A while ago, my wife forwarded a link to NYC Midnight’s writing contest, where participants enter into various categories of flash stories, going from a 100-word limit to short stories of 3-4k words. The idea behind it (and others like it) is they issue a Genre, an action, and an object. An example would be Genre: Sci-Fi, Action: An Eye Examination, Object: a dog toy. Yes, this is an actual prompt I got for one of my rounds. The kicker for this contest is that you have 48 hours after receiving the prompts to churn out a story and submit. It’s not a lot of time and, perhaps, a little scary for some.
Years later, I’ve participated in many of these contests and can unequivocally say they’ve improved my writing. Not only do you get judge feedback with each submission, but this group has a fairly active online forum to submit your stories to get critiques from other participants. I can’t say all the feedback is helpful (is it ever?), but getting your work in front of others is a good step in the writer’s journey. So, what aspects of this contest have helped?
Writing Contest Constraints
One of the tenets of this specific contest is constraint. You’re limited not only in the time to write and edit the piece but also in length and what you can write about. For some authors, that’s a lot of parameters to force onto your writing. And this might not be for everyone. But there is a hidden beauty to all of these forced restrictions.
Time
Forty-eight hours might be an eternity for some writers; anyone who has written to a deadline won’t have an issue with this. For others, and I suspect many amateur writers fall in this category, the idea of writing to a deadline is daunting. How do I get the words to flow? What if I don’t have any ideas? How can I edit it that fast?
These and many more questions swam in my brain the first time I competed. And honestly, that first story wasn’t perfect. I took all of Saturday (the contest gives prompts on Friday at midnight NYC time, get it?) to brainstorm and still didn’t have anything till Sunday morning. I ripped out 1,000 words, let my wife proofread it, edited it once more, and submitted it.
Not the best process.
Yet, each time I complete, the words come. Some contests are better than others; sometimes, the stories come more or less fully formed. But for others, it takes brainstorming and throwing out idea after idea (primarily to my wife) before she’ll smile, get that mischievous gleam, and say, “There’s something there.” The pressure of the time, while initially viewed as a constraint, forces me to hunker down and produce words. It’s nice to be at the end of the weekend having created something new and complete.
I’d started out competing in the 1,000-word contest and then let other authors in my author support group know about the upcoming 500-word challenge. We all competed and used each other as beta readers and critique partners. Getting feedback from other authors has improved my stories tenfold. So editing is the one aspect I’d look for outside help in, and NYC Midnight has forums for this.
Length
Before entering this contest, I dabbled in VSS on the social media site that shall not be named and did some flash writing for other submissions. Though I tend toward novel-length projects, working on shorter stories is nice. They give me a sense of accomplishment. Plus, editing shorter works is fun because you can hold the entire story in your head instead of doing it in a section as with a book.
While a lot of the skills that go into scene writing and novel writing in general do transition over, new skills are needed for writing in shorter formats. Especially when you get into the 250 and 500-word contests. There isn’t time/words to wax poetic about scenery, which doesn’t help move the story along. This is not to say that these stories have no poetic language. What other authors have achieved in 500 words is downright magical.
The limitation of the words will force authors to be more precise. Focus on each word and pick better words when they have so few. One of the things I learned through these competitions is how to plot a story better, how to get scenes to move, and how to build tension within the story. In my first submissions, the judges wanted a more concluding conclusion. And in this, I’ve been able to craft ‘whole’ stories. Many comments I see on the forums say, “This feels like a bigger part of a story”. And while this isn’t a diss, I’ve tried to focus on making my short works feel complete. It’s not a part of some larger story.
I’ve learned so much from the constant of words.
Content
The main “challenge” of the writing contest is the surprise aspect of the genre and having to include a specific setting or an action and an object (the rules differ by story length). While the setting/object can be tricky (and downright frustrating sometimes), the different genres have pushed me the most.
My writing tends toward SFF, yet the first story I ever got was a mystery. And trying to do that in 1,000 was daunting. Since then, I’ve completed sci-fi and fantasy and received comedy, romance, drama, and action/adventure. The contest runners advise on how they view these categories, but it’s up to each author to interpret the genre themselves.
The constraint of a genre I’m not familiar with has been the best in pushing me outside my comfort zone. We can all get comfy in our style and genre. And having something come along and say, “You need to write a comedy now,” helps to break down what we know about how we write and force it to be something else. I’ve generally surprised myself with the romance I’ve written, a genre I’d never thought I’d tackle.
Every genre has elements that shine. Thrillers are expertly plotted, mysteries get the reader to play a game with the author, and romance excels in the feels. There is something I can learn from all of these, and I am forcing myself to write in them on a deadline to complete a piece. There is so much I pull from in my novel writing now that I know I learned to force myself to write in other genres.
If nothing else, try getting some random prompts and writing a Western, horror, or Sci-fi story. You might be surprised at how it turns out.
Why a writing contest?
The competition’s elements help make it fun. Seeing how other authors interpret the same prompts in the forums is nice. When someone nails it, there is always an element of jealousy (I have to be honest), and you wish you’d been as creative as them.
The NYC Midnight contest has been a boon to my wiring. A great community of authors wants to help each other improve. You get feedback from judges (which is very hit-and-miss), but the true gift is knowing you can crank out a story on a deadline, perhaps in a genre you’ve never written in and with elements outside your mind.
There are times I’ve entered where I was in a slump, and getting words down on the page energized me to get back into the projects I was working on.
Give one a try and see if it’s something you’re interested in.
Till next time, my friends, happy writing.