The October/November Write On Writing Challenge is hereby extended through December! Here’s a recap, plus the entries to date, in case you’ve missed out or need a refresher:
October-December Writing Challenge: Masks
Masks. They’re worn to have fun, to play a joke, to be mysterious, to hide one’s true natures, or to scare. Sometimes, the mask is worn so well and so long that the wearer can no longer who or what is beneath. And sometimes, we are grateful for the mask because we cannot bear to know what the mask hides (just ask Dexter).
This month’s writing invites you to explore masks. Who hides beneath the mask? What is the mask covering up? Could mask save a life? You decide.
This challenge will run through November as I know many of you will be planning for NaNoWriMo.
Here’s the details:
- Genre: Anything goes. Mystery, romance, alternate history, science fiction, horror, fantasy, slip-stream, or whatever.
- Word count: 500 words or less (go ahead and write some more if you really must ).
- How to share: You can put it up on your blog and link here or (if you don’t have a blog) you can email it to me and I’ll put it in a post for you.
- Time limit: From now until the next challenge is posted.
- Prizes: No…no prizes. Just the reward of a story well written.
And now for the stories so far:
- Mike Lyons – Il Masque
- Darlene Steelman – Faceless
- Charles Mashburn – The Old Man and the Mask
- Robin Hawke – Another Halloween
- Erin Beyko – A Mask of Premonition
- Forgotten Moon – Red Velvet
- Shadlyn – Masks
- Tim Guthat – Angelique and the Loup-Garou
- The Swords of the Ancients – Masks
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Next month’s challenge will involve a little meta fiction inspired by the House of Leaves. We’ll need some prompts to get us started. I invite you guys to come with prompts we can use to start next month’s stories. Any genre welcome!
First, congrats to all the writers listed. Wonderful stories. Second, I’m a little surprised no one has come up with some prompts for the next challenge yet. It was a hell of a lot of fun coming up with these, but I’m afraid that I couldn’t justify any one-word prompts, especially thinking about “House of Leaves”. Here are three ideas, use them or be inspired by them for a challenge, Sonia:
1. Author haunted by one or more of his/her characters.
2. Watching a film, a viewer realizes it’s his/her own personal fantasies reflected on the big screen.
3. (just a snickering one) A character from a William S. Burroughs novel (or any other) realizes he/she is in a David Cronenberg (or any other director’s) movie.
Hope these at least inspire your impending challenge. (Happy New Year, by the way xo).