Writers Win 5 Steem! (And now with more prizes.) Twenty-four hour short story contest for May 15. A man reads a newspaper ad: If you have the credits. We have the time travel.

in twentyfourhourshortstory •  6 years ago 

 The 24 hour short story challenge

(But you'll get a little more time than that...)


I am fascinated by science fiction writer Harlan Ellison writing short stories in a book store window.  He wrote short stories with everyone watching for years, and people questioned if he already had the stories, so he began to take suggestions for topics from people watching. 

 Chris Carter of X-files fame gave him the topic of a 102-year-old pregnant corpse, and he wrote a story based on that idea.

So thus the idea behind this contest was born.  You can write a short story in a short amount of time.
Check out the entries from last week's contest.

Here are the terms of the contest.

Write a short story no longer than 2,000 words, based on the topic phrase.

Here is the topic for you short story:

A man reads a newspaper ad: If you have the credits. We have the time travel.

Here are the rules for entry

1. Upvote this post.  

2. Resteem this post  (And actually even you don't enter this contest and you read this post, resteeming this would be greatly appreciated to get the word out for more participants.  Thanks!)

3. In your post put a link to this post. 

4. Post a link to your story in the comments below.


Entries are due by 9 p.m. EST (New York/D.C. Time) Tuesday May 15. 

This actually gives you a little over 48 hours from when I make this post.  But I want to give more time to allow for more people to enter the contest. Use the tag twentyfourhourshortstory for your first tag.  

(Don't use # before the tag or it goes over the 24 character limit.  24...24 hour short story contest...Ironic don't you think...)

Feel free to use other tags as you wish.

Prizes are:

5 Steem for First Place.

3 Steem for Second Place

1 Steem for third Place

 And depending on how many entries I receive I may give out Steem for other entries.  But again that all depends on the amount and quality of posts.

(I am personally putting up the rewards for this contest, there be no whales here capt’in.  So upvoting and resteeming helps keep this thing going.)

So please upvote with as much power as you can.  That helps fund the contest.

Here's what you get for participating, even if you don't win.

1. I upvote every entry, and I resteem every entry to over 1,000 followers.

2. I create a post at the end of every contest and I mention and link to your post. Again going out to over a 1,000 followers.

3. A regular community of participants has developed around this contest and they read and comment on the entries.

4. (Then of course there is the chance for winning some extra Steem!)


Thanks for reading and good luck! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

P.S. If by Friday you see I have not resteemed or upvoted your entry, shoot me a comment.  I may have missed it.  I am getting more entries to read, and contrary to rumor I am human.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
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Fun prompt. I messed up and wrote about a female MC. If that disqualifies me, no worries! Happy to practice with the prompt.

A female would be fine. I admit to stealing the from somewhere else, I modified it some, but didn't think about the gender. Female is fine.

Was thinking about this during the down time at my new job. Might end up being something I do regularly to get through the day.
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourstory/@gnomed0/the-coo-coo-s-clock

Made it in plenty time this week, another really fun prompt to work with.

Here it is Ten for Ten which was great fun to write!

Thank you

I gotcha!

Greaaat!

This was great fun. Am chuffed I was able to get something done. Thanks for organising it https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@sue-stevenson/the-faraway-tree-1983

Got it.

https://busy.org/@riverflows/a-man-reads-a-newspaper-ad-if-you-have-the-credits-we-have-the-time-travel

Done!!! It's very hard to write something in such as short time and not freak out about editing... eek!!

Ellison used to post the pages to his stories in the windows of the book stores and he finished them, and the pages would be clean without needing an edit. That's something that has fascinated me.

What - he didn't have a word processor? What crazy thing are you talking?

It's a nuts concept - totally fascinating. That's why this is a super cool competition. It was quite amazing how it all came out without much of an edit - I guess you have to trust yourself, and in his case, be a pretty good and confident story teller!

I just posted my story. Was a fun prompt, thanks for organising! Already looking forward to the prompt of next week. Maybe I should think about getting a job writing in a store window front!

https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@nobyeni/boris-the-veloraptor-ragnis-original-flash-fiction

Thanks for the inspiration @mctiller
Here's my short story entry for the competition:
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourstory/@phillyc/if-you-have-the-credits-we-have-the-time-travel

I may have messed up the tags slightly 😂 and am unable to get your preferred tag as my first tag

Don't worry about it, I got it. Posting the link here is the most important part. Can't wait to read it!

Uh, this really sounds like a fun challenge. I've read entries before, but I was never brave enough to try myself. Until now! Hope you like it :)
Thank you for the challenge!

https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@honeydue/gambling-man-story

Long time lurker, first time entrant.

Adding my entry here. Thanks!


Going In Reverse

https://steemit.com/fiction/@thelastcentrist/if-you-have-the-credits

Cutting it a bit close, but here's my entry!

EDIT: I screwed up and put the fiction tag first, unfortunately. Hope it's alright still!

Not interested in the contest thou, but I have to drop a comment to comprehend you on all you could do in helping newbies. Thanks so much

Thanks! It seems to give some newbies extra Steem and some motivation to write and participate.

Yea, it's a good motivation. Thanks so much

I'm new and saw this too late but I will be watching

Well I had a long comment about how much I like it that you are using Harlan Ellison as inspiration but it did not post properly so trying again. I'm missing the contest this time due to time but hopefully can participate if you do it again :)

I recently picked up 2 Harlan Ellison books due to Neil Gaiman announced on his twitter that Harlan won't be signing books anymore in person appearances due to ill health. So he had a link to Harlan's online shop and I bought these two:

2-HarlanBooks-Antimetica.png

I remembered "A Boy and His Dog" from when I was a teenager and a bit googly eyed about Don Johnson so figured why not get the book. Well the graphic novel is pretty grim I'll tell ya.

Then when thinking about it I realized that time period kind of had a spate of cannibalism dystopia/sci-fi/apoc themed films (Soylent Green, etc.) so now I'm curious what was happening at that time period to spur that genre?

Anyhow sorry for the long comment and take it easy!

Great purchases! I was unaware of his health issue.

I was introduced to Ellison from Dean Wesley Smith, as he kept referring to him as the guy who wrote in bookstore windows. Which just fascinated me. So I looked him up and saw that not only would write a short story there in the store, he would post the pages as they finished. Not only were the pages unedited, they were clean. Which completely throws out that whole, you must edit in order for it to be good idea.

He was showing that writing isn't some pie in the sky thing, it can be just like a plumber or wood worker going to work. He would argue they don't wait for inspiration, they just go to work, and writers should be the same.

I appreciate your comment.

I think I'll partake in this one, sounds cool.

Really like this contest, last week I had a lot of fun writing something for it. Somehow getting this kind of tight pressure makes for a next level challenge... and 24 hours is enough to get a lot of editing in still. Although you need to have the time available. But this prompt is really nice again. thanks for organising it!

I really want to go in this one - hope I can steal some time today to get on it!