The 24 hour short story challenge
(But you'll get a little more time than that...)
I am fascinated by science fiction writer Harlan Ellison writing short stories in a book store window. He wrote short stories with everyone watching for years, and people questioned if he already had the stories, so he began to take suggestions for topics from people watching. Chris Carter of X-files fame gave him the topic of a 102-year-old pregnant corpse, and he wrote a story based on that idea.
So thus the idea behind this contest was born. You can write a short story in a short amount of time.
Click here for last week's winners and entries.
Here are the terms of the contest.
Write a short story no longer than 2,000 words, based on the topic phrase.
Here is the topic for you short story:
A man suspects his neighbor is an alien, from outer space.
Here are the rules for entry
1. Upvote this post.
2. Resteem this post (And actually even you don't enter this contest and you read this post, resteeming this would be greatly appreciated to get the word out for more participants. Thanks!)
3. In your post put a link to this post.
4. Post a link to your story in the comments below.
Entries are due by 9 p.m. EST (New York/D.C. Time) Tuesday May 29. This actually gives you a little over 48 hours from when I make this post. But I want to give more time to allow for more people to enter the contest. Use the tag twentyfourhourshortstory for your first tag. (Don't use # before the tag or it goes over the 24 character limit. 24...24 hour short story contest...Ironic don't you think...)
Feel free to use other tags as you wish.
Prizes are:
5 Steem for First Place.
3 Steem for Second Place
1 Steem for third Place
And depending on how many entries I receive I may give out Steem for other entries. But again that all depends on the amount and quality of posts.
(I am personally putting up the rewards for this contest, there be no whales here capt’in. So upvoting and resteeming helps keep this thing going.)
So please upvote with as much power as you can. That helps fund the contest.
Here's what you get for participating, even if you don't win.
1. I upvote every entry, and I resteem every entry to over 1,000 followers.
2. I create a post at the end of every contest and I mention and link to your post. Again going out to over a 1,000 followers.
3. A regular community of participants has developed around this contest and they read and comment on the entries.
4. (Then of course there is the chance for winning some extra Steem!)
Thanks for reading and good luck! Can't wait to see what you come up with.
P.S. If by Friday you see I have not resteemed or upvoted your entry, shoot me a comment. I may have missed it. I am getting more entries to read, and contrary to rumor I am human.
Here's my entry:
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@oivas/jack-the-stranger
You know, you say you are human an awful lot, a lot more than any human ever would, and now a story about the alien next door eh... lol
Yeah, right...lol
Well here we have it, based on a true story...
The Man Across The Street
Thank you for another great round!
Here's my entry: A Long-Lost Alien Friend
I really needed this variety to my writing :)
Hello. this is my entry ENERGY VAMPIRES . Thanks for the opportunity.
Hi @mctiller, you haven't upvoted or resteemed my entry... I know you're human, lol
I gotcha now. Busy week and have been off of Steemit for a few days.
My entry:
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@fjmb86/my-neighbor-a-new-martian-friend
I would love to enter this but I have stopped entering contests that require resteems because I’m trying to build up my own consistent content on my blog and I don’t want to drown it out, and I enter a fair amount of contests. I would be happy to do it if Steemit provided the infrastructure to distinguish between original content and resteems, or just let them show up in your followers’ feeds only. Just putting this out there to let you know, as I’ve been doing with others who require resteems for their contests, because I think this is a barrier for many people. It does seem like a lot of fun though. (To be clear, I’m not asking permission to enter without resteeming because that would be unfair to other contestants who already have; just offering a suggestion to switch it to optional or require that contestants link back in their posts—some other solution to publicize.)
Not a big fan of mandatory resteems either.
It makes me selective when it comes to contests.
I don’t like people forcing re-steems. Not everybody in my stream likes competitions.
Hi @mctiller. I think this is a great idea. However I usually don’t enter competitions which make it a “requirement” to “vote” and “re-steem”. Both of these should be the free-choice of the user. In this case I would be happy to vote, but not to clog up my feed with a resteem. I only re-steem content that is truly outstanding, and competitions unfortunately don’t fall into that category. As I won’t re-steem the competition, I understand if you dis-qualify me.
However, this caught my eye because it REALLY happened to me about 10 years ago.
Here is the link to my story: https://steemit.com/aliens/@swissclive/how-i-discovered-my-neighbour-was-an-alien-from-outer-space
So here is the beginning of my TRUE story.
‘We lived in a small sleepy village in a little cul de sac with fairly large individual houses. People keep themselves to themselves. You don’t know your neighbours. You almost never even see them.
One of our neighbours had sold his house. We came to learn that the buyer was the A foreign ambassador, or maybe the embassy itself. There was nothing particularly surprising in that. In fact several people in our village were diplomats or ambassadors...........”
To read the rest of the story about the aliens, go to my link above.
source: https://pixabay.com/en/winter-light-palm-garden-green-girl-177958/
Hopefully still in time... my entry for this week: https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@nobyeni/the-alien-neighbour-flash-short-story
Just like @swissclive, this story is also based on true facts. Just not in the same way..
Hi @mctiller, you didn't resteem it (which is okay) but I do hope you've seen my story. And looking forward to the next 24hourshortstory prompt already!
Here is my entry
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@cheekah/a-strange-encounter
Here's my entry
I've got a feeling it's too late though. Just had to do something. It's been too long since I did fiction
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@iamthegray/a-knock-on-the-door-there-s-an-alien-at-the-door
Blessings
Couldn't resist this weeks prompt :)
Here is my entry:
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@cizzo/alien-neighbourhood-watch-24hr-short-story-challenge
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@tokiya/four-days-to-prove-that-my-neighbor-is-an-alien-short-science-fiction-story
This is my first attempt of comedy, i hope you like it.
Mine, humbly submitted...
https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@seesladen/le-petite-mort-little-death-short-fiction
I was wondering if youpublished the name of the winner yet? I could not find anything in your blogs.
Not yet. Later this evening by 8 pm EST. Been a busy week and off of Steemit this week.
I appreciate you asking.
It's up now you won. Loved your story.
Check your wallet.
Thank you very much @mctiller! I am very honoured to be the winner of your great competition. It wasn't something I expected. The 5 steem prize has been received safely!