FLASH CHALLENGE: November '10
Posted: November 14, 2010, 05:02:56 PM
The "Leftovers" Challenge (Part 1):
Here in the States, it's the time of Thanksgiving, a holiday celebrating the popular, but somewhat inaccurate, idea of how Puritans survived their first winter, mixed with loads of family, loads of football games to watch, and loads of overeating at meals with enough food at them to feed a small village.
All that food leaves us with a lot of leftovers, as well as a big challenge in how to use those leftovers up before they spoil. These writing challenges leave leftovers, too. All too often, I try to come up with an example and then it turns sideways from where I meant it to go, (sometimes winding up in a whole different genre) or gets too big to fit in the space requirements. When that happens, I have to abandon that story or fragment and hope I can pick it back up later.
This month, I don't want you to write a new story. I want you to dig through your digital story chests and find your favorite unfinished story beginning that you created for one of these writing challenges, regardless of how far it went off track, as long as it is still under a thousand words up to the point where you stopped. Send me that beginning as your entry this month. The vote this time will just be for which one we liked best instead of scored by category. In January, we'll try to write a middle of the story that won, and then in February, we'll see who can best write the ending.
It will be fun. Give it a try!
RULES
CHALLENGE REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your unfinished story piece must tell the start of a story; (2) Your story fragment must have been written for one of the Flash Challenges here at Aphelion, even if it wound up nothing like the challenge it was meant for; (3) One entry per author; and (4) This is a Rated 'PG-13' challenge. (Basically, think, "Could I see or hear this on CSI?" If so, it's ok.)
FORMATTING: 1,000 words or less, not counting title, byline, or "The End". Give your story a title and a byline. Leave an extra line between paragraphs, just like when you see them in the 'zine. I will allow different colors, but not changed fonts or sizes, artwork, or any other embedded or external links. You are responsible for doing your own formatting.
CHARACTERS & SETTING: No copyrighted characters or settings, or references thereto. Famous, non-copyrighted fictional characters like Santa Claus, or religious figures such as the Devil, named angels such as Gabriel, or gods like Thor, etc. as supporting characters at best and at my discretion. The Wicked Witch and Dracula may be in the public domain, but don't expect me to allow them. No person that was ever a human being may be used as a character, but can be referred to, as in "President Kennedy had declared it would be so." Except as noted above under non-copyrighted fictional persons, character names may not be copied from fiction or real life, even if changed, i.e. Char-les Darween. Characters, except as noted above, must be used in their original appearance only. All non-copyrighted settings are ok. Famous, unique sites like Stonehenge may be used over and again. No fan fiction or sequels, so don't bother putting your story in the Land of Oz or that great place you thought up three challenges ago.
DISQUALIFICATIONS/REFUSALS: If, in my judgment, any requirement or rule is missed, I won't post the story for voting, but authors are free to resubmit with changes until the deadline. Should a story be initially accepted and posted in the challenge, but then later judged by me to be in violation, the story may be disqualified and removed from contention at any time prior to contest end. Authors who feel a story may be in violation should send me a PM and state their case.
HOW TO ENTER: Stories must be sent by PRIVATE MESSAGE, and NOT posted into a thread. Just click the 'PM' button at the bottom of this post and paste your story in the message.
DO NOT send a regular email to me.
CONTEST PROCEDURE: Stories will be posted "blind"--without the author's name on them. All the story titles are literally tossed into a hat and chosen at in random order. When the poll closes after the voting week, I'll post a list of the stories and who wrote them. The winner is chosen based on total points scored. All entries are reposted in the Flash Archive with the author's byline included after the challenge is concluded.
Entries from new authors are strongly encouraged. C'mon. Give it a try!
NOTE: ONLY REGISTERED MEMBERS who have posted at least one message may submit a story. Without that one post, the system may not let you send a PM.
DEADLINE: Stories should be in by 9 p.m. Central Standard Time (GMT-6), Friday, November 26, 2010. The story beginnings will then be posted for voting the morning of the 27th. Voting will close on Dec. 3, 2010 at 10 p.m., GMT-6. The winner will be announced on Dec. 4, in the morning.
NEW! VOTING: This time, vote for your one favorite story beginning. As a test to see if the troll is still around, I will run a poll using the polling feature, but you must also vote by PM in case the poll gets screwed with again. The PM vote will be the official one. One vote per user (that is, per IP address), and authors may not vote for their own story.
If more than two stories are tied at the end of voting, there will be a succession of one-day runoff votes until a single winner is chosen or the number of winners is reduced to two.
WHAT YOU WIN: Writers get improved short fiction skills, increasing their chances in the marketplace, without the lengthy investment in time a longer story would take. That, as well as bragging rights and pride--there is stiff competition each month amongst some great stories.
LEGAL STUFF: By entering this or any challenge you are technically granting Aphelion: The Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy perpetual electronic rights only to post and archive your challenge entry. Aphelion would rather not lay any claim on the stories at all, but by posting them on a public site, they'd legally count as being published no matter what.
Example:
Catch Me If You Can
By:
N.J. Kailhofer
The jarring ring of the phone stirred Jack from a black, restless sleep. The light was wrong. It was too bright for his tired eyes to handle. His eyelids refused their calling, dragging him back towards the safe darkness of his mind. Darkness without desires, without responsibilities.
The call of the phone assailed his senses again, insisting on attention. His pillow did not seem right. It was wide and flat, and hard. The hardness made his cheek numb. Slowly, he forced his eyes sluggishly open and his vision flooded with an evidence bag and a coffee cup. He could hear someone laughing a mocking call.
His eyes darted around; he was still at his desk. He had been on a triple shift and was just going to close his eyes for a minute, but now it was three hours later. The day shift was on. They were watching him. Ringed around the glass windows of his office were the members of the day crew, laughing at him, pointing. One even had a goddamn video camera pointed at him.
A moment later, he knew why. Filling the center of what used to be his desk calendar was a large pool of drool, and that same pool still connected to his face with a long, clear strand that defied gravity’s attempts to break it. It was going to take years to live this down. The phone rang again, and the hand that was not disconnecting him from the humbling pool snatched the handset from the cradle.
“Lewis,” he stated thickly, his tongue pasty.
The voice on the phone was a man’s. It was deep and friendly-sounding. “Jack, good to see you’re awake now. You should really get some rest if you’re going to catch me.”
Pleasantries did not come easily to Jack, and this morning especially so. “Who the hell is this?”
“I’m the man you’re going to murder.”
Jack snorted. Whichever wiseacre was calling him from some side office was going to get this repaid on him, big time. “Oh, yeah? Why am I gonna do that?”
The voice on the phone chuckled. “You don’t have a choice. I’ve already killed you. That’s why you’re going to kill me back.”
Jack lost his patience and hung up. “Nut job.” He stood up and glared the ring of officers around him into silence. They eventually gave up and set about doing the tiny bit of work they really had to do to keep the town safe. Hell, nothing ever happened here. One Barney Fife could have covered this town, let alone six uniforms and two detectives per shift.
He tried to loosen up and moved around his desk, but his neck was killing him from where his head lay on the desk. The mail was sitting in his in box, so Jack snatched the top one off the pile. It had his name across it in red pen, and no postmark.
He yanked out a photograph and stared at it. It was a picture of himself, asleep at his desk. The photographer had to be standing where he was at that moment, just in front of his desk. Scrawled across the picture in the same red ballpoint were the words, “AN EYE FOR AN EYE”. The picture felt like real photo paper instead of a digital print, and he flipped it over to see for sure. Jack saw then that there were two pictures stuck together. He peeled them apart and felt all the color drain out of him.
It was another picture of himself, a close-up of his head and shoulders from above and behind as they lay on the desk. This one showed a black-gloved hand sticking a syringe into Jack’s neck, exactly where it was sore. The words above this one read, “CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.”
Here in the States, it's the time of Thanksgiving, a holiday celebrating the popular, but somewhat inaccurate, idea of how Puritans survived their first winter, mixed with loads of family, loads of football games to watch, and loads of overeating at meals with enough food at them to feed a small village.
All that food leaves us with a lot of leftovers, as well as a big challenge in how to use those leftovers up before they spoil. These writing challenges leave leftovers, too. All too often, I try to come up with an example and then it turns sideways from where I meant it to go, (sometimes winding up in a whole different genre) or gets too big to fit in the space requirements. When that happens, I have to abandon that story or fragment and hope I can pick it back up later.
This month, I don't want you to write a new story. I want you to dig through your digital story chests and find your favorite unfinished story beginning that you created for one of these writing challenges, regardless of how far it went off track, as long as it is still under a thousand words up to the point where you stopped. Send me that beginning as your entry this month. The vote this time will just be for which one we liked best instead of scored by category. In January, we'll try to write a middle of the story that won, and then in February, we'll see who can best write the ending.
It will be fun. Give it a try!
RULES
CHALLENGE REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your unfinished story piece must tell the start of a story; (2) Your story fragment must have been written for one of the Flash Challenges here at Aphelion, even if it wound up nothing like the challenge it was meant for; (3) One entry per author; and (4) This is a Rated 'PG-13' challenge. (Basically, think, "Could I see or hear this on CSI?" If so, it's ok.)
FORMATTING: 1,000 words or less, not counting title, byline, or "The End". Give your story a title and a byline. Leave an extra line between paragraphs, just like when you see them in the 'zine. I will allow different colors, but not changed fonts or sizes, artwork, or any other embedded or external links. You are responsible for doing your own formatting.
CHARACTERS & SETTING: No copyrighted characters or settings, or references thereto. Famous, non-copyrighted fictional characters like Santa Claus, or religious figures such as the Devil, named angels such as Gabriel, or gods like Thor, etc. as supporting characters at best and at my discretion. The Wicked Witch and Dracula may be in the public domain, but don't expect me to allow them. No person that was ever a human being may be used as a character, but can be referred to, as in "President Kennedy had declared it would be so." Except as noted above under non-copyrighted fictional persons, character names may not be copied from fiction or real life, even if changed, i.e. Char-les Darween. Characters, except as noted above, must be used in their original appearance only. All non-copyrighted settings are ok. Famous, unique sites like Stonehenge may be used over and again. No fan fiction or sequels, so don't bother putting your story in the Land of Oz or that great place you thought up three challenges ago.
DISQUALIFICATIONS/REFUSALS: If, in my judgment, any requirement or rule is missed, I won't post the story for voting, but authors are free to resubmit with changes until the deadline. Should a story be initially accepted and posted in the challenge, but then later judged by me to be in violation, the story may be disqualified and removed from contention at any time prior to contest end. Authors who feel a story may be in violation should send me a PM and state their case.
HOW TO ENTER: Stories must be sent by PRIVATE MESSAGE, and NOT posted into a thread. Just click the 'PM' button at the bottom of this post and paste your story in the message.
DO NOT send a regular email to me.
CONTEST PROCEDURE: Stories will be posted "blind"--without the author's name on them. All the story titles are literally tossed into a hat and chosen at in random order. When the poll closes after the voting week, I'll post a list of the stories and who wrote them. The winner is chosen based on total points scored. All entries are reposted in the Flash Archive with the author's byline included after the challenge is concluded.
Entries from new authors are strongly encouraged. C'mon. Give it a try!
NOTE: ONLY REGISTERED MEMBERS who have posted at least one message may submit a story. Without that one post, the system may not let you send a PM.
DEADLINE: Stories should be in by 9 p.m. Central Standard Time (GMT-6), Friday, November 26, 2010. The story beginnings will then be posted for voting the morning of the 27th. Voting will close on Dec. 3, 2010 at 10 p.m., GMT-6. The winner will be announced on Dec. 4, in the morning.
NEW! VOTING: This time, vote for your one favorite story beginning. As a test to see if the troll is still around, I will run a poll using the polling feature, but you must also vote by PM in case the poll gets screwed with again. The PM vote will be the official one. One vote per user (that is, per IP address), and authors may not vote for their own story.
If more than two stories are tied at the end of voting, there will be a succession of one-day runoff votes until a single winner is chosen or the number of winners is reduced to two.
WHAT YOU WIN: Writers get improved short fiction skills, increasing their chances in the marketplace, without the lengthy investment in time a longer story would take. That, as well as bragging rights and pride--there is stiff competition each month amongst some great stories.
LEGAL STUFF: By entering this or any challenge you are technically granting Aphelion: The Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy perpetual electronic rights only to post and archive your challenge entry. Aphelion would rather not lay any claim on the stories at all, but by posting them on a public site, they'd legally count as being published no matter what.
Example:
Catch Me If You Can
By:
N.J. Kailhofer
The jarring ring of the phone stirred Jack from a black, restless sleep. The light was wrong. It was too bright for his tired eyes to handle. His eyelids refused their calling, dragging him back towards the safe darkness of his mind. Darkness without desires, without responsibilities.
The call of the phone assailed his senses again, insisting on attention. His pillow did not seem right. It was wide and flat, and hard. The hardness made his cheek numb. Slowly, he forced his eyes sluggishly open and his vision flooded with an evidence bag and a coffee cup. He could hear someone laughing a mocking call.
His eyes darted around; he was still at his desk. He had been on a triple shift and was just going to close his eyes for a minute, but now it was three hours later. The day shift was on. They were watching him. Ringed around the glass windows of his office were the members of the day crew, laughing at him, pointing. One even had a goddamn video camera pointed at him.
A moment later, he knew why. Filling the center of what used to be his desk calendar was a large pool of drool, and that same pool still connected to his face with a long, clear strand that defied gravity’s attempts to break it. It was going to take years to live this down. The phone rang again, and the hand that was not disconnecting him from the humbling pool snatched the handset from the cradle.
“Lewis,” he stated thickly, his tongue pasty.
The voice on the phone was a man’s. It was deep and friendly-sounding. “Jack, good to see you’re awake now. You should really get some rest if you’re going to catch me.”
Pleasantries did not come easily to Jack, and this morning especially so. “Who the hell is this?”
“I’m the man you’re going to murder.”
Jack snorted. Whichever wiseacre was calling him from some side office was going to get this repaid on him, big time. “Oh, yeah? Why am I gonna do that?”
The voice on the phone chuckled. “You don’t have a choice. I’ve already killed you. That’s why you’re going to kill me back.”
Jack lost his patience and hung up. “Nut job.” He stood up and glared the ring of officers around him into silence. They eventually gave up and set about doing the tiny bit of work they really had to do to keep the town safe. Hell, nothing ever happened here. One Barney Fife could have covered this town, let alone six uniforms and two detectives per shift.
He tried to loosen up and moved around his desk, but his neck was killing him from where his head lay on the desk. The mail was sitting in his in box, so Jack snatched the top one off the pile. It had his name across it in red pen, and no postmark.
He yanked out a photograph and stared at it. It was a picture of himself, asleep at his desk. The photographer had to be standing where he was at that moment, just in front of his desk. Scrawled across the picture in the same red ballpoint were the words, “AN EYE FOR AN EYE”. The picture felt like real photo paper instead of a digital print, and he flipped it over to see for sure. Jack saw then that there were two pictures stuck together. He peeled them apart and felt all the color drain out of him.
It was another picture of himself, a close-up of his head and shoulders from above and behind as they lay on the desk. This one showed a black-gloved hand sticking a syringe into Jack’s neck, exactly where it was sore. The words above this one read, “CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.”
