One Hundred Word Story Competition
One Hundred Word Story Competition: An Unnecessarily Elaborate Guide?
Outline
A one hundred word story is exactly what it’s name implies; a story written with just 100 words. Because of this imposing limitation each and every word must be chosen with care. This is to novel writing what mining is to sculpture. An emphasis on precision and succinctness as opposed to quantity and depth. In short, they are short. A “one hundred word story competition” is a contest in which people write said one hundred word stories and vie for supremacy in the eyes of the judges. Well duh. You don’t have to be clever or anything, just able to write and count.
The choosing of a theme etc.
The winner of each competition shall pick the theme for the next.
Rules
1. Stories must, obviously, be 100 words exactly. Anything more or less than this limit will be rejected, so count them up carefully before submission. Use tools like Microsoft Word’s “word count” only as a guide.
2. Punctuation will not count as words (i.e. “ ? . ( ) !)
3. Hyphenated words will be counted as two or more words (i.e. Grasshopper-Vic)
4. Two or more words pretending to be a single word will be counted as two words (i.e. greentrees)
5. The title of your story will not count towards the limit, so no worries there as long as you don’t try to be sneaky and include half your story in the title. Try to keep it less than ten words.
6. Stories must be your own work. So no plagiarizing, pirating and/or bootlegging. Influence is one thing, breaches of copyright are quite another.
7. You may only submit one story. If you submit two I’ll inform Quirk of your Insolence, and he will mock you for all he’s worth. If you submit more than two then there’s a high probability of posse forming by said Quirk, followed inevitably by beatings and more mockings. If Quirk himself should enter twice or more… well, let's cross that bridge when we come to it.
8. Your story must take into account the chosen theme. For example, if the theme is “reincarnation” then your story must involve reincarnation somehow. Simple. Even if you just imply or include the word/s of the theme, that will be acceptable. Try to make it reasonably clear, or, very subtle and clever if you can.
9. Poems will be accepted so long as they are of a story-like nature, and conform to all the rules.
10. Words such as can't and don't, whatever these are called (contractions?), shall henceforth be counted as only one word, not two words pretending to be one.
Submitting your story & Voting
In order to ensure or at least give the impression of fairness, all entries will be submitted anonymously. To do this your story must be submitted via PM to The Middle-Man, sir archely. Once all entries have been received, they will be published and a public poll will be opened. Most votes, wins. In case of a draw, the tied competitors shall fight to the death.... Or, if this is impractical, a second vote shall be held, with just the tied entries being voted upon.
You're quite welcome to vote for your own entry, if you think it's the best, or even if you're just feeling a little insecure. I can't enforce fairness in a public vote, so it's up to the voters on what basis they will judge excellence. Vote for the story with the cutest writer, if that's what you want to do (well actually you can't do this, since the entry's authors will remain anonymous till after voting, but you get the idea).
Important Note: When you enter in the competition you effectively sign a contract. Should you win you must choose the theme for the next competition. If you are unable to do so then someone will be chosen to take your place. Probably my mum. Also your soul will become the property of Miramax, and you may at some point be approached by an enormous hairy man who will propose to buy all your fine china.
Winners will have their names and stories featured in a specially created thread in the reflections forum, which i will at some point create, promise, and gain full possession of all bragging rights. Nobody will get any prizes/money/wishes granted/record label contracts as a result of winning this competition. If you want you can have my unpaired socks, but you’ll have to pitch in for the shipping.
Examples
Unsure of where to begin? These sites may be of use to you:
http://www.pacifier.com/~ascott/fictions/100words.htm
http://100words.blogdrive.com/
http://www.wordjourneys.com/shortstories.htm
http://www.100words.net/front.cfm
Random
"We have got to get by the lions first," said Jo, as if she
rather liked the prospect.
-Little Women
Also
If you are unsure of anything, feel free to contact me by posting here, private message, e-mail or telepathy. No pigeons please, unless they're nice and plump, and you don't want to see them again. And suggestions and bits of advice are always more than welcome.
And that’s aboot it.
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Re: One Hundred Word Story Competition
Originally Posted by Buck
~serious face~
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