Sunday, September 19, 2010

Speaking of Chuck Wendig...

Well, we weren't, but I was poking around on his blog to day (it's awesome...I'm putting it in the links to the left because he's hilarious and brilliant and a free-lance writer and a figure worth learning from)...

Anyway, he's doing a Flash Fiction thing. Details HERE, but basically, he wants 1000 or less words of vacation-oriented horror stories...by which I mean, monsters and shite, not "my plane was THREE HOURS LATE and all I had to eat was these horrible peanuts and then the kid next to me wee'd himself and rolled in it". Whole other genre, that.

I figured it was right up our collective alley. We should all do it. He wants them by the 11th of Feb-October.

Best part: He's going to put them on his blog, as is, which means (you guessed it): Exposure! Fame! Fortune! Someone in "The Business" might read it!

Also, prizes may be involved. But, apparently, us Canucks will have to pay the shipping if we win.

6 comments:

Athena said...

I like the sound of this. The vacation element is the only thing giving me pause, because otherwise I'd have about 100 pieces of flash that I could write in a... flash. Flash, flash, flash. But I'll think of something, I'm sure.

E said...

This sounds like fun. However, I really really want to write a Bram Stoker-style haunted castle-type thingummie and I know I couldn't make it atmospheric enough. :(

Athena said...

I'm having trouble with the atmosphere too - to try to create a universe and tell a story in less than 1000 words... I'm afraid it might be a bit beyond me.

Although... Neil Gaiman manages to do it in 100 words with his story Nicholas Was...

Rhiannon said...

I'm going to (hopefully) achieve subtlety. Mostly to save on word count, but also because I personally find sneaky horror far more horrifying than in-your-face horror.

Or I could just send him that version of Red Riding Hood I did, but that feels kinda like cheating. Also, it's not scary enough, even if it is about a girl getting slaughtered in the woods.

This whole thing also reminds me of those ghost story books we used to get out of the library when we were kids. There was this one illustration in there that really upset me, for a story called The Thing - not the movie with Kurt Russell. I can't remember what the story was about, but that skeletal face wigged me out so much I couldn't look at it.

...Also, those stories were all really short. Which was what I was chiefly reminded of >:D

Athena said...

I'm 280 words in, and only 1/4 through the story, which means I need to cut back a bit on my word count.

Also giving me trouble: coming up with a name for the group of people in the story, coming up with a name for a female protaganist, coming up with a title for the story.

How are you guys doing?

Rhiannon said...

Well...

Not good. I'm usually alright with condensing a story down to a few paragraphs, but I've never done horror before. I read Steven King's It, and didn't find it as scary as I expected to, even with the whole evil clown thing. And you know how much I hate clowns.

I do have an idea, though...am attempting to make it work. I'll let you know how it goes >:D