SHORT STORY WRITERS CONTEST for JANUARY 2020 - YOU. AS ANOTHER LIFE FORM. -- YA2020

This is an Official ATS Short Story Writers Contest!

It is open to ALL members of ATS.

There are prizes to be won in the form of ATS "Applause" and even the opportunity for entrants to acquire official ATS "writer" status, but it is more about sharing our creative ideas, encouraging & developing new talent and having Fun!
We will try to hold around one contest 4-6 times per year.

The current contest theme is: "YOU, AS ANOTHER LIFE FORM!". [YA2020]
In SykPak's words..... It can be Humanoid, Insect, Animal, or Plant Based. It can be Land based, or Water based. It can Be "Real", or "Fictional/Mythological".
The topic was chosen by our current contest champion SyxPak.


Your assignment is writing a SHORT STORY which contains or relates to the theme: "YOU, AS ANOTHER LIFE FORM!!"
HOW you do that is... of course, up to YOU!
What kind of life form will you choose?
Will it be a little green man?
Will it be something out of the bar scene in Star Wars?
Will it be what man might be like in 2120?
Or a blob of slime with intellect?
Or like the animals of today, but with human qualities?


RULES of ENTRY:
Original written entries only please.

The contest will run from NOW to Thurs 30th Jan. 2020.
(Any submissions after that date will be disqualified.)

A period of ONE WEEK after the closing of the contest will be provided for reading & voting.

All TERMS and CONDITIONS Apply.

All entries MUST include [YA2020] in the title.
(e.g. "The Blob Came to Visit! [YA2020]”)

There is no word count limit, but please remember that it is a SHORT story contest!

All entries must be posted in their own thread within the SHORT STORIES forum HERE, with a link (to your entry) added to a post in this contest thread. (Just ask if you're not sure how to link!)

Please END all of your submissions with "THE END" so that everyone is clear that your entry is complete.



WINNERS:
There will be 3 winners among members who already have ATS "Writer" status, prizes as follows:

1st Place -- 5 Applause, and selection of the next contest theme (limited to one in a row)
2nd Place -- 3 Applause
3rd Place -- 1 Applause

There will also be 3 winners from the non-writer category who will receive the following:

1st Place -- 3 Applause & Writer Status
2nd Place -- 2 Applause & Writer Status
3rd Place -- 1 Applause

Scoring

Points are awarded by ATS members giving FLAGS to their favourite story threads and STARS to their favourite story posts.
(You can award a Flag and/or star(s) to any stories that you like, but please don't give flags or stars for any other reasons!!)

Flags awarded will be worth 2 points each.
Stars will be worth 1 point each.
Stars for additional Story Posts (after the opening one) will be worth 0.5 points each.

If the winner of the "Writers" section is the same person who chose the current theme, then the opportunity to choose the next theme will fall to the runner up.

I am happy to try answer anything else the contests/rules etc.

And please... ENJOY this new contest, GOOD LUCK, HAPPY READING and HAVE FUN!

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe


Ummm...dayum...that sucks...

The submission that I won writers status with two or was it three contests ago...was a first/second/third person story from the...voice...of another life form...







YouSir

a reply to: YouSir

I had no clue there was a contest topic that close.......

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Great choice for a topic! Good luck everyone!

"What just happened"


As Norg was looking at the Earth from his ship he thought how is this human doing this. How can this monkey be so powerful? Is it really just a mere human or is it in disguise living as a human? As Norg thinks to pull up a shot of the human in its natural hebetate he notices nothing odd about him but the Uniwaves were off the charts when he noticed it in hyperspace. Waves like that should not exist in the natural world but here he is creating them even though the human doesn’t seem to be aware that he is making a giant spot light on his planet. Norg thought he was lucky that he was the first to notice it so maybe he can get famous for capturing this human creature, this oddity.


Once the human went to sleep Norg pulls up his teleport command and beams him into a cryochamber where the human stays sleeping... for a few seconds. Shockingly the human opens his eyes and breaks open the chamber freaking Norg out. The last thing he saw was his ship exploding around him and a evil grin on the humans face.


The human woke in his bed saying “what a weird dream”.

THE END






IDK just thought of It lol

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Oh it is on. . . It is so-oooo on!

a reply to: watchandwait410

You have to make a separate thread for your entry.
Do you know how?

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: YouSir

I had no clue there was a contest that close.......

Ummm...no...it’s a really good idea...the other contest was about spring...

I just used another life form to tell the story...

I’ll just have to try to top that story...it’s probably the hardest thing to try and think in a truly alien mindset...
Humans always anthropomorphize...non-human/alien characters...either that or invent some language and translated definitions...

I think those styles are copouts...

I wonder if it can even be done...but I’ll give it another attempt...

Not dissing Syx or the theme...just wondering aloud about how to accomplish the telling...from a truly non-human perspective...and still drag your emotions kicking and screaming along for the ride...





YouSir

originally posted by: YouSir

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: YouSir

I had no clue there was a contest that close.......

Ummm...no...it’s a really good idea...the other contest was about spring...

I just used another life form to tell the story...

I’ll just have to try to top that story...it’s probably the hardest thing to try and think in a truly alien mindset...
Humans always anthropomorphize...non-human/alien characters...either that or invent some language and translated definitions...

I think those styles are copouts...

I wonder if it can even be done...but I’ll give it another attempt...

Not dissing Syx or the theme...just wondering aloud about how to accomplish the telling...from a truly non-human perspective...and still drag your emotions kicking and screaming along for the ride...

YouSir

Hmm...I guess if it was a truly alien mind-set you couldn't understand it at all and it would be pointless to try. As for anthropomorphizing - I don't think it is a cop-out. It helps a human understand things in terms a human can relate to. If you were to think as an animal sure that would be boorish, our minds think at a higher level. But if you were to think like God, then you would have to lower your thinking to help us understand it.

I like the idea. I hope I can join in.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe
Woot!

Awesome topic!

~Scrambles around for my crayons~

a reply to: SimpleIdea


Ummm...we’ll have to agree to disagree...

StarWars and StarTrek copped out by sticking alien heads on human bodies and using purely human character flaw to illustrate alien interaction...

I suppose I’ve just become jaded by those approaches...

You make some broad claims as per understanding...it makes me question...how you could possibly...know...?







YouSir

originally posted by: YouSir
a reply to: SimpleIdea


Ummm...we’ll have to agree to disagree...

StarWars and StarTrek copped out by sticking alien heads on human bodies and using purely human character flaw to illustrate alien interaction...

I suppose I’ve just become jaded by those approaches...

You make some broad claims as per understanding...it makes me question...how you could possibly...know...?

YouSir

Well I was thinking of the definition of the term alien. If it wasn't alien then it wouldn't be called alien.

I think we can to a certain extant imagine what an animal thinks by observing it. I am sure they don't have the level of intelligence we have.

Then I am taking from what I know reading the Bible. It anthropomorphizes God. If he didn't need to anthropomorphize himself for us to understand him then he wouldn't have done it that way.

Welp, here's my contribution:

The Abridged Journals of Hasufel the Brave

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

My entry for the contest - writer.

A better Life

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe
Fun topic, thank you!

My submission:

My Life on Thuraliam
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Just for fun and giggles I made up a story, and since I'm not an writer I won't be offended if you don't get it.. I'm not an author.. I work with data gathering on strange genres... those are usually my type of stories, reports mostly.

And I can't win anyways so it's just an exercise to reaffirm that I'm not a good storyteller.. LOL. But if your inclined to see what a mess I spun in print.. here she be:

The Neophyte Contest [YA2020]

I wish everyone participating much success and those that are reading please do your part and star/flag their submissions.


Johnny
(not a story teller)

*Peeks out from behind the curtain. ..

I'm on it.

Fall From Grace [YA2020]

My first contribution to Short Stories. I had fun writing it 😁

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

It was to have been a glorious union with my two mates, which would have led to many beautiful babies, but fate intervened.

A hard cold thing had come into the world from the outer darkness and disturbed the dance of union, the sweet meld of forms. It stung coldly against my membrane and it ablated like powder to the touch.

Suddenly this thing drew the interest of all my family, as there were clearly some sort of minds there? And the strangeness of them!

Often things had come from the outer dark. Cold things. Empty things. Breaking apart in the light of the world and warming until absorbed. But this, this thing pushed, this thing felt the currents and moved in its response, of its own volition. In jets and sprays it wriggled about.

This thing or rather, these things, knew what they were doing and only sought to understand, but their assumptions had been wrong and they now knew it. They would loose existence in the star, absorbed, like the old ones, and they feared to let go from their existences.

My family agreed that these ill fated creatures could be saved and so we lifted them back towards the outer darkness. Happily, their engines fired up again and they climbed back up, in their wobbly way, off into the dark and deep cold.

Briefly we all allowed our minds to reveal themselves to the strange beings with messages we hoped were of peace and joy.

--------------------

On board the UES Sundiver Two, Captain Sarah Belston went rigid in her chair and toppled over on her side. She tried to look to her crew as her eyes rolled upwards and she began to vomit. There was someone talking, not not talking, they were in her head. They were trying to help. That was why they lifted the ship back up to the surface of the sun.

They were saying they saved us when we hit the energy band at the border of the sunspot and the energy dissolved too much of the ships ablative cover, creating a penetrative puncture in the engine cowling.

She looked back down at the sunspot from which they were emerging, back through the heavy filters which allowed her fragile eyes to see.

There were the arcs and floes following the tremendous magnetic fields puncturing the Solar surface, leaving the inevitable bright ring at the edges. She looked down through the edge of her own last shreds of consciousness into the hole in the chromosphere.

And the Sunspot blinked...

Humanity's End

www.abovetopsecret.com...