Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Blizzard World Writing Contest

Blizzard has announced the 2011 Short Story Writing Contest. The 2010 contest was part of what got me started back on writing again.
Last year, my entry didn’t win. I don’t know if it was in the last cut or the first cut. I only know it didn’t make the cut. I would have loved to have known where I placed. Blizzard never gave out numbers, but I estimated (based on total number of words read by their judges) thousands of entries.
I’ve learned much since then, and I’m ready to give it another go. I read over the winning entries from 2009 and 2010, and even beyond improving the writing, I feel like I’ve got a better sense of what these judges are looking for. I’ve even got the beginnings of an idea for a story, but I know it needs work.
In its simplest form a story is a character, who wants something, and has to overcome obstacles to get it. Well, I’ve got a character, and I know what she wants. But right now, I don’t have much in the way of obstacles or conflict. That’s what I’m missing.
The deadline is September 20th, and I’ve still got my NaNo first draft to finish, as well the rewrites on the Unicorn story.

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