Ready. Steady, Write.

Every time I sit down to work on THE NOVEL, a bunch of really interesting short fiction challenges and contests and calls for submission seem to pop up.  Focus.  I struggle with it.  But in the meantime, here are some people who want to see short stories...some for glory, some for pay.

NPR is back with their three-minute fiction contest. Submissions are open until September 25 for stories no longer than 600 words. The theme this time--leaving town, arriving in town. Full details here

Chuck Wendig of Terrible Minds continues to entice with his weekly flash fiction challenge. (Last week's 100-word "Revenge" challenge scored triple digit numbers of submissions.) This week the challenge comes with a photo prompt. For details on "The Torch" go here

Then there's Paragraph Planet, a site that posts 75-word stories--one paragraph, one micro-story. I sent them a snippet story on a lark and they're publishing it Monday.  (Notice how I slipped in that bit of shameless self-promotion?)  Here's the site..

For Haruki Murakami fans, there's a really interesting fiction challenge being sponsored by his publisher to promote his latest book, 1Q84. The challenge is to use this sentence from the book as the opening line of a story of your own:. Carrying a single bag, the young man is travelling alone at his whim with no particular destination in mind.' Word limit is 1500.  The winning story will be published on Random House and Foyle's websites and a complete cache of the author's backlist.  Here are the details.

And finally, consider submitting to Omnium Gatherum's Detritus anthology. They want stories about your collections--your secret obsessions. Stories up to 5K, deadline is October 15. (The cover is very handsome.) More information here.


 




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