FiresideStories
About
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- 1. 2005
- 2. First Place
- 3. Second Place
- 4. Third Place:
- 5. Other Entries:
- 6. 2011
- 7. First Place
- 8. Second Place
- 9. Third Place
Fireside Stories is a contest in which participants write a short story based upon a theme using provided prompts. We like to think of this as a warm up for NaNoWriMo, which begins in November—and a fun exercise for everyone involved! The contest went into hiatus for six years following its original inception, and was re-worked by Mel in 2011. A special Catacomb Skull was created for the event, and the rules for the entries were given more defined guidelines.
While there is not a defined length for what makes up a “short story”, Fireside Stories require a 1000 word minimum with a cap of 7500 words. Proper use of grammar, tense, and spelling is also required. Three weeks are given to write, followed by one week of voting on the anonymous submissions.
1. 2005
This was a contest run by Sie and Void in August of 2005. The point was to write a short story in a certain category. First, the category itself was voted on, and then people had time to write their stories. Winners were picked anonymously by a volunteer panel of judges. The turnout was really good!
2. First Place
3. Second Place
4. Third Place:
5. Other Entries:
6. 2011
In keeping with the tone of October, the theme for all stories submitted in 2011 was Mystery Fiction. While this genre is most often associated with detective and crime fiction, involving a crime was not required. A mystery had to be presented; while the protagonist did not necessarily need to solve the puzzle, the audience had to be aware of it. Along with the chosen genre, the following were required:
- A supernatural element
- An abandoned house
- A Jack-o-Lantern
- Five Words of the Day from dictionary.com from the month of October