April 2018 Flash Contest - The Premise

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The Old Flame
A Fantasy/Horror Fiction Writing Contest.


The Premise:

She was awkward and unattractive in high school. The guys ridiculed her as she walked by them. The popular girls teased her unmercifully each and every day of her high school experience.

And then years later, something happened...

She had a car wreck that sent her through the windshield, making her a candidate for a new type of plastic surgery. Six months later, she...was...gorgeous.

She took dance lessons to acquire poise and posture, new sexy clothes and plenty of disposable cash thanks to the lawsuit from the car accident.

And now a story of revenge.

Bitterness can be a motivating factor for some and she wanted to get even with the people who made her suffer.

Start the story with her quest for revenge. Create a single character as the object of her vengeful fixation and end the story with her setting fire to their place of residence.

The look, the feel and the plot of this contest theme is in your hands.


The Rules:

01. Stories submitted must be under 1,000 words.
02. No "overt" sex, violent acts or foul language. Keep events subtle (making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve your plot and story).
03. No images allowed in story submission.
04. Feel free to comment on the stories and writing topics in general throughout the story writing and voting time periods.
05. If you have something unfavorable to say about a story, make it constructive, so the author can benefit from your viewpoint and insight.
06. Never speak negative about the authors themselves.


Timelines

The writing period will be for 9 days starting on Friday March 30, 2018 and will end on Saturday April 7, 2018.

The voting period will be for 1 week and commence on Sunday April 8, 2018 to Saturday April 14, 2018.

The results will be posted after the voting has concluded.



"The Old Flame" flash writing contest begins...now.

I'm overlapping the last two days of voting for the March (Part 2) contest, with the premise for the April 2018 contest.

[Lester Curtis]

Suggestion ... remove the requirement for arson, since it would be a violation of Rule #2 as pertaining to both violence and subtlety. Worse, I think it could be a roadblock to some perhaps unexpected outcomes. Good stories are about how people react to events.

Sure, the story can start with a wish for revenge, but it shouldn't be constrained to resulting in wanton destruction when so many more interesting endings are possible. Even if the story does end in revenge (and I don't think it should be compelled to), that doesn't have to be violent or crude. I'd like to be surprised.

Suggestion ... remove the requirement for arson, since it would be a violation of Rule #2 as pertaining to both violence and subtlety. Worse, I think it could be a roadblock to some perhaps unexpected outcomes. Good stories are about how people react to events.

Sure, the story can start with a wish for revenge, but it shouldn't be constrained to resulting in wanton destruction when so many more interesting endings are possible. Even if the story does end in revenge (and I don't think it should be compelled to), that doesn't have to be violent or crude. I'd like to be surprised.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Arson is the point of the story when I considered the title, "The Old Flame".

But it doesn't have to violate rule number 2. It's up to the writer to find ways of crafting the story that is not overt or gruesome. The second sentence of rule 2 is...Keep events subtle (making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve your plot and story).

It can be done. Take the movie, "The Long Hot Summer" with Paul Newman as the feared man who settles scores by fire. It was handled in a way that was enjoyed by general audiences.

All of the contests I've done so far have been wide concepts. This contest theme in particular is designed with a specific backstory that the writer must further develop.

It will be fine.

The first story is in. Can you believe that?

[Wormtongue]

The first story is in. Can you believe that?

Sergio works fast. Heh. Heh.

The first story is in. Can you believe that?

Sergio works fast. Heh. Heh.

True, however this time it is another regular member. I love it!

Oh, so it seems I'm late this month...eh,eh...but yesterday was holiday/vacation day here, as it happens the next day following Easter... so I was asleep...eh,eh

Anyway, ready to do my duty...within the end of the day, a story will sort out...well, the idea is just on my mind... and it's not a bad one...

Ok, mine is done, now waiting for the usual reviews/suggestions before sending it in...eh,eh

Ok, mine is done, now waiting for the usual reviews/suggestions before sending it in...eh,eh

1 hour and 11 minutes and yours is done? I'm in a wonderland of conceptual geniuses.

[kailhofer]

Ok, mine is done, now waiting for the usual reviews/suggestions before sending it in...eh,eh

1 hour and 11 minutes and yours is done? I'm in a wonderland of conceptual geniuses.

Wonderland? Well, yeah.

Geniuses... Time will tell on that, I guess.

I've maybe written a flash in only a week or nine days maybe a half dozen times in my life. I used to take the whole 2 weeks.

...I've maybe written a flash in only a week or nine days maybe a half dozen times in my life. I used to take the whole 2 weeks.

Oh, thank you for that! I now don't feel so bad.

There are 3 days left to write and get your story in by Saturday night.

It doesn't have to be the full 1,000 word limit. You can write a 300 or 400 word story giving us readers a snippet of a complete scene.

That would keep you writing and something to reach for with your mind. Every bit of mental focus helps exercise your creativity. I've read the more creative use of the mind, the better chance of long life.

Some challenges cause the fingers to go into hyper-drive, thus testing the 1000 word limit in only minutes and I sometimes would like to add about 10,000 more words. And then, some challenges seem like only 100 words are needed.

Don't know about most but I have always found more enjoyment in short, or even extremely short stories.

In poetry there is a style called, Haiku and this months challenge could be a story as short as a Haiku

Never wrote one before but (censored) if I did write one for this challenge it would be:

Jane ran up the hill
Ugly in drive and bullied
Beautiful fire

My entry has been sent in...eh,eh

And, frankly, just to have a laugh, I don't know about being one of the conceptual geniuses...

You know, 50% of my friends say I'm a genius, and 50% of them say I'm an idiot...as I do believe in them all, and they are all my good friends, there's no reason I shouldn't listen to what they say...so, it's fifty-fifty possibly...50% genius, and 50% idiot, it could be worse, anyway...eh,eh

...And, frankly, just to have a laugh, I don't know about being one of the conceptual geniuses...

All modesty aside, you crank out full stories seemingly effortlessly. I think you qualify. That club also extends to Nate Kailhofer, Jim Harrington and Robin Lipinski.

Here are some other concepts for stories under this contest theme sent to me from Robin Lipinski. If you want to use them, he encourages you to do so.


1. She was actually beautiful in the way THIS 'world' considers beauty and the others were ugly. It was not until the car accident that she became ugly as what THIS world considers ugly. Plus she was the bully and not the victim while the others actually were being kind and trying to help her in her younger years.

2. It was her parents who were the cruel ones when she was young and her father in particular bullied her so after she attained freedom, and then the car wreck, she sought revenge on her father and burned him alive.

3. She was not human, rather an experiment, like an android. And once she was fixed after the accident, she killed her maker (bully)

4. She was a clone, identical in all ways to include the situation she was in. The clones were rougly 1000 in number and all being tested emotionally and physically. They all got to be ugly/bullied, beautiful/vengeful. The 'beings' that cloned her were trying to see if any escaped the predictable outcomes and doing something novel, just as, just as she was going to burn the house down she saved the bully and sacrificed her own life.

Stories can be sent in through late tonight. I will post them for reading tomorrow afternoon.

Don't see writing as a barrier or something you have to do. Look at it as sheer enjoyment, the chance to create literary people in worlds of your creation.

That could be a challenge also in the future: See writing as a barrier and something you have to do. You HAVE to write or you'll be destroyed. The pain of not writing is so extreme that it is on par with burning flesh or torn entrails.

And as a further addition to such a challenge, (here is where it gets... weird) by NOT writing the stories needed to keep you alive, the literary characters in the stories not-yet-revealed, come alive (much like a recent challenge) and are the ones that destroy you for not letting them out.

But, that is why writing is fun!

Anyone reading this and not submitting a story for this challenge, be careful... those literary creations in your mind may come alive anyway, to haunt you...