Tuesday, January 05, 2010

"Silhouette" Short Fiction Contest



Welcome to the 12th Clarity of Night Contest!! Before the post-holiday doldrums gain a foothold, let's get a little juiced up, shall we?

Here's how the contest works. Using the photograph above for inspiration, compose a short fiction (or poetry) piece of no more than 250 words in any genre or style. Send your entry to me by email at jevanswriter at yahoo dot com before 11:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 13th (Eastern Time, United States). I'd prefer attachments formatted in Microsoft Word (please see the format request below), but if you have something more exotic, you can paste the text into the body of an email (no docx formats, please). Each entry will be posted and indexed.

Now for the goodies. The following prizes are up for grabs:

  • 1st Place: $50 Amazon gift certificate
  • 2nd Place: $30 Amazon gift certificate
  • 3rd Place: $25 Amazon gift certificate
  • 4th Place: $20 Amazon gift certificate
  • 5th Place: $15 Amazon gift certificate
  • Readers' Choice Award 1st Place: $25 Amazon Gift certificate

But this is about more than prizes. I hope you take advantage of the opportunity to meet and interact with your fellow writers. Our different perspectives, styles, and skills shine when we all start at the same place. It's a great opportunity to learn from each other.

Rules:
  1. 250 words maximum.
  2. Titles are optional, but encouraged. Titles do not count toward your word count.
  3. One entry per person.
  4. Any genre or style is welcome. If you choose to submit poetry, you must have narrative movement within the poem if you wish to compete with the prose pieces for the prizes.
  5. The copyright remains with you, the author; however, you grant me worldwide first electronic publishing rights to post your entry on this blog indefinitely.
  6. Judging will be conducted by me, Jason Evans. For an explanation of the judging criteria and scoring system, see A Note on Judging. You can also read the winning entries from past contests.
  7. Please provide a name for your byline. If you have a website or a blog, I'd be happy to link your site to your byline. If you don't have a website or blog, feel free to include a short bio. A bio does not count towards your word count.
  8. At the close of the contest, I will give the date and time for the announcement of winners.
  9. After the winners are announced, I will post what I liked most about each entry in the comments.
  10. The Readers' Choice Award is awarded by vote of the contest participants. The entry with the highest number of votes wins. The rules for this portion of the contest will be posted after the entry period closes.
  11. Public critiques in comments are encouraged, but must remain respectful. I reserve the right to delete comments and ban participants who do not abide by the collegial spirit of Clarity of Night contests.
  12. For prior contests and their results, see the links on the sidebar.

Format Request:
These are not rules, and I will not reject an entry which does not conform, but if you follow them, my work in running the contest is much less. For that, I will be eternally grateful!
  1. Single space lines, and double space paragraph breaks.
  2. No tabs or indents for new paragraphs.
  3. If you have italics in your text, please code it for html by putting a begin italics code < i > where it starts and an end italics code < /i > where it ends.
  4. Although it's rarely used, handle bold < b >< /b > and underline < u >< /u > the same way.
  5. Write your title at the top of the document left justified in title case (first letters capitalized). On the next line write your byline left justified (example, by Jason Evans). Add two blank lines, then begin your story.

Welcome to this latest contest! Entries will be posted starting January 6th.

Help spread the word!

35 comments:

Aniket Thakkar said...

Yay! Yay! Yay!!!

Shadow said...

now to let the creative juices flow...

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Great picture for your imagination to run wild with.....

emeraldcite said...

Awesome pic. Had a great time writing this one. Started with over 500 words and whittled it down to 250 exactly.

Sent it your way. can't wait to see the entries for this one.

Aimee Laine said...

Fun! That time was amazing! All the stories so different!

DILLIGAF said...

got me tale sorted. Need to re-install Word though after the last pc crash.

Be with you in a day or two old bean.

Looking forward to some good reads!!!!

Pallav said...

super awesome...i like that pic...gonna start writing :D

N

Rabid Fox said...

Neat. I'll have to gear up for this one too. I think there's a little room left on my plate. :)

AM-C said...

Bring it on! I hope I can get inspired before the deadline.

Anonymous said...

But this is about more than prizes. I hope you take advantage of the opportunity to meet and interact with your fellow writers. Our different perspectives, styles, and skills shine when we all start at the same place. It's a great opportunity to learn from each other.

Whatever. It's /all/ about the prizes. I hate interacting with Aniket. Unless he's wearing a PowerPuff Girl costume. OOOOH, I have my story idea!!

Meghan said...

Awesome way to start out 2010! Can't wait to get started. :D

Nevine Sultan said...

I really look forward to reading some of the entries, or rather, all of them. It'll be interesting to see all of the variety that comes out of different writers prompted by the same image. Can't wait!

Nevine

Jade Blackwater said...

Wow - number 12! That's amazing!

I'm so excited - what a great way to kick off the year.

Laurel said...

I am doomed. I got nothin. I've been ruminating for weeks hoping for inspiration to strike but I've been doing too much literary slumming lately and all I can come up with is shifter. I have nothing new to add to that. I'm still thinking, though...

Anonymous said...

Laurel, did you /not/ catch the phrase "Aniket in a PowerPuff Girl costume"? What more inspiration do you need? It TOTALLY ties to the photograph.

(sorry, I'm whipping my smart ass comments into gear)

Laurel said...

But Aerin, you said you were working that angle!

Anonymous said...

Aniket, Shadow, Dottie, Emeraldcite, Aimee, Four Dinners, Nothingman, Rabid Fox, Ayodele, Aerin, Meghan, Nevine, Jade, Laurel,

Thanks everyone!! I'm psyched by how much buzz is already forming. You guys are going to make this one blazing. I can tell. ;)

Aniket Thakkar said...

@ Aerin & Laurel:

It was my dialogue. Ergo, my story idea.
See here's how it connects to the bird.

I'll end the story with the punch line:
Is it a bird... Is it a plane... Its a powerpuff girl! :)

Now I shall go and make a silhouette of Bubbles. :D

@ Jason: Please block Aerin. She is totally destroying the Collegial spirit of the contest by stealing my story ideas. :(

Terri said...

Yay!!
Except... I had a story. Now I don't like it anymore and have decided to start again.
Back soon...

Paul D Brazill said...

Okey dokey. I'm in.

Anonymous said...

Hell yeah, sounds like a good one.

Vesper said...

Awesome, Jason!
I'm rubbing my hands, thinking of all the goodies to be read.
The photo is great!

TL said...

Thanks Jason!

Tessa said...

Jason, you're a legend - many thanks for arranging another one of these awesome contests. Reading all the entries is a real highlight for me.

B. Nagel said...

Wait wait wait. Aniket in a powerpuff costume looks nothing like that silhouette. The legs are longer and the wings are . . .

Uh-oh. I've said too much.
--
I can't wait to start reading all these kickin' stories. And watching Aniket and Laurel race to the finish. Then pjd will troll through dropping nuggets of wisdom on every tale.

It's like Christmas.

Aniket Thakkar said...

For those not on Facebook.

I would like to clarify I have no powerpuffed fetishes. :) The above comments are due to infamous comment that "I'd rather be dressed as a powerpuff girl than lose my spot in the forties club"

So there.

@B.Nagel: Guess Laurel and I, both didn't expect posts from day 1. But am still winning 5-0. :D

laughingwolf said...

great! will try to come up with something...

[only found out about this today at bernita's blog :( ]

Ranee Kaur Banerjee said...

Thanks, Jason. I've been feeling sluggish and slow. This should get me going again!

Michelle H. said...

Thank for for the invitation. The last contest was inspiring, and really showed me the different techniques and approaches used in crafting such a short story.

Tabitha Bird said...

Great idea Jason. I am going to enter cause I need the practice. Thanks for hosting.

Laurel said...

Okay, Okay, I was late to the party this time. I didn't have anything to submit until after the contest already started and I didn't want to read anyone else's until I submitted my entry.

After slogging through 160 entries in under 24 hours, yep, under 24 hours, I am caught up and kicking Aniket's a@#!

Bring it, you PowerPuff wannabe!

Oh, and Pete's pithy nuggets of wisdom are making me laugh out loud this time.

Aniket Thakkar said...

@Laurel: Well I do not have enough money or worldly charms to bribe Jason to tell me when he's gonna post the next lot! Okay!

I read them when I see them on my reader.

PS: 160 entries in 24 hrs. Seriously??! If you read all those eye snatching, rat grabbing and flesh picking stories in one go; I so wish a crow sits on your shoulder right now. And someone tapes your reaction and posts it on youtube! :D :D :D

You could totally be the next Jack Bauer.

PPS: Don't you dare insult Bubbles. Ever! Aerin and I won't take it nicely. :P

Aniket Thakkar said...

Oh, and laurel: As far as statistics are concerned I am winning 150:20. That's what the posts would always show. Mwuhahaha!

Laurel said...

Point is, you can only beat me if I'm not in the game.

Bernita, on the other hand, seems to be handing us both our arses.