100 Story Challenge/Contest/You Win Stuff /Whatever You Want to Call It Thingy
Inspire your fellow writers and win so-so prizes.
Writers are artists. If you get 100 painters in a room to paint the same flower, you’ll get 102 different paintings. If you get 100 cooks to make an omelet, you’ll get 98 different omelets.
I want to see what happens when we get 100 writers in the same room. Hopefully, we’ll get more. More writers and more stories, all writing about the same thing.
Why? I read an article by Heather Campbell that talked about putting your individual spin on a story. We can all talk about the same thing, but we all will present it differently. Our voice. Our style.
Write Sleeping Beauty — your way
I want you to write the story of Sleeping Beauty, but in whatever way you choose. It can be fiction, nonfiction, or a poem. Whatever you want. Keep it to 5 pages or less; more on that later.
Neil Gaiman is a great author. He’s one of the world’s best. He took Kipling’s Jungle Book and rewrote it by having a baby raised by a graveyard’s residents. More on that later, too.
Your goal, if you so choose, is to retell the tale of Sleeping Beauty. I wouldn’t advise looking up this story’s origin because it involves horrifying elements that would trigger many. The basic elements are enough: bad person puts curse on good person, and another good person comes to undo that curse.
The good stuff — the prizes
Top 3 Stories
The top three stories, as judged by me (and hopefully some volunteer judges), will get a copy of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Two caveats:
- I’ll buy the book and ship it anywhere in the world that doesn’t cost over $25 in shipping. Sorry, I’m cheap.
- I’ll do my best to ask Neil to autograph these books. I can’t promise it’ll happen, but I’ll try. Wouldn’t that be cool, though?
Top 100 Stories
The top one-hundred stories (same judges as above) will go into a book. Two caveats:
- I don’t have a publisher for this book yet. If you’re a publisher, hit me up.
- If I don’t get a publisher, I’ll put the stories together and self-publish it on Kindle and none of us will make any money. But, hey, that’ll still be cool, right?
I need your story 5 pages or less. That’s about 2,500 words. I know, I know. That limits you. But I want 100 stories in a book, so 500 pages (hopefully less).
The “how to”
Write your story on Medium. If you aren’t already a writer here, sign up. It’s free. Leave a comment here saying, “add me please,” and I (and hopefully my volunteer judges) will add you as a writer to the publication. Feel free to say things like “Ryan, you are so amazing,” or “Neil Gaiman is a great author.” None of that will aid you in winning, but it will definitely stroke our egos.
If you are new to Medium, Aimée Gramblin has some great instructions, including a link to a video.
Once you’re added as a writer, submit your story to this publication. You can have a published story or a draft. I’ll publish them all. Almost. Don’t break the Medium rules: don’t say things that will start riots, cause violence, overthrow governments, or get people in jail. Curse words and sex is fine, even cursed sex is fine, but nudity and porn I’d recommend staying away from.
Pictures are great. If you want, you can tell the whole story in pictures. See Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series for examples. (If anyone wants to send me the Sandman series, I’d gladly accept. That won’t help you in the contest, either. But I’ll love you.)
You don’t have to use pictures, but if you use someone else’s, make sure you have permission and accredit them. I don’t want to get sued. So, thank you in advance.
The quick summary
Write Sleeping Beauty in your voice. Make it unique. Submit it to this publication. As long as it looks legal-ish, we’ll publish it so the whole world can read it.
The top three versions of Sleeping Beauty will get a (hopefully signed) copy of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. The top 100 versions will go into a (hopefully published) book. Everyone will be here on Medium for as long as they pay to keep their servers running.
Neil., call me. Book publishers, call me. Everyone, add your comments below and let’s get this thing started.
Submissions open until February 28, 2021. Winners announced at the beginning of March 2021.
Small other stuff
If I make any money from this article, I’ll give that money to the American Diabetes Association. My other article raised only 88 cents so far.
I’d also love to connect with you. Consider following me on Twitter @LifeisPresence and joining my mailing list. I promise not to sell you anything; I’ll send you my books for free. It’s all love!
