writing contest

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Screenshot of Infernal Delights anthology

Infernal Delights is available for purchase on the ‘Zon. This book is a fundraiser for people and pets impacted by Hurricane Helene in 2024, and living in an affected area, I can tell you the cleanup continues.

I made it through round one of the NYC Midnight Micro Fiction Challenge! Participants are challenged to tell a story in 100 words, and they are assigned a genre, an action, and a word that must be included. I was assigned comedy, which had me searching for things like “what do people think is funny.” I was outside my normal writing genres, but I pulled something together, submitted it, and made it through round one!

For round two, we were assigned a new genre, action, and word with only 24 hours to turn the submission in. I scrutinized every word, trying to make the most of what I could accomplish in 100 words. Results aren’t in for round two, so I’ll shout it out if I make it through round two.

I’ll be presenting at In Your Write Mind in Pennsylvania at the end of June 2025.

I’m currently writing a horror novella as part of a course I’m taking. I’m behind on my word count, but I’m not giving up. The two job hustle makes it challenging!

If you enjoy my work, you can Buy Me a Coffee (or a Car, whatever you want) through my link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katcraig

A Super Belated Celebration

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Congrats to the Winner

Congrats to me, that is. While running down my dream of completing a writing MFA, I won the #Completethestory Challenge in an issue of Eye Contact, Seton Hill’s literary magazine.

My submission was Lucky, a piece of flash fiction. Flash fiction is shorter than a short story. The exact length allowed is often defined in the guidelines of the contest or publication.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWBc5eHrJqR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

A Five Day Writing Challenge Rocked My World

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555 Story Challenge Logo

This is not a paid endorsement. This is me publicly thanking Nicole Breit and Spark Your Story for hosting a fabulous 5-day online writing challenge.

I am wrapping up an MFA writing program this summer. My thesis project is a paranormal mystery. I love my thesis, but after a couple of years of thinking about the project 24/7, my brain has been feeling tired and uninspired.

I am not even sure where I found out about the 555 story challenge? I’d love to give a nod to the source if only I could recall who that was.

Five days. Five writing prompts. Five submissions into a contest for gift cards and a snazzy writer’s subscription box from GoScribbler. I like prizes. I’m not ashamed of being open to bribery for my writing.

What reeled me was the daily output: 100 words of creative non-fiction. Writing about my own experiences and only 100 words? I’m in! Heck, I could do that on my phone on my notes app…and spoiler: that’s precisely what I did!

Know that writing 100 words is easy. Know that writing 100 good words is the challenge. Capturing a moment or a feeling in so few words is tough.

I could do the writing on my phone, so I didn’t have to pull out my laptop. Keeping my laptop and its unfinished grad school project out of sight kept my stress level low.

The prize drawings were random. Knowing I could win just by completing the daily writing was a great motivator for me. There was no pressure to be perfect.

I didn’t win any of the prizes, boo hiss, but congrats to those who did. Nicole shared with all participants that they could continue their writing journey with her Spark Your Story course, and it sounds fantabulous! It’s outside my budget right now, but based on how helpful just five days of prompts and guidance from Nicole were, I wouldn’t hesitate to sign up for more learning with her in the future.

The challenge let me revisit my creativity in a non-threatening way. Anyone, even someone with a full-time job and looming grad school deadlines, can get one hundred words done in a day. Hitting “submit” each day gave a little dopamine burst, a little feel-good way-to-go mojo that put some spring in my step.

Having a short but sweet date with my creativity for five days has given me my spark back. I’ve given over three hours today to working on my thesis novel, feeling good about it again.

My creativity wasn’t a shriveled up old raisin, long forgotten in an old lunch box. My creativity is a vineyard full of grapes, each having their season to grow, recover, and do it all over again.

Thank you, Nicole!