Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Hey, I Can Write Good!

Back in January, I decided on a whim to sign up for the NYC Midnight short story contest. The contest involves three rounds with assigned story topics, word limits, and increasingly tight deadlines:
In the 1st Round (January 20-28, 2017), writers are placed randomly in heats and are assigned a genre, subject, and character assignment. Writers have 8 days to write an original story no longer than 2,500 words. The judges choose a top 5 in each heat to advance to the 2nd Round (March 23-26, 2017) where writers receive new assignments, only this time they have just 3 days to write a 2,000 word (maximum) short story. Judges choose finalists from the 2nd Round to advance to the 3rd and final round of the competition where writers are challenged to write a 1,500 word (maximum) story in just 24 hours (May 5-6, 2017).
This morning, I had an email waiting for me announcing that judging results were in and that they would be sending out personalized feedback soon. In the meantime, writers could check the list of winning stories. The list is quite long and I couldn't remember my exact heat, so I just searched for my name in the document, watching the number of matches narrow down as I typed each letter, waiting for it to say "phrase not found." And there I was:


I came in 2nd in my heat! The top 5 from each heat advance to round 2, which starts Thursday.

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