Since members have of late been posting all manner of suggestions for our next Writing Challenge, I have decided to dedicate this whole new thread where y'all can post ideas for what sorts of challenges you want to see in the future. Go to, intrepid writers of ATS, and post your suggestions here!

DE

The shortest horror story ever written goes:

"The last human on Earth sat quietly in a room.

There was a knock at the door."

Can anyone write a shorter story or one close to that short? To sum up the entire picture, beginning and end, in just a few words. Now THAT wuold be a challenge.

Another idea would be the "Freedom 2006" writing competition. Set the writers free with a 1000 word limit to write about anything they wish to write about. No topic is off limits as long as it is within the T&C's of the board.

Just a couple of thoughts to get you going. Good luck DE.

wupy

Great idea, DE



Let's hear it, Writers, what's your ideas?

Hmmmmmm....
Maybe we could go back into the depths of the Writing forum and find a story someone else as written. Then, try and write a sequel, or prequel, or something related to that storyline.
What do you guys think?

Alright folks, you have until this evening to put forth suggestions for the next writing contest. Within the next couple of days, we'll announce the next challenge.

Shouldn't stop you from posting suggestions, though. If you post at 2am or something, your idea might be in the next contest, or the one after that...

DE

i like the idea of the shortest story ever told, now that would be a challenge to do.

i like its been suggested before if it has then cool but how about picking a subject title in one of the forums for example in the aliens forum one of the titles says 'Phoneix UFO 4th of July.' we could create a story surrounding the title.

did that make sence god its late haha

Yeah, i'm one hundred percent behind the idea of a Dialogue only Short Story no matter what the subject matter.
I think that will be interesting to do, and read.

Hey, I can right. Just give me a bit of time and i'll do a story tonight.

I have a couple ideas I figured I'd throw into the mix here. I don't know if any of these have ever been suggested before, but...

1. A Movie Quotes/Song Lyrics only story. The whole story--or at least the dialogue--can consist only of lines from movies or songs. Maybe make it to where you can't use the same movie/song twice in the story, and you'd need to include "references."

2. Change a story. Pick a (hopefully popular) story line and completely rewrite it, or at least reword it. I'm sure we've all read a book or seen a movie and thought "Man, that was a good idea, but it would've been so much better if..." This would be a chance to do that. Of course, just making a full length novel into a short story could be a task in and of it's self...

3. Real-time story w/ time limit. The story has to take place in a certain amount of time, and in real time--no flashbacks, memories, asides, nothing. The contest judges pick the amount of time--an hour, 15 mintues, whatever--and the story has to start, conflict, and resolve in that time period. Probably not that difficult, but maybe it'll give someone else the start of an idea...

Okay, I'm done for now I think

I'm way late for the last challenge

But here's an idea for a future one: How about you give the punchline for a mystery and we have to write the story's details to get to the ending you gave?

A story about what you would be if you died and were reincarnated. Not Human.

Or a story based on your possesion of a famous persons body and mind and what you would do. (No Porn stars).

How about we have a Sherlock Holmes Mystery challenge?

The challenge would lie in the fact that any stories about Sherlock Holmes aren't allowed. Sherlock Holmes can only be a mentioned character in the Mystery. It would have to be set in London at the turn of the 19th century and be a mystery, but only parshally include Holmes as a character.

My suggestion would be a Historical Fiction Challenge.

Write a short work of fiction centered around an actual historical event or character. A fine example of historical fiction might be Braveheart (William Wallace and Bobby the Bruce were not really contemporaries, but it made for a good movie).

Historical fiction is basically just a historical narrative that's been tarted up a bit using the imaginative power of the writer.

Whadya think DE? Do I get a cookie?

That would be cool wyrde one, thinking about who or what i would choose as im writing this. Hmmm.......

One cookie in the post if DE doesnt come across.

I think the story line should go like this:

Typical guy/gal, living their life and muddling thru when one day, from out of the blue the voice of God screams, "CUT!!!! All of life is a stage and none of you are playing your parts correctly. I'm making these changes effective immediately...."

and let the authors run with it from there

Just a thought on a goofy Monday night,

wupy

Originally posted by mrwupy
I think the story line should go like this:

Typical guy/gal, living their life and muddling thru when one day, from out of the blue the voice of God screams, "CUT!!!! All of life is a stage and none of you are playing your parts correctly. I'm making these changes effective immediately...."

and let the authors run with it from there

Just a thought on a goofy Monday night,

wupy

to you mrwupy, great idea. If we don't get a similar challenge I think I'll write a story on it anyway, would you have any objections?

1000 words strikes me as quite limiting.

That's about 1 and 1/2 pages in a typical trade size novel using an 11 point font.

Looking at some of my short stories, they run 3637, 6889 and 8179 words in 12 point font WordPerfect 9.0.

Extremely short, short stories are more of an exercise like you'd find in a writing class than a short story imo.
Still though, gotta admire the writer who can pull it off.

Not me, I got too much to say and usually have the time to do it....



Grims Tear, great avatar.

Part of the issue is judging time, Dawg. Judges have to read through all the entries, in most cases, two or three times. In addition, the challenges are meant to be exactly that: writing exercises. Competitions like the annual Halloween Contest tend to be longer, but for the small dots on the landscape the rule of thumb is 500 words. We're still open to contest-level suggestions, of course, but I do enjoy having lots of skill-building material in between.

DE