I write stuff for kids...and muse on writing, children's books, and the publishing industry in general

Monday, February 20, 2012

First Campaigner Challenge (of my Fourth Campaign, February 2012)

(Source)
The time has come for my First Campaigner Challenge, woot!!! The Challenge is:
Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “Shadows crept across the wall”. These five words will be included in the word count. 
If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), do one or more of these:
  • end the story with the words: "everything faded." (also included in the word count)
  • include the word "orange" in the story
  • write in the same genre you normally write
  • make your story 200 words exactly!
Feel free to use the picture to inspire you, or else see how whacky, creative, and original you can get :)

Once you’ve posted your Challenge post on your blog, pop back here and link directly to it in the Linky List below. Please make sure you include the direct URL link to your post, not just the link to your blog! Otherwise we won't be able to find your entry.

I've also set up the Linky List so you can "Like" entries, so make sure you come back here and vote for the People's Choice Awards!!! Like voting will remain open for the week after the Challenge ends, so you can take your time reading some/all of the entries and voting. As the like voting is not a popularity contest, it is only intended that people taking part in the actual Challenge should vote. So please don't go out and get your family/friends/other bloggers to vote for you. If you only have time to read/vote for a few entries, consider randomly selecting entries or starting at the end rather than at the beginning, so that the people at the end have their entries read and voted on as well.

Entries in the First Campaigner Challenge will close on Friday, February 24th (at 11.59pm EDT), so make sure you get your post in the Linky List before then. As usual, while everyone is very welcome to take part in this Challenge, only Campaigners will be eligible for prizes.

Thank you so much to all the Campaigners who have volunteered to judge one or more of the Challenges. I'm amazed by your generosity—you all rock!!! In terms of judging, Michael Offutt from SLC Kismet will be in touch about that very soon. If you don't hear from us this Challenge, we may contact you to judge the Second Challenge (there are more judges than we need though, so it's possible we might not need your help this time, though we would love to take you up on it in my next Campaign in August). I'd love you all to take a moment to pop over and follow Michael, to say thanks for all his hard work in co-ordinating the judging.

There will be a stack of prizes awarded this Challenge (and the Second Challenges), both for the entries that are judged the best (by the judges and by yourselves) and through Random.org. We're talking ARCs, books, critiques, and other items galore! I'll be announcing the winners in the weeks after the Challenge finishes, so keep an eye out.

And as to that, thank you so much to everyone who donated the dozens of prizes we'll be awarding in the Challenges. I'm blown away by your generosity! Ozlem Yiciki or Steph Schmidt will be in touch over the course of the Campaign to discuss details of your prize donation. And would everyone please take the time to follow Ozlem and follow Steph as a sign of your appreciation for their help - without them, I wouldn't have been able to offer prizes.

So, all that remains is to enjoy. Leave a comment to let me know you're doing the Challenge. Have fun writing your post, then pop round to the other entrants, check out their posts, follow and comment, and decide which entry or entries YOU like the best!

And don't forget to add your name and post link to the Linky Link below before 11.59 pm this Friday!

IMPORTANT: DON'T PUT YOUR NAME IN THE LINKY LIST UNTIL YOU'VE WRITTEN YOUR POST - THEN LINK DIRECT TO THAT POST PLEASE (ie, insert the complete URL to your Challenge post, not your blog address/URL)




90 comments:

David P. King said...

Entry in. And with a prompt like that, we're going to have a lot of suspenseful entries, I bet. Looking forward to reading them! :)

Sabrina A. Fish said...

Done. Great prompt! I cannot wait to read the different entries.

Elodie said...

This is FUN :D

Rek Sesh said...

Entered mine...off to read the others.

PT Dilloway said...

Meh. You guys need to come up with something different. It's always "write a flash fiction story with..."

That's not much of a challenge if you've done 12 of them through all these crusade/campaigns.

Unknown said...

I like this one :-) No weird, I'm-sure-you-made-that-up words we have to try and fit in! (Bet you're gonna put some of those in next time!)

PS - looks like Uncle Grumpy Bulldog is living up to his name!

Morgan said...

I've never written a flash fiction piece before, so this was waaaay fun for me :D

Southpaw said...

I've read a few already and they are pretty good.

Michael Horvath said...

Wow! I could have very easily put a couple of things you requested into my last post from 2 days ago to enter the contest. I think I will wait for the next challenge since it might appear that I was catered to if I won. lol With all the great writers out there and me being a "rookie" I'm just happy to have new blogsites to learn from.

Humpty Dumpty said...

Hi, Rachel! I was so anxious to link up my flash fiction that I actually forgot to 'publish' the story on my blog, so no one can access it. Would you be able to delete the first My Withershins linky (# 28)? I will try again. Sorry about the error.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Humpty Dumpty, you are not posting your story with an accessible link. Your number 28 is bad and so is your number 36 that you just posted.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Humpty, the link you want to correct for is this one:

http://mywithershins.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/flash-fiction-campaigner-challenge/

I went ahead and added you to the spreadsheet for judging but people just surfing through the list will not be able to follow your link because it dead ends at the wordpress login page.

Unknown said...

love this prompt...will get to work on it soon! thanks yo you and all the helping folks!

Ann Cory said...

Great challenge, very much enjoyed! Made Monday a little more fun :)

Esther Jones said...

So excited about this challenge. I wrote a trochaic tetrameter poem b/c I love tradition poetic forms and the first line you gave us was already a trochaic tetrameter. :) Can't wait to read the other entries.

Jamie McHenry said...

This is a good one. Thanks, Rachael!

Rachael Harrie said...

So glad you're all enjoying it :)

@Grumpy, a lot of people are new to the Campaign, and were wanting to try this type of Challenge out. The next one will be completely different.

Carrie Butler said...

I love these challenges, Rach. They're always so fun! By the way, congratulations on hitting 1400! :)

Rachael Harrie said...

*grins* Thanks Carrie :)

Hugs,

Rach

Gwen Gardner said...

Rach, I messed up:( Can you delete my #52 please? I linked it to my blog instead of the post. I entered again (correctly) under #53. Thank you!

Claire L. Fishback said...

I'm in and posted! Yay! I love prompts like this!

Hiroko said...

I'm sure something weird will come out of my head for this challenge, with one or two of those options in mind...

Nick Wilford said...

I really enjoyed this. I've certainly never done a challenge like this before, so it was new to me. Thanks Rach! Looking forward to the next one!

Unknown said...

Fun challenge, my entry is in and I am looking forward to reading others.

Rebecca Barrow said...

This was so fun! Hopefully I will be able to read everybody else's too :)

SelahJanel said...

Ooooh, definitely want to get in on this! Looks like a fun time, though my entry probably won't be up until wed. night or thurs!

Angela McCallister said...

Done! Probably not my most creative, and maybe not exactly flash fiction, but this certainly is a great way to learn how to cut down on word counts! Can't wait to read the other entries over the next couple days. Thanks for posting the challenge :)

alexia said...

My entry is in! This was quite fun. And, although I could swear I started following you a year or so ago, I am now refollowing you because I couldn't find you in my Google Reader lists.

Sherri Lackey said...

I posted my entry and now I'm reading other entries. This is great fun!!!

Unknown said...

I hath finished my entry, and I will return when the time cometh.

RaeAnn said...

Thanks Rach! I'm joining the challenge. I'm entry 2! Thanks so much!

Charmaine Clancy said...

At number 83 I see I was a bit late finding this challenge. Not to worry, was exactly what I needed after a week of formatting my ebook, ugh.
Now I am going to try and read every single story!
So cool!

Amber Clites said...

Entry in and I'm number 82. Had a lot of fun writing and even more fun reading everyones entries! Hope they enjoy my as well.

Sorcha said...

Thanks for the challenge, posting entry now :)

Avery Marsh said...

That was fun. Now to go check out all the amazing entries! Thanks for the challenge. :)

Jess said...

This prompt was AWESOME!! Loved it! And thanks, everyone who has voted for me!

Erin Shakespear said...

Thanks for the fun challenge. :)

Anonymous said...

Really enjoyed this challenge - thanks!

Roland D. Yeomans said...

My entry is in ... late due to my horrendous hours as a blood courier during Mardi Gras! It is an excerpt from my WIP NEW ORLEANS ARABESQUE, told through the eyes of my undead Texas Ranger, Captain Sam McCord. It involves the true first mass murder in New Orleans, as yet still unsolved : the bloody death of the Turk known as the Sultan, his harem (of kidnapped women from the streets of New Orleans), and his entire household staff! Brrrr.

Nancy Thompson said...

I'm in...#96. And I can't wait to wade through all the entries. Thanks for this hosting this wonderful event!

Erin Kane Spock said...

Okay, entry is posted and linked. Looking forward to reading the other entries. Actually, looking forward to having time to read the other entries -- man, over 100!

Charmaine Clancy said...

It would be really great if bloggers could turn off their word verifications for comments. Makes getting through the list take much longer and is just annoying. Blogger picks up the spammers now, you'll see.
Thanks :)

Cynthia said...

Looking forward to working on this challenge!

ETowns said...

I submitted my entry tonight. I can't believe how many people are already done! I will be hopping around reading some entries tomorrow. So much talent, wow!

C.B. Wentworth said...

I posted my entry this morning! Thanks for coming up with such a fun challenge. :-)

Synithia W said...

Just submitted mine. This was a fun challenge. I look forward to reading the others :)

James said...

I just submitted mine. It was great fun.

Marcy said...

Thanks again for hosting another awesome campaign. My entry is in.

Betsy Love said...

Rachael, You're awesome for doing this!!!

Unknown said...

Done! This is the first time that I'm doing the Campaign and so far it's a lot of fun.

Skippy Bo Bippy said...

My first Campaign as well, lots of fun and some tremendously talented writers in this group. Great idea.. thanks Rachael for taking the time to put this together!

Cortney Pearson said...

Just posted my entry! What a fun prompt! I'm excited to go read everyone else's now!!! Thanks, Rach! :D

Unknown said...

I've been having fun reading, commenting and voting. Now I just have to get mine out there. :)

Unknown said...

I had a blast with this!! Here's the link to my post: http://vickiorians.blogspot.com/2012/02/4th-campaign-1st-challenge.html. Hope you all enjoy!

Andora Brokaw said...

This is a lot of fun. I love how much interaction is going on. My only regret is that I didn't find out about the Campaign until the first prompt went out, which was after the deadline to be an official Campaigner. Oh, well. C'est le vie. I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy playing along anyway. :)

Miranda Hardy said...

Thank you for hosting this Rach. Love the challenge and I look forward to reading everyone's entries. I just posted my story up. Enjoy.

Christy Farmer said...

As Miranda said, thanks Rachael for hosting this. The Write Campaign is such fun and an awesome way to meet so many talented writers. I am enjoying reading the entries.

Melissa said...

Woohoo! Nice prompt. Mine's posted. I'm looking forward to reading the rest. ; )

amymarie said...

Hi Rachael. I just wanted to say I had to put my link in twice. The first time it wasn't working for some reason. Hope it works this time. I don't know how to delete the first link...

Debra Harris-Johnson said...

Really great challenge! Really great challengers! I'll be reading them all and rooting for you all. Can't wait to see who wins.
dreamweaver

Rachael Harrie said...

It's great to see you enjoying the Challenge so much :) Wait until you see the next one *grins*

@amymarie - you're only showing up once in my list

Hugs,

Rach

Naresh Khoisnam said...

My first time here and I wrote a poem. Loved it. Looking forward to future challenges.

Neil Vogler said...

I'm in. Good stuff. I had fun!

Cherie Reich said...

It was a great challenge, Rach! Now I'm slowly making my way to read everyone's entries. :)

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

i see you have really upped your followers and exposure since we talked - good for you :)

MISH said...

YAY! I've posted my entry at no.166 - I'm off to read some of the other entries!

Golden Eagle said...

Just posted and linked to my entry, #175!

It was a great challenge. :)

Maurice Mitchell said...

Awesome idea for a campaign! Arlee's story was really good.

Anonymous said...

@Uncle Grumpy - if it's not challenging enough for you, add your own challenge!

I've written plenty of flash fiction, but never for middle grade fantasy. I've never even seen such a beast. So, that was my own challenge.

Tia Bach said...

I always do the Linky and forget the target, but I'm #169.

Rebekah Loper said...

Got mine in this morning, woohoo!

Lauren W. said...

My first Flash Fiction Challenge! It was so much fun! Thanks Rachel. I'm off to go check everyone's creations out :)

Anonymous said...

Just eneterd mine. I'll have to read some more later today!

fairbetty said...

Totally screwed up and just put the blog address instead of the post address... Sorry :( New to this!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for thinking up this fun challenge. I LOVE flash fiction. :)

Heather said...

Annndddd.... Done! Thanks! :)

Sheery said...

I got it in just in time! I was worried as it has been a crazy week. Thanks for a wonderful prompt.

Anna Mittower said...

Ok, linkytools doesn't seem to want to load for me (and I'm running out of time to wait for it). So here's the link to my entry: http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/02/flash-fiction-time.html

Sylvia said...

I entered my story last night, but it doesn't seem to have registered :(

Good luck with the challenge everyone!

Anonymous said...

Hi, just wanted to say that I saw this and intrigued enough that I decided to try it out even though I'm dead certain I'm past your deadline.

I'm actually hoping to get feedback and such more than anything, have written longer form before but this is my first attempt at flash-fiction.

If you are willing, thanks in advance, if not then no worries and thanks for this thing that caught my creative eye.

Cheers.

Anna Mittower said...

Please ignore my last comment. It seems linkytools worked after all and I snuck in at #209 as the last entry.

Sara Flower said...

Thank you so much for hosting this! :) It is so fun seeing what everyone wrote.

Julie Jordan Scott said...

I found out about the challenge after it was over. I wrote before I realized that... and I hope next time I will find the challenge before its due date. What a great idea!

Surely Write said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Surely Write said...

I enjoyed this challenge. This was my first attempt at flash fiction and the writing prompt provided me a great opportunity to attempt writing something creepy, something I've been wanting to try. Thanks for the challenge.

Shan Jeniah Burton said...

My husband was critically injured in an accident the night before the challenge was announced. By the time I remembered, it was over.

I played along anyway, and loved it! Just enough things to work in to make it challenging without feeling restrictive.

Mine is here....http://shanjeniah.com/2012/03/02/platform-building-campaign-belated-first-challenge/

I'm going to go read some of the actual, on-time entries now.

Sher A. Hart said...

My husband, the guy who I thought never read my blog, called me to say he found a comment about me being a winner. Seriously? I was happy enough just finding out I made semi-finals. What place, I wondered. Of course my internet chose that moment to go down so I couldn't check for myself.
I hope it's not a joke...so I'm not digging into my chocolate stash just yet. But I am smiling in very cliche ear to ear style.

JD said...

I'm still slowly reading all the stories, having got from 82 to 185. I'd like to call out some of my favourites (they are heavily tilted to fantasy/SF), since voting is over.

82 Amber after glow
85 Creative type pre-op
117 Carrie Bastyr
121 Uglie
126 Arlie Birds tossing it out
128 Bess It's the world dear (a gem)
132 Cindy Thrasher
149 Melissa Maygrove
152 The literary mom (a gem)
162 A writer he muttered
167 Writer on fire
175 The Eagle's Aerial
179 Accidental Novelist
182 Suburban fantasy

The others not listed were also enjoyable, with almost no exceptions.

I'll post again after reading another hundred, or hopefully all.

Unknown said...

This was a challenge for sure. I didn't do the pitch or poem. Next time, I guess. Rach, I am truly enjoying reading the other entries. It is so fun to see all the amazing stories that come from the same pictures. Thank you for your hard work and effort.

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