I friend in Australia Facebooked (is that a verb now?) information about a global short story competition run by NYC Midnight Movie Making Madness. I thought I had my personal challenge for 2014 and that is cartooning, but I find myself tempted to add this new opportunity.
In essence it seems that for a modest fee one enters a global competition of (if you are succesful) three rounds. In each the organisers set you in groups with an assignment of genre, subject and character assignment with a time and word limit. Those that are judged best move on to the next round, with the time and word limits reducing each round.
Now I have to say that it is pretty much 40 years since I faced this sort of thing, while sitting O-level English. I did not find it easy then, but I guess I now have so much more experience to call upon that it should be easier. Of course there will certainly be many would-be authors and may a few already successful ones, so a pure amateur like me should stand no chance. Despite this I am still interested to have a go and see if I can at least get through to Round 2.
I have spent the last few days internalising the "should I, shouldn't I?" argument. I have concluded that apart from the modest entry fee and the time it will take me to write (limited by the competition) there is no reason no to have a go, so this week I will apply and see what happens. The first round is is February 7 -15 so not far away.
This may put my cartooning back a few weeks, but that is not critical right now.
I plan to publish my entry in the blog on or just after the closing time for each round in which I compete, partly to protect my work, but mainly to keep me honest and focussed.
If you too fancy the challenge then I am happy to face the additional competition. The link above will tell you all you need to know.
