Earlier this year I participated in the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge, which pits writers from all over the world against each other to write the best (up to 2,500 words) short story they can. They supply the topics and you supply the imagination.
The competition is broken up into two rounds. The 1st round was divided into 30 Heats each with their own genre and subject matter. I was in Heat 30 (Genre: Spy, Subject: A News Anchor). which—as I mentioned in my original post—was an "oh shit" moment for me. At 12:25am on March 10th I received an email stating the results were in. I shot over to their site and this is what I found (emphasis mine)…
Out of 22 contestants I made it in the top 5 and not only that, I achieved 3rd place as well. I missed making it to the next round by a hair, but for my first writing contest—EVER—this was a fantastic result. In the next couple of weeks they’ll start sending out feedback for all the 1st round entries which is one part of the contest I especially like.
After such a solid placing I’m definitely going to polish this story further and submit it for publication. The really cool part is that I get to submit to markets I never would have normally contacted (ie. Mystery). Expanding my horizons will only further strengthen my writing and hopefully round me out better. It’s been a while since I’ve had such positive results with my fiction, so I’m hoping to capitalize on this opportunity and really crank out some good stuff.
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Twitter: retrohack
March 11, 2010 at 10:11 am
If you had landed at #21 of 22 for your first foray into this, you would be entitled to a sense of pride. Showing your first time up is FRAKING AWESOME!!! Great job and congrats!
It was an excellent story and I am looking forward to reading the next iteration.
Hard work pays off! We’re so happy for you, Gabriel. That had to be a rush to see your name amongst the top scorers. Congrats on your accomplishment. Can’t wait to see what you do next!
Very cool! Congrats!