You may recall that back in December I wrote that I would be participating in the Short Story Challenge by NYC Midnight. That challenge took place in January. I was having a very rough time in January (my best friend lost her battle with cancer on 1/6/24) and when I received my group and prompts I wasn’t sure I’d be able to write anything at all.
The story could be up to 2,500 words. My prompts were as follows:
Genre – Horror
Theme – Mass Production
Character – a Saboteur
I am not a fan of horror. I don’t watch horror films, I don’t read horror stories, and I certainly don’t write them. I was stumped. I had no idea what I would do. All my mind could focus on was the loss of my friend and the horrific suffering she went through the seven months prior.
That’s when I decided to write about her. I thought it could possibly be cathartic. I wrote from the vantage point of her cells and organs battling the cancer. I wasn’t sure if it really counted as horror, but it was a story I needed to tell. I managed to get it done on time and submit it.
Then I put it completely out of my mind and almost forgot about it entirely. I had it on my calendar that the results would be posted on 4/9/24, but it still slipped my mind. It wasn’t until yesterday (4/10/24) when I got an email with the judges’ feedback that I remembered. The feedback sounded pretty positive, but I still didn’t know how I’d done. I went to the website and pulled up the results. The top 10 writers from each group would advance. (Normally it would be top 5, but something happened at the beginning and they switched it to 10.)
Imagine my surprise to discover that I came in second in my group! The judges really seemed to like my spin on the prompts and apparently it fell into the horror genre after all.
The next round starts at midnight tonight (NY time) and we will only have 3 days to write up to 2,000 words using new prompts. I’m both excited and intimidated.
I certainly did not expect the judges to like my story so much. I really wrote it for me as I grieved. I guess that goes to show that I shouldn’t be worrying about what others think and simply write for me.
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