winner. Instead we will just relax, and enjoy our Awards as they trickle in. All late entries are welcome to participate. So in summary, there is no pressure and only fun. Sound good‽
I’ve just submitted a story.Or so I believe. I don’t see it nor do I see anything in my dashboard saying something like ‘pending’ nor any email saying “you’ve hit the button, now be patient,” or whatever. :)Do I just ‘hope’ it made it somewhere?
Maybe it was a connection issue. To get it published you have to hit the ‘publish’ button to make it show up… plus it needs a title in 2 spots. Above and below where you post the chapter. Don’t worry, you won’t miss the deadline, especially if you are having technical issues. How about just try again? Also I recommend pasting your story in when on the ‘Text’ tab, rather than the ‘Visual’ tab… that way you don’t get double spaces.
Got it posted, thanks.
It was hitting enter on the second title that was holding me back. By instinct I had chosen the ‘text’ tab already.
Sweet, I’ll enjoy your story later tonight when I get home. Thanks for joining the party Tenyari, much appreciated!