WCCL Flash Fiction Contest

[Nick]

I'm pleased to announce that my publishers (and forum sponsors) WCCL, in association with Ravenshead Services, are running a flash fiction contest. What we want you to do is write a short story in exactly 100 words - no more, no less - which includes the following six words: mirror, subliminal, genius, white, cliff, clepsydra. In addition, you will need to provide a title of up to 15 words (this does not count towards the 100 words for the story).

Entry is free, and the best three stories submitted will win prizes of the popular WriteItNow novel-writing software from Ravenshead Services. This is the full version of the program, which normally sells for $39.62 (US Dollars) or £19.95 (UK Pounds). The winning stories will also be published on my blog and forum.

WriteItNow is available for both PCs and Macs. Among its many features, it includes a built-in word processor to write and store a complete novel (or novels). It will also keep background details of characters, events, locations and ideas, display charts of events and relationships, generate characters, names and ideas, and much more. It's basically a complete, all-in-one tool for planning, organizing and writing your novel. If you wish, you can download a free demo version from the WriteItNow website at http://www.ravensheadservices.com. This can do everything the full version can, except save stories and use add-ons.

I will be judging the contest myself, with a little help from my colleague Karl Moore at WCCL. We will be looking for a complete, entertaining and beautifully written short story, in which every one of the 100 words really does count. And you must include all six words mentioned above as well!

The competition closing date is 31 August 2007 at 12 noon GMT, so you have plenty of time to get your entry in. Please send it by email to Contest-at-nickdaws.co.uk (change the -at- for the usual @ symbol). Include the story in the body of your email (no attachments), and put the title of your story in the subject line. Please do NOT put anything else in the email apart from your story, as we will be judging the contest anonymously. Only one entry is allowed per person.

The winning entrants will be notified at the email address they used to submit the story after judging has been completed, which will be at the end of September. Please don't use an email address you know you will be changing in the next two months, therefore!

If you have any queries or comments about this contest, don't send them to the email address above, as this is for contest entries only and submissions will not be read until after the contest closing date. Please post them as replies to this topic.

For further advice and info, please see my blog post at http://www.mywritingblog.com/writer/2007/07/wccl-flash-fiction-contest.html.

Good luck!

Nick

[Camille17]

I attempted to enter the contest, but the email would not go through.  The message was Contest-at-nickdaws.co.uk - This address is too long.  Addresses are a maximum of 16 characters.  It was a fun exercise.  Thank you.

[Nick]

You MUST change the -at- in the email address to the usual @ sign.

I have written it that way on the blog and forum to avoid the address being discovered too quickly by spambots.

Nick

P.S. I have removed your own email address as well. It's generally a bad idea to post them on a website, or you end up receiving loads of spam messages!

[Kuyapo]

Just a few questions.
* Does the 100-word rule cover ALL the words, or just the function words?
* Do words like "It's", "She's" count as two words or one?
* Why exactly 100 words?  I've tried writing one, but stripped to the bare essentials, they still add up to 115 words, counting ALL words. But without the non-function words, and with contractions counted as one, they add up to exactly 100 words.  Will it do?

[Nick]

In answer to your questions:

1. I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean here. However, I confirm that the body of the story must consist of exactly 100 words. That includes the six key words mentioned.

2. We will check the length using the wordcount facility in Word. This counts contractions such as it's and he's as one word, so that is the rule that will apply.

3. Exactly 100 words is simply the rule that applies in this contest - regard it as a challenge! As stated above, the body of the story (not including the title) MUST be exactly 100 words. A story with 115 words would regrettably have to be disqualified, therefore.

Hope that answers your questions. Good luck!

Nick

[akpolarmom]

Note: if you check with Word and you have a 'floating' period , or comma , Word will count it as a word.... I made sure that I was correct and counted manually and that is how I found out a , counted like a word. 

Nick this is an interesting challenge... Thanks!

PS I just went back and guess what.... there was another punctuation way below on the page I never saw.  So now I can go "embelish " something with an extra word...yeah!

[Firedancer]

  Hi Nick,

What a great exercise!  I think this is the most challenging writing exercise I've ever done and I absolutely love it.  I tend to be a "fluffy" writer, so this helped me write what really counts. Thanks! 

My question is, I have words that are hyphenated ("-").  Word Count is checking them as two words, and I want to clarify whether you will or won't.  A word such as "once-over" or "one-sided."

Thank you!

Juanima

[Nick]

Hi Juanima

As mentioned, we will use the wordcount facility in Word to check that the rules have been adhered to. So whatever Word says, we will go with.

Good luck!

Nick 

[Firedancer]

   Oops.... Sorry.  I missed that little tidbit about using the Word wordcount facility.  Thanks, Nick.

[Symphony]

Lots of fun.

(even my kids had a go at this! - stopped them arguing for half an hour - Yay!)

Restrictive word counts are great for showing you just what is possible with a sentence/paragraph, etc. when you have to edit so drastically. Makes you see that cutting 5000 words from your novel isn't such a bad idea after all lol

Symphony
(p.s. that's a generic 'you' - hope you got that *ducks behind sofa*)

[Tiny Dancer]

I enjoyed having a go at this but it was a lot harder than I thought and I've never written flash fiction before.  For some reason it was the word 'subliminal' that caused me most problems but I suspect my use of Clepsydra is a little forced.

[Nick]

I am pleased to reveal that the winners of this contest have now been decided. For a full discussion of the contest and my and Karl's judges' comments, please see my blog post below:

http://www.mywritingblog.com/writer/2007/09/flash-fiction-contest-results.html

I thought I should publish the winning entries on the forum as well, so here are the names of the winning stories and their authors, followed by the stories themselves...

Long Distance by Anitra Budd
Magic to Die For by Amanda Hyatt
The Visions of My Life, as Seen Through Eyes That Grow Dim With Age by Shirla White


LONG DISTANCE

"White Cliff Palace." The voice was a Manhattan, all smoke and clinking ice.

"Mom? It's me."

"I know who it is, sweetheart." The subliminal murmurs of her clepsydra played in the background. "Now, what does my little genius want?"

"Just making sure you're alive."

"Charlie, save the sermon. I'm completely, utterly happy with my life and I don't intend to change. So you've got two choices: accept me, or go to hell and stop calling." Click.

No Mom, I thought as I slid to the restroom floor. There's another way. My fingers began redialing the numbers scrawled on the mirror.


MAGIC TO DIE FOR

I gazed in the mirror and marvelled at what subliminal lies lay submerged in the blurred reflection there. "A pretty face," they used to say, and "What beautiful hair." I'd come to believe them - even to see what they saw. Until Arthur. Clever, handsome Arthur. Genius - even in his beatings. But who was the genius now? I could see his white shirt, unbuttoned, blowing gaily as he stood on the cliff face, unaware that, like a clepsydra, the ebbing tide measured his final moments. I flung the white-shirted straw doll into the wind and watched him leap to his fate.


THE VISIONS OF MY LIFE, AS SEEN THROUGH EYES THAT GROW DIM WITH AGE

As my days grow shorter now, I am subliminally drawn to the mirror again. Here I can look back on my past. The vision of a young girl with long brown hair and enormous hazel eyes flits in and out of view. The white dress she wears billows in the wind as she laughs and plays.

This girl soon vanishes, and in her place is a weather worn cliff side manor. An ancient clepsydra in the court yard still measures the passing of time; the genius of this timekeeper still intrigues me.

Soon my visions fade, and I'm alone again.


The other short-listed entries were as follows. No prizes for their authors, I'm afraid, but all are highly commended:

Leap of Faith by Cherry Walker
At 98% of the Speed of Light, Your Clock Can Kill You! by Mark Jensen
Cliff's World by Constance Gardner
An Interlude by Nigel Edwards
The Curse of the Ancient Clepsydra by David Fredrickson

Congratulations to the winning and short-listed writers, and commiserations to those who did not win on this occasion. I do hope you all enjoyed entering the contest!

[Symphony]

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I am SO happy. Blimey - a long, long time since I won more than a kiss from my youngest!

Downloaded the software prize last night and I LOVE IT!!!! Now, if only it came with a publishing guarantee? LOL


Congrats to the other winners, too - great stories!

[sara]

congratulations Symphony and the other winners 
very nice stories well deserved winners
sara