Short Story Challenge Update

Back in February I wrote about how I entered the Short Story Challenge that NYC Midnight runs every year. I registered in January at the last minute and the 6,000 participants were randomly assigned into groups. Each group was assigned a genre, character, and subject. I was given horror as the genre, a character in the story had to be an airman, and the subject had to deal with a detour. The word limit was 2,500 and I was given a week to write and submit the story.

I wrote a story called “An Unexpected Tea Party”, submitted the story, and crossed my fingers. 5 people/stories per group would be chosen to move forward to round 2. I had to wait 2 months to find out if I made it and on April 5 I kept refreshing my email to see the results. NYC Midnight said results would be in by 11:59pm so I tried not to think about it too much during the work day. Sometime before 11pm I got an email! I clicked the link and went to my group to see who made it into the top 5. I was so nervous, but I also was preparing myself to not make it. There were over 6,000 participants, what were the chances I could make it? I scrolled down and saw numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 – none of which were me or my story so I was ready to be out of it, but then I saw my name!! I made it! I nearly cried from relief, excitement, happiness – everything!

Making it into round 2 is amazing to me especially because more than half the time I think I’m a pretty sh*tty writer so this was a little bit of validation to me that I am a writer and not too bad if I can make it past round 1 of the challenge.

Now it’s down to 1,125 writers including me! I was given a new assignment – genre: romance; subject: a moment of truth; character: a successor. This time I had to keep it to no more than 2,000 words and I was given 3 days. The deadline was 11:59 last night.

I spent 2 days writing and editing my story and having my best friends give me feedback like last time. Then, yesterday morning I woke up, felt like I liked my story, but didn’t love it. I had a new idea, got out of bed, and started writing. Leave it to me to spend 2 days on a story and then decide to start from scratch on the day of the deadline.

I’ll find out in late May if I make it to the next round. Please cross your fingers for me and send me good vibes!

Also, I have just posted my round 1 story on Wattpad for anyone to read. If you want to read it, you can find it here .

Finally, thanks to everyone who has been supportive of my writing! Here’s hoping for more good things!

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