Calling all Minnows (and everyone else too)!
I love fiction of almost every genre, but my favorite may well be the Urban Legend. Maybe because of the organic nature of these myths, or the insights they grant into our collective consciousness, or the way they so often take the horrific to the precipice of the absurd; whatever the reason, my predilection is about to become someone’s payday.
You have until 11:59 Eastern Standard Time on Sunday July 9 to post your entry into the Flash Fiction Urban Legend Contest to be judged by yours truly with generous help from my friend and infuriatingly superior writer, @horrorguyian, whose A Fair for Psychopomps is a fantastic example of a fresh take on an Urban Legend. CHECK IT OUT! We will make a daily post promoting the entries. It may be only links or it may be excerpts, depending on the number of entries, but we will be working to generate more readership for the participants.
Your entry can be funny, sad, terrifying… it can be a new take on an old Urban Legend, a mashup featuring an Urban Legend in an unlikely genre, or perhaps you will create one from whole cloth, and in a decade you’ll hear someone in a bar claim that very thing happened to his mother’s mechanic’s nephew!
Fair warning: I am a stickler for spelling and grammar. You don’t need to be stilted - this isn’t academia - but things like subject-verb agreement and knowing how to use quotes to set apart dialogue are going to be important in the reviewing process.
We want to encourage all minnow participants to use the incredible resources available at the fiction-workshop channel on Discord’s Minnow Support Project. The folks there are great and will help without judginess. The contest is running for three days specifically to give our fellow minnows time to polish their posts with the aid of the Fiction Workshop so please get over there asap!
If you are writing English as a second language, please feel free to note that at the bottom of your post, as there is obviously more leeway there. I am sure I would be incomprehensible in any other language and I applaud the many ESL contributors here for writing in my native tongue better than the average American college student.
The rules are simple:
- You DO NOT have to be a minnow to participate, but you must include the #minnowsupportproject in your tags because I’m a minnow and I love MSP and I’m paying the prizes so I say so.
- The piece must be 1,000 words or less. We will be counting! (Or our software will anyway)
- The piece must focus on an urban legend
- You must tag the post with “urbanlegendflash30” so we can easily find all entries.
- Finally, Upvote and Resteem this post to spread the word!
Winners will be announced and prizes awarded on Wednesday, July 12.
First Prize 30 SBD
Second Prize 10 SBD
Third Prize 5 SBD
Feel free to post your #urbanlegendflash30 links here for others to see and read! And don't forget to comment, follow, and resteem!