Okay, not quite the same thing…but close! The 2019 NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge kicked off Midnight Friday January 18th. We have 8ish days to submit our short stories for the first round of the competition. Each writer was sent an email with their 3 story stipulations: GENRE/SUBJECT/CHARACTER. The fun has begun. Here’s just a few samples of the first round heats:
Genre Subject Character
- Suspense Impossible a witness
- Thriller Witnessing a crime a hypochondriac
- Comedy A raffle a princess
- Political Satire Lying a fruiterer
- Action/Adventure A standoff an engineer
- Sci-Fi an exotic pet an interior designer
- Fairy tale repetition a gunslinger
- Suspense a secret club an intern
- Drama photo shoot a composer
- Crime Caper a backup plan a fixer
- Fairy tale superhuman a cheesemaker
- Spy mountain climbing a reporter
- Romantic Comedy comfort food an x-ray technician
- Romance procrastination a social climber
- Comedy a labyrinth a meter maid
You get the picture. That’s just a few of the heats in the first round. If it was easy, it wouldn’t push us to become better writers, now would it? I purposely did NOT mention my heat in the sampling above. I have a few days left to come up with my story. I’m panicked but it’s a relatively calm panic for now. I’m exploring options, stopping and starting…attempting to find a groove that takes me to a finish line. False starts and retracing of steps are to be expected. I’m leaving myself breadcrumbs so I don’t get completely lost. I’m not worried about having something submission ready by the deadline. I just don’t know if it will be something on solid ground or not.
Good luck to all my fellow contestants! There are A LOT OF YOU! Don’t forget the part of the contest opener email that shared a hashtag for writers to use and connect. It’s a huge community. I’m sure we can commiserate and egg each other on along the way…see you in hashtag land…
#ShortStoryChallenge2019
If you plan on updating your progress in the competition on social media, make sure to use the hashtag #ShortStoryChallenge2019 so you can follow other writers and they can follow you!
KEVIN CRAIG 