7 Sizzling Sundays of Summer Flash Fiction CONTEST
Writer Unboxed on Jul 01 2012 | Filed under: Contest
Summer. The days are long, the nights are hot. Time seems both to stand still and slip away. Inspiration for writers is all over the place–at a lake as a father plays with his child, in the crackle of melting ice in a glass of tea, with an exuberant dog chasing the spray of water from the sprinkler on the lawn.
Sound like fodder for a contest? We thought so. And because summer seems to go by in a flash, we decided that this year we’d host a flash fiction contest.
What’s flash fiction?
Flash fiction, is a highly addicting form of writing, and like a Twitter version of storytelling. Brief. Potent. Forcing the writer to strip a concept down to its essence. Though each story is told with a minimum amount of words, usually less than 1000, it also has a beginning, middle, and end. We like the Irish Times’ take on it.
In essence, a flash fiction is a very short short story, the classic example being attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
It also can be written in a flash. Back to the Irish Times:
As a writer the appeal is the immediacy,” says Canadian author John McFetridge, “the very short trip from initial inspiration to finished product. I just spent almost three years working on a book, but a flash fiction can be done in a couple of days.
It can even be finished in a couple of hours, if you’re truly inspired.
(Learn more about flash fiction at Flash Fiction Online, Flash Fiction.Net, and Flash Fiction.in.)
So about that contest…
Here’s the scoop:
- Each Sunday until August 5th we will post a prompt (most or all will be provided by our own Debbie Ohi). The story must be inspired by that week’s visual prompt.
- Each submission must be 250 words or less. That’s a far cry from the 1000 words we mentioned earlier, but we know you can do it. Consider it ultra-flash fiction. Also, 250 words will fit more easily in our comment section.
- Each story must contain a beginning, middle, and end. Like all stories, a compelling narrative is essential, and the restrictive word count means that each word is crucial.
- All submitted work must be original–not published anywhere else, and written by you, for this contest. After the contest, what you do with your flash-of-brilliance story is up to you; we hold no claim on your work.
- Post submissions in the comment section of the prompt post. Each week, the deadline will be 72 hours after the prompt is posted on Sunday morning, meaning Wednesday at 7 a.m. EST. Stories posted after the deadline will not be eligible for the contest, but feel free to post them anyway — we’d still love to read them.
- No more than two entries per person, per week will be eligible for that week. If a person posts more than twice on a prompt, only the first two entries from that person will be considered.
- The top three stories from each week will be selected by a mix of votes in the form of Likes in the comment section and our own discretion.
- On the 7th Sunday, we’ll present a roundup of the top three stories from each week along with a poll. From there, using poll results and our own discretion, we’ll choose three finalists.
- Within a week of the poll, we’ll announce a first, second and third place winner!
- Winners are happy. We are happy. We all have a deepened appreciate for flash fiction.
“Deepened appreciation”? Does that mean there isn’t a prize?
Please. Do you really have to ask that?
The GRAND-PRIZE WINNER will receive a bounty of goodies intended to help capture writerly inspirations in a flash, even if you’re not in front of your computer. UPDATED to be even more fabulous, with a more powerful recorder and Dragon Naturally Speaking Voice to Print Software!
- A Sony ICD-SX712D Digital Flash Voice Recorder, perfect for dictating story ideas and dialog fragments while on the road–driving or walking. This recorder also comes with Dragon Naturally Speaking Voice to Print Software. Here’s the official product description:
Sony ICD-SX712 Digital Flash Voice Recorder has a built-in 2GB memory with an SD card slot, which affords an additional 16GB of storage capacity for lectures, notes, music, meetings or any other audio you may want to record. The maximum recording time afforded by the internal memory is 500+ hrs, but a 16GB microSD card can expand the ICD-SX712′s maximum recording time upwards of 4000+ hrs.Making recording and playback more convenient, the ICD-SX712 is equipped with an LCD-backlit display, multiple language displays and record date, time and elapsed time displays as well. It has an LED operational indicator and can be set in various modes such as Continuous Play, Easy Search and Noise-Cut during record and playback. It also features Direct Record to Play, Erase, Move File, Protect, Play/Stop, Record/Pause Scene Select, Low-Cut and Track Mark functions as well.As an added luxury, the ICD-SX712 boasts the Sound Organizer PC software. It also features a USB port, 3.5 mm stereo mic input and 3.5 mm stereo headphone output. The ICD-SX712 has an integrated speaker for listening back to recordings out loud when privacy is not a concern. It comes with two AAA batteries that can last up to 25 hrs. The device is USB charge capable and the recorder can fit easily in your pocket or purse and is barely noticeable in your hand, weighing a scant 2.4 oz.
It really is a great tool.
- a Scuba writing slate with pencil for the tub or shower–because the shower is a magic place where storytelling unfurls! Basically this is a lightweight white board and pencil that can be drenched and still function perfectly, but here’s the official description in case you’re flummoxed:
Diver’s Underwater Writing Slate for Snorkeling, Scuba Diving to Tell your dive buddy what you are seeing by simply writing on the face of this easy to use underwater communication device. Great item for communicating underwater, especially for trainers.
- a Night-Writer pen–a bright, nighttime friend to help you capture those two a.m. inspirations
- the first EVER produced Writer Unboxed T-shirt, featuring the WU logo. You tell us the size, we’ll make it happen.
The SECOND-PLACE WINNER will receive the second ever produced Writer Unboxed T-shirt, along with the first EVER WU coffee mug.
The THIRD-PLACE WINNER will receive the third ever produced Writer Unboxed T-shirt. Which, hey, is still pretty cool.
When does the contest start?
Right now! Use the drawing posted below as your prompt. And don’t worry if you can’t participate in this week’s contest; there are still five more chances to share an entry. Good luck!
Drawing courtesy © Debbie Ridpath Ohi, illustrator of the soon-to-be-released book for children, I’m Bored.
Kathleen Bolton
Therese Walsh
Porter Anderson
Dan Blank
Carleen Brice
Sarah Callender
Lisa Cron
Keith Cronin
Bill Ferris
Dave King
Robin LaFevers
Donald Maass
Jael McHenry
Jan O'Hara
Debbie Ohi
Barbara O'Neal
Ray Rhamey
Chuck Sambuchino
John Vorhaus
Julianna Baggott
Brunonia Barry
Tom Bentley
Sharon Bially
Anna Elliott
Anne Greenwood Brown
Tracy Hahn-Burkett
Suzannah Windsor Freeman
Kristan Hoffman
Jeanne Kisacky
Juliet Marillier
Julia Munroe Martin
Sophie Masson
Annie Neugebauer
Erika Robuck
M.J. Rose
Allison Winn Scotch
Lydia Sharp
Elisabeth Weed
Emily Colin
Jeannine Walls Thibodeau
Vaughn Roycroft
Kim Downes Bullock
Valerie P. Chandler
Heather Reid
Heather Webb
Denise Falvo
Therese Walsh
Jan O'Hara
Liz Michalski
Kathleen Bolton
Jessica Brockmole
Erika Liodice
Donald Maass
Victoria Mixon
Therese Walsh
Suzanne Anderson
Keetha DePriest
Dee DeTarsio 
Amy Sue Nathan
Colleen Turner
[...] Writer Unboxed on Jul 22 2012 | Filed under: Contest The Sundays keep on sizzling at WU! We are blown away by the FANTASTIC flash fiction stories submitted for our Flash Fiction contest (if you somehow missed the announcement, check out the rules and fabulous prizes HERE). [...]
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Fraying Rope
The kitchen was cool and sterile. The voice was loud and abrupt. It spoke into the phone with a shrill, chirping character.
“Shirley, I have to tell you about Linda. She’s been seeing a boy from Nastookit who works as a mechanic. I mean, really, I have no idea where her head is at. Ever since she finished school she has been undermining me.” The voice seemed to reverberate slightly in the cavernous room.
Linda heard this, cringed, and walked toward the door, the voice growing more distant by the step. She entered the midafternoon air and walked away.
Inside, the voice went on and on, now unheeded in the empty vacuum of the house.
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It ‘s our 20th year class reunion. I have not attended in the past. Becoming single may have something to do with it. The party is at a club where I grew up. The memories from that place are great. I did not know it then, but those were my best years even though I was consumed with the need to be approved of by others. Maybe it will be different now. The older more sophisticated me might be successful in making friends finally. Would my old boyfriends be there? Would they be friendly or will their wives hate me? Will the mean girls be nice now or devour me with their gossip and giggles behind my back? It is too late. I have arrived. As I walk through the club nobody says hello. I don’t recognize anyone. The club lights are intense and the music loud. Suddenly I hear someone call my name. My heart is sinking. It is Laura. The friend I lost over a boy. We had hurt each other. She was smiling. As I get closer I can see a whole table of women I had once known. We are all round and pink. Everyone sipped drinks nervously and chattered on about their children and spouse. Ahhh! The night is not so bad. We all have had enough to drink to dance. Polite, humble, and relieved to finally be accepted.
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The ever tormenting voice of my so called lover whispers, “You are nothing. An utter waste.” I lower my head and squeeze my eyes shut. My long black hair is brushed away from my shoulder. My new enemy kisses the nape of my neck. I shudder and open my eyes only to see his gleaming at me with menace. If only I could run. I could escape my fate. I could be something more than a housewife. He grabs me and growls, “Time to do your job as my woman.” I lean back and pray I don’t scream until he is satisfied.
He falls asleep soon afterwards. I quietly go into the living room and cry. I look out of the big bay windows and watch the sun rise. My husband will be getting up soon.
I go into the restroom and place makeup all over my face hoping that it will cover the new bruises. I feel as though I am painting a clowns mask on my once porcelain complexion. I open my closet and take out one of the dresses my husband has given me. Time for church.
As I walk through the heavenly doors all the members smile and say how beautiful I look or how I am so lucky to have such a loving husband who buys me such nice things. No one ever asks how I am doing. I simply smile and pray that this will be the day God has mercy on my soul.
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How many faces will you wear today? You will go to a small restaurant and have lunch by yourself. Bring your blank mask. There’s no reason to pretend for anyone there.
“Take your order mam’?
“Orange juice and two pancakes.” He hurries off to put the order through. What face is he wearing? What face does he have when the mask comes off at the end of the day? He comes back with your food. You eat it, tip your masked waiter and leave.
Next, you teach history at the local high school. Bring your resilient mask. You must be strong.
“Mrs. K?”
“Yes?”
“Why do we have to learn this? What’s the point in focusing on the past so much when there is so much I’m gonna do in the future?” he says with a smirk on his face.
“To learn what mistakes not to repeat.” You say back to him.
“What mistake did you make?” he says back to you with a chuckle. Everyone laughs. He fancies himself the class clown. But are you? When you go to sleep at night and take off your mask, what is revealed? What face do you live with when no ones looking?
End of the day. You’re walking home and see a handsome man looking your way. Quick, put on your attractive mask. But it’s too late. He’s gone. Put on your disappointed mask.
You lie in bed and take off your mask and go to sleep. Who am I really?
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[...] Sunday left in our Sizzling Sundays of Summer flash fiction contest? (Rules and fabulous prizes HERE). We are so blown away by the fantastic entries that choosing three finalists every week to [...]
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Masque
Marge saw herself as dark and light. She kept the darkness hidden. She let the light show. Well nothing unusual about that, everyone does it. We all have two faces, one private and for our own uneasy viewing, and the other for the world to see. Rarely we might meet someone we let close enough to view our second face, our private one. Marge had Bill. Bill was her husband and they had been together for 25 years. He had known her as a young woman, uncertain and still with much growing to do. What hadn’t been shared, Marge thought, was that the growing would take her and Bill so far apart. He went one way, she another. Sometimes she thought he stopped growing altogether, that he become fixed in his safe little bubble of reality. He smoked marijuana, every day if he could afford it, and Marge thought he smoked more toward the end because he felt the slow dying of his spirit and the drug helped ease that somehow. Marge watched Bill’s decline and finally his death, from behind her society face, the smiling vacuous one. Bill’s death happened so quickly, but also as if in slow motion. Now there was nobody else who knew her dark self and she was left to try to alter its somber visage all alone. Bill got to realize his lighter self in the end. Perhaps that was the final lesson. That in death we finally get to remove our masks forever.
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[...] I really loved the story by Gail Mackenzie-Smith, which was one of the winners last week. Link to that story here. [...]
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