FLASH CHALLENGE: October '12

[kailhofer]

The Meet Your Doom Challenge:



I love October. Where I live, it's a month of chilled air and dark, lengthening shadows. Leaves fall and the trees begin to take on a look of death. It's the perfect time of year for a bonfire, and as you watch those flickering tongues of flame lick the wood, concerns of the unnatural world are bound to cross into the darker corners of your mind.

When those things you refuse to fear in the light of day can walk about unbound, your unnerved soul will either seek distant shelter... or fall prey to it.

Sometimes that which scares us all is really that which scared one of us down to his or her bones. So, the task this dark month is to take one of your most sinister fears and pit a capable, likeable character against that fear, but somehow the character will lose against its horrible force.

There are no happy endings this time. No comedies and no farces--just a cold, unyielding fear gripping every reader.


Take this challenge and embrace your darker side, if just for this month.



REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your horror story must place a likeable, capable character against one of your own darkest fears, and the character must lose to it. No comedies, parodies, or farces; (2) You must have at least two characters that "talk" to each other in some fashion. (3) 1,000 words or less, not counting title, byline, or "The End"; (4) The characters, setting, and story must be fictional and not previously published, even in these challenges; (5) One entry per author; (6) Give your story a title and a byline; and (7) Keep it clean. Rated 'PG-13'. (Basically, think, "Could I see this on CSI?" That allows a lot, really.)

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 "real life" 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-less Darween. 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 two 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 before 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. You are responsible for doing your own formatting, and 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.

DO NOT send a regular email to me.

Stories will be posted "blind"--without the author's name on them. All the story titles are literally tossed into a pith helmet 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. All entries will then be reposted in the Flash Archive with the author's byline.

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 will not let you send a PM.

DEADLINE: Stories should be in by 9 p.m. Central Standard Time (GMT-6), Sunday, October 21, 2012. The stories will then be posted for voting at approximately 10 p.m. Voting will close on Sunday, Oct. 28 at approximately 9 p.m., GMT-6.

VOTING: Stories are rated on a scale of 0-10 in whole numbers in 6 different categories by filling in scores in a form that is posted by me immediately following the post containing the stories for this challenge. Voters copy and paste the form into a PM and send it to me for tallying. One vote per user (that is, per ip address), and authors may not vote for their own story.

IF YOU WISH TO SCORE A ZERO FOR A STORY, YOU MUST ENTER A ZERO IN THAT POSITION ON THE VOTING FORM. A challenge entrant who does not vote for the other stories will receive a 10% deduction in their own score at the time of contest close, and the other stories will be given marks equaling whatever their story's average is at the time of contest close.

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: I'll try to do my best lawyer impersonation: By entering this 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 them at all, but by posting them on a public site, they'd legally count as being published no matter what.

Ok. A real lawyer would have been less interesting. I tried.

[kailhofer]

The Meet Your Doom Challenge:
...REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your horror story must place a likeable, capable character against one of your own darkest fears, and the character must lose to it....

I don't know - I'm like Captain Kirk in that I don't believe in no win situations. Losses, maybe.

Remember the Kobayashi Maru?

Sounds to me like your character would fear defeat.

Sometimes, a horror story is great because there is no way out after the character makes The Bad Choice. To cite a famous example, the husband stole Elvira's golden arm, and he's not getting away from her wrath. If he did, it would take away from the horror.

Regardless, if you want to enter this challenge, there are no wins at the end.

[kailhofer]

No entries received yet. Curious, especially since Sergio usually sends his so fast it practically gets here before I finish posting the challenge.

Too hard this time?

[Lester Curtis]

Sergio has been traveling -- I'll be meeting up with him tomorrow. He was away from computers for a while, up north.

I've tried to think of a response to this. Greatest fear? I either don't have one, or (more likely) I'm afraid to even let myself know what it is.

I've got mundane fears, but those wouldn't answer the challenge.

[Lester Curtis]

Nate:

maybe too personal.

I've been wondering for sometime if I should go to the uncomfortable area of opening up when I create, instead of keeping some distance between me and what I'm writing about.

I've been curious if people could connect more with the stories I write if I did.

Robert Frost said, "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."

Show us yer guts.

[kailhofer]

Sorry I haven't responded to anyone this week. I was socked at work, then my internet wasn't working right. I'm working from home tomorrow, so I should be able to "squeeze" them in between all the November-December production I brought home to schedule.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Work, family, computer issues, and piss poor time management have all conspired against this months challenge. Sadly my submission is not even close to ready and I have to leave for work in an hour. Next month is NANOWRIMO so a minor miracle will be required for next months challenge as well. I had a decent story idea, so I'll keep it handy if the topic resurfaces in the future.

Or you could let it grow past 1,000 words (if you feel so inclined) and submit it to me...

[kailhofer]

Technical difficulties. Posting delayed until Monday night.