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1 min read Writing Humbuggery

There's Something About Flash Fiction

Despite living in New York for almost six years, I somehow managed to miss completely the existence of the NYC Midnight contest for writing and filming types. So I am grateful for the circuitous route that led me to it the other day.

There it was. The Creative Writing Championships Flash Fiction 2008. My blood popped. Or boiled. Or flowed faster. Whatever the correct metaphor is. I've never taken a writing class. Wait. That's a lie. I wrote a play in a playwrighting class and lobbed up some softballs to one of the keenest eyes I've ever witnessed at New School.

Something happened when I saw the contest with an August 5 registration deadline. Excitement. Then disappointment. Too late. But I couldn't stop thinking about it. Was it really an August 5 deadline? So I went back and, sure enough, in their desire for more money (thank you), the deadline had been extended. I signed up.

And now I'm looking forward to staying up all weekend starting tomorrow at 2 p.m. to write 1,000 words that are supposed to include plot, character, and all that other stuff they teach you to make sure you include in order to create a good story. At midnight NYC time, I will receive an e-mail that includes the directions to follow. I'll have to adhere to the genre and setting they give me, as well as include an object of their choice in a 1,000 word story.

There's just something about this kind of thing that does stuff to my blood.

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