Anthrofiction Network’s Short Story
Contest,
Overarching Theme for 2011
I thought it might be fun to have interlocking
themes for the short story contest this year. If one plans ahead one
may create a single story in four stand-alone parts.
What this means is I will announce the themes for
all four quarters in spring, so you can plan ahead and even write
rough drafts ahead. Because of the added planning necessary for
interlocking stories, I will add time to the spring quarter, before
judging starts. Then take a little time away from each of the
following quarters (because you should have at least thought of what
you’ll be writing).
Present rules allow the entry of up to two stories
each quarter, and I’ve got an idea on how to allow you to use that
to link not four stories, but as many as eight, over the coming year.
However, all stories must be stand alone stories, not a part 1 and
part 2. I’ll create some guidelines on how to successfully
accomplish that.
So at the end of the year an author could take his
or her four (or eight) part story, edit the whole to add some
transition scenes, and end up with a single story.
I’m still working on the wording for the theme
and guidelines, and I may need a tweak to the rules for 2011 too. I
hope to have these tasks done by this coming weekend.
S~
The contest is now open for
The contest is now open for judging.
S~
Yesterday the story entry
Does anyone else care?
Could you not think of a story?
Or was my deadline too long and you just plain forgot about it?
I've e-mailed the three authors, but I'll open it up for discussion:
I'm considering reopening the entry for another week (from the original deadline), or maybe as long as three weeks. I'll make my decision Thursday night my time, which works out to about 5:00 am UTC on Friday.
If you had an extra six days from now (or maybe longer) could you finish your story and enter it in time? Have you even started?
Manager of the writing contest,
Scott Miller (ScottyDM)
I probably should officially
I probably should officially announce what the themes for 2011 are.
The overarching theme is Foreign Affairs, which has four parts:
Here's a PDF of the whole writeup for the year. You can also find the link on the home page, and it'll be on the theme page for each quarter this year.
First, you do not have to create a four-part story to enter the contest this year. At a minimum follow the theme for that quarter.
Second, since there's no way to know if a story is part of a story arc until winter 2011, there will be no extra points or anything if you do create an overarching story arc. However, I suppose I should have two first places come winter: one for the best story and one for the best story arc. I'm open to suggestions on how to do this, but my thought is a reevaluation of storytelling goodness, plus overall enjoyability.
Third, since two stories per quarter are allowed, it's possible to make both part of your story arc for that quarter. The wrong way to do this is to write a single chapter over 3500 words, arbitrarily split it in two, and label it "part 1" and "part 2". The right way to do this is to split your part into two chapters. Chapters have a beginning, middle, and end--and the end will contain both some sort of resolution to some events, and a hook to propel the reader forward into the next chapter.
Fourth, I've pushed back the entry deadline by three weeks for spring, and I've tightened up the entry deadlines by one week each for summer, fall, and winter (so winter judging takes place during the normal time).
Fifth, have fun writing!
S~