Who’s up for a writing challenge?

I don’t remember how I first heard about NYCMidnight’s competitions, but I did see this one last year and wanted to do it, but I had missed the deadline. I really wanted to try it, because 100 words is the length of a New York Times Tiny Love Story and a 100 Word Story, both great venues in which to be published (I had a piece accepted by the former and rejected by the latter), and is simultaneously really hard and surprisingly easy to tell a complete story in so few words. So I committed to doing it this year!

(That paragraph, by the way, is exactly 100 words.)

What is it?

The 4th Annual 100-word Microfiction Challenge is a competition that challenges writers to create very short stories no longer than 100 words in 24 hours. 

If you accept the challenge, you are randomly assigned to a group and given a genre, action, and word assignment, and you have 24 hours to write and upload an original 100-word story from your assignment. 

In about 6 weeks, judges choose top 15 stories from each group to advance to a 2nd round, where writers receive new assignments and again have 24 hours to craft original stories. 

After another 6 weeks, judges select the top 8 writers from each group to advance to the final round, where writers receive their final assignment, and a winner is selected 6 weeks later.

What’s great about this challenge is that for a small fee, you get feedback from the judges and you have a time-constrained, genre/word/action commanded, skin-in-the-game competition to motivate you. Oh, and there are cash prizes for the winners!

I have now competed in two of these challenges: the 1000-word flash fiction and the 250-word microfiction. I’m proud of myself for even attempting them! I didn’t earn enough points to place in the flash fiction competition, but I did win first place in the first two rounds of the 250-word challenges, earning me a spot in the final round. The story has been submitted and I await the results to be announced April 19.

(This section, by the way, is exactly 250 words.)

Why do it?

It’s stimulating. Sometimes you just need a kick in the pants. 

It’s community-building. I’ve made friends in the writing community on Twitter because of the shared experience (and hashtags). Now we’re writing buddies and can get feedback from each other and hold each other accountable to projects.

It teaches you tricks. For example, in the 2nd round of the 250-word challenge, the genre decision was left up to the writers. I struggled with choosing what genre to write in. I contemplated just giving up because it was too hard. Hours ticked by. Ultimately, I let the writing decide. I just started putting words and phrases together, seeing what sounded good or evoked a feeling. I ended up with a story… and a chance at winning or at least placing in the top 10 for a cash prize!

You end up with stories. I have a couple of stories that I can submit for publication, thanks to participating in these competitions.

Who’s with me?

Doesn’t a constrained challenge like this sound like fun? Join me for the friendly creative competition! I’d love to cheer you on. https://www.nycmidnight.com/100