Monday, 25 June 2012

The Fantasy Writing Contest



Calling all speculative fiction writers! Or more specifically, fantasy writers. The folks at the Fantasy Writing Contest are collecting short story submissions for an anthology they are putting together. Emm, actually, they've been collecting submissions for several months now, but I only just got wind of this a few days ago. The deadline is the 30th of June, so if you happen to have a fantasy short story lying around on your hard drive, or you're able to crank out 1000 - 7,500 words between now and then, you should seriously consider submitting. There are no entry fees, and you stand a chance of winning a cash prize too i.e. in addition to being selected for inclusion in their anthology.

At first I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to try and write something up before the deadline, primarily because of my ongoing campaign which I had already scheduled at the time. But I've been mulling over some great ideas in my head. This would serve as a short story prequel to my series, Guardians & The Lost Paradise, and would flesh out more of the backstory that was briefly touched upon throughout the series.

Personally, I'm more interested in the motivation to write something that this contest provides than any cash prizes. Okay, so maybe I'm a little bit motivated by the money too. But in the event that I don't win the money or inclusion (a highly probable outcome, considering the tens upon thousands of submissions they must have received by now), I plan on putting the short story up online for free. This might, in the long run, help generate more interest for my series.

What about you? Are you going to try and crank out a short story before the deadline? Or perhaps you're one of the tens of thousands who have already submitted one...? As for me, the decision is already made and I managed to squeeze out (a rather measly) 500 words earlier today. It felt good though. Well, at least it's better than staring at that big round 0 on my campaign homepage.
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30 comments:

  1. I'm deep into my next book right now, so I won't even try to write something!

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    1. I know what you mean. I still have about 10,000 words left to write for book six of Guardians. But since that won't be due for release till sometime in December, I might as well write the prequel. :)

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  2. Shot off a quick 1400 words and sent it in. What do I have to lose? Sucks that no one's donating for you so far, Michael.

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    1. That's great! I wish my writing session for yesterday had been that productive. I'm shooting for 5,000 words total. Hopefully a significant portion of that would be written today. And thanks. It does kinda suck. But I aint throwing in the towel yet. :D

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  3. Not my genre :-(

    You've been tagged!

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    1. Well. There's a first time for everything. But I understand. :D

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    2. Michael, I'm not a writer, but it sounds like a cool little contest.

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    3. Oh. Okay. Be sure to pass on the information to your writer friends then. :D

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  4. 500 words is a great start. Sounds like a great contest, keep us posted.

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  5. I think I may have to try and enter this. I have a short story that needs a little polish that I wrote last winter that's on my hard drive.

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    1. You definitely should. So polish you must. :D

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  6. Have you started polishing up the old piece you mentioned above, or do you think you're going to write something brand new? I'd be really intersted in seeing what you do with it. If you need beta readers, you know where to find us (pick me! pick me :)

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    1. I'm presently 2,500 words into something new. You'll definitely get to read it; I'll be putting up online for free on the series website, www.the-lost-paradise.com, sometime after my crowdfunding campaign. :)

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  7. It sounds like an amazing contest! They have so many entries that I probably won't enter, but I'll take a peek at the rules and see. Good luck with your entry, and congrats on getting 500 words in! You're off to a good start :)

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    1. Thanks, Lora. I really do hope you consider entering. You never know with these things. ;)

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  8. I am so excited you decided to join the contest Michael. Maybe you'll disclose a bit of your story. I truly admire your ceaseless, diligence in writing, that proves you are definitely born to do it :). Good luck :).

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    1. Thanks, Unikorna, for the kind words and for bringing my attention to the contest the day you found my blog. And Good luck to you too. :D

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  9. Great progress.. that's 500 more words than me today:) I think I've missed the boat for the submission... best of luck with your entry:)

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    1. Thanks. I'm halfway through now and somewhat confident that I would make it to the end before the deadline. :)

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  10. So totally found this and wrote a story just for it. I'm not usually a fantasy writer, but I came up with a little something that I think is fun. Good to have contests to motivate you, and I love that there's no entrance fee.

    Sarah Allen
    (my creative writing blog)

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    1. Yep. My thoughts exactly. I'm presently 75% into my entry, so hopefully I should be done sometime tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

      P.S: I can't wait to read your entry.

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  11. Good luck! I just found the contest recently too and I submitted a story to it. It would be a fantastic anthology to be a part of, and the money is a nice perk. :)

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    1. Thanks Christine, and good luck to you too. :D

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  12. That's awesome! I hope you win. I didn't know about it. Damn. Have a great weekend!

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  13. Thank you very much for telling people about our contest, Michael :)

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    1. Hey! Yeah. You're welcome. And thanks for giving we writers the opportunity and motivation. :D

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