This is a new slam challenge for a new year!

First of all I'd like to clarify that the poetry slam isn't going anywhere, this is another challenge so I can find more reasons to give away SBD/Steem/myfirstborn/blood to the community that gives me so much in a non-monetary way (monetary too though, but the non-material rewards is what keeps me hooked). If you love to write fiction or non-fiction, this is the challenge for you!

First, everyone loves rewards so here's the reward structure for the 1st Steemit Story Slam Challenge:

1st - 100 Steem

2nd - 50 Steem

3rd - 25 Steem

Theme

While there will be themes for future Steemit Story Slam Challenges, this first one is an open call. That means:

• Tell us a Fiction or Non-fiction story.
• There is no specific theme, so get writing about any topic you'd like, just make it a story!
• Since a good story can't be defined by its length, there is no specified length. However, 1 liner stories (unless mind-blowingly brilliant) will most likely not make it into the community voting round. The same goes for stories that go over the word limit in the editor. So no Cliffhangers, though it can be a complete story that you follow up on in a later Story Slam.
• There isn't a requirement for the use of imagery, but this is Steemit. Let's be realistic, if you submit a wall of text as your story don't be surprised if readers can't get through it. Big walls of text actually hurt my eyes, so I'll even have trouble with it, though I'll read it of course! So use images, gifs or whatever helps tell your story.

Life Pro Tip: Don't plagiarize! Cite your sources!

Rules & How it Works

• Each entry must be presented on the writer's own blog. You may also add a link to the entry story on your blog in the comments of this post.

• Max 2 entries per Story Slam please :)

• Your Steemit Story Slam Challenge entry should be titled:
  

  Steemit Story Slam Challenge 1: (Name of your entry).

• Please use the #ssschallenge tag so that your entries can be easily found and processed.

• A total of 4 entries will be selected for the next round: Community Voting! Have you voted for who should win the 10th Poetry Slam yet? There's still a couple of hours to get in there and pick from 3 awesome poems!

• The community will vote on these 4 stories. Upon close of the Community Vote post, the story with the highest amount of votes will receive 1st place, second highest 2nd place and so on. Based on liquid steem/sbd, there will also be honorable mentions. All of my Slam posts are set to 50/50 to raise rewards for the winners.

• I will be submitting a story in support of this slam though as the person selecting the stories that will compete for the prizes, of course I'm ineligible to win.

• If YOU would like to contribute as a Steemit Story Slam Selector for future slams, get in contact via Chat! Each Selector will be able to pick one story that will go through to the community voting round. With no current selectors, I will be making those choices. The goal is to have a rotating cast of selectors for each slam so we can get MOAR community involvement going!

• The deadline for the 1st Steemit Story Slam Challenge is Friday the 13th (BOO!), 2017 by midnight (UTC -4).

I want to thank all of you awesome human beings who have and continue to participate in the Poetry Slam Challenges, you are so loved. I hope you will join me (and tell me a story) in this new Slam, and I hope the community at large enjoys (and VOTES) what they read! Get Write in 2017!

Special thanks to @timsaid for the Steemit pin!!

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