Tastes great!
How do you “use” the photo?
Any way you like. Imagining how to use the photo is a huge part of what makes your writing your own.
It could be -
the setting of the story…
a place one of the characters talks about…
Is there any one aspect of the photo which ties in with one of the words, in your mind? Or, is there an aspect that contradicts one of the words?
Is there something about that photo which in some way ties in with ‘national holidays’?
What if you lived in that photo and never knew anywhere else?
Could the place in the photo be a character in the story?
What is the most absurd object or person you can imagine seeing in that photo? Write the story about how and why they are there…
Who belongs there? Who doesn’t belong there?
Take something that happened to you in the last week, and set it there. Rearrange it in your mind until it becomes plausible.
If you like, skim through some of the anthologies from other short fiction contests - the links are upthread in post # 10.
Ultimately, there is no correct or incorrect way to use any of the compulsory material. One of the most interesting things about these contests and the anthologies is seeing the different way people incorporate the material.
Maybe we should leave it up to the people who are reasonably sure the extra time would motivate them then. I’ll change my vote to neutral under the assumption that people asking for more time are really likely to use it, and taking into account the holiday weekend.
So all I do is email within the next few days and do it? I had thought that the 24th was the ‘name in the hat’ cutoff.
Squee.
I sent out my email, got a reply, 3 words, a picture, and…my mind is blank. Completely totally utterly blank. Um…hmmmm…um…
This is going to be the most boring story ever.
I apologize in advance.
Yes.
With regrets, I won’t be participating.
I emailed the autoreply on Friday morning, figuring that if I could get something out, it would be before I left for Kansas. But the weekend was just too full of last-minute preparations.
And now that I’m here, there’s been so much critiquing and revision planning, and now I need to get a revision of an approx 5000 word story by Sunday-Monday.
Good luck to all Dopers, and I should be able to join in the judging.
OK I finished my story, but I wasn’t clear - do we have to use the exact form of the words given?
For example, if we got a verb, like clap, could we use clapping or clapped? Or in the case of a noun, if we got duck, could we use ducks?
In case your answer comes after my deadline (7am or when I go to bed), I’m going to assume other tenses or plurality of the base word are allowed. If not, hopefully I’ll be allowed a minor post deadline modification to be within the bounds of the contest.
Submitted! As I got a little over half way, it was clear that I was going to surpass the limit and so I started jettisoning subplots. But I still went over the limit at 2364. I managed to piecemeal edit back, til I got to 1984 words. (Assuming my slight word variation is approved).
You mean you need to edit 5000 words back to 2000 words? So you had plenty of time to write but not enough to edit it back?
I believe chrisk is referring to a different project.
Looks like I missed my deadline. I certainly had enough opportunity, I had planned vacation since the beginning of this contest without anything actually planned, but I ended up far busier than I imagined.
Even without the other stuff to do, I just couldn’t find a way to twist my concept into a story. Hate when that happens. Best of luck to everyone who got something finished!
No, it does not have to be the exact form - you may conjugate verbs, you may take the word as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective… We even had one example where the word was implied - it was the title of a well-known song played on the radio, which the reader would (hopefully) recognize from the quoted fragment of its lyrics.
I check to see if the words are present (I remember e-mailing back on the song lyric one to say ‘What’s up with that?’ I’m too old to have recognized the song.) but other than that, I leave it to the voters to decide how ‘well’ the words have been used.
ETA: Just checked; your story has arrived. Great!
What’s the verdict on the deadline?
Here’s my reasoning on the two options, by the way:
End earlier, best case: The same number of stories are submitted, but everyone gets to read and vote on them earlier.
**End earlier, worst case: **People get to read and vote on the stories sooner, but there would have been more participants if the deadline had been extended.
**End later, best case: **People have to wait another week to read what everyone’s submitted, but the total number of stories is increased and everyone who originally planned to write on Monday will still be able to.
End later, worst case: No extra stories are submitted, so everyone has to wait an extra week for nothing.
IMO, the “worst case” for extending is not nearly as bad as the “worst case” for shortening. Even if I weren’t hoping to write something, I’d rather wait a week for a shot at getting more submissions than even potentially exclude people who want to participate just because I’m getting impatient.
Correct, sorry for not being clear on the context. This is a story that I wrote over a year ago, that I’m doing a revision on based on feedback from this science fiction workshop group.
After some good input, and a fair amount of thought, I’ve decided to extend the close of June Short Fiction contest to 10 PM EDT, Monday, July 11th. I’d rather close late in order to encourage more people to write. I will start the Anthology Thread as soon as I’m back in internet range.
Those of you who are impatient (and I notice you are all people who have already finished your stories…) will just have to grow some Sitzfleisch. (A lovely Mennonite German expression - it literally means ‘sitting flesh’, and it’s used particularly for children who can’t sit still for something. “I’d have gone in for the ministry, but I didn’t have any Sitzfleisch for it.”)
Oh, it’s OK with me. You asked our preference; I expressed it. 
Later is OK too. Would it be worthwhile to have a mod edit the first post to reflect the new deadlines?
Just reported it.
MsWhatsit - a very good idea; request sent. (and then I have to get some work done - just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean I got nothin’ to do.)
stpauler - I just got your story - well done! You may have just set a new record for fastest turnaround between getting the prompts and sending a story - 17 hours! I’m jealous…