Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Exploratory Writing Contest

The Exploratory Writing Contest

This contest is being proposed for sponsorship by New Horizon’s Academy for those who want to try the exploratory writing process. What is that you ask? It’s an approach a writer can use to get ready to write a larger work. There are many writers here at WDC who have well developed tactical writing skills but who hesitate to move on to something bigger. For example they write good flash fiction in the 1K range or short stores in the 3K but when it comes to a novella, a stage or screen drama or even an epic poem they are not so comfortable in taking the next step.

For example in my class I found that students struggle with story line and character development. In a shorter work that is not as big an issue as in a longer one. This begs the question how one comes up with a good story line and interesting characters and this contest offers a different approach for delving into it.

I think the way I will approach it is with a check list a student can use as they cast about and get their characters talking to one another. Ideas need a chance to percolate and bubble up and that developmental opportunity was not enough in evidence for the One Act Play Workshop. Having time to focus on a thematic story and strong central character should pay big dividends

In this contest a NHA student or any WDC member will be expected to write six (6) vignettes with a common back story and characters. These vignettes will be in the range of 1K to 3K in word count. They will be episodic not so much in a sequential sense as sharing the same back story. The writer will take the Academy prompt and each week write a vignette.

The Academy Weekly Prompts I am thinking will be:

1. A very special person: (I.e. A strong central character)
2. A Want, need or desire.
3. A Life Changing Event
4. Crisis #1 Self Induced
5. Crisis #2 Externally induced
6. Crisis #3 Tsunami, the biggie, climax

Once the six vignettes are written, they will be loosely arrayed and from the context a story line will be extracted. Then that story line will be imbued with the ingredients in the story telling model producing a Comprehensive Outline (CO). This CO is the end product of the exercise and provides a good start point for writing a larger work.

A writer does not have to be a student of NHA to participate in the contest. However, to receive a weekly faculty assessment and take advantage of the last two wrap-up lessons, enrollment is required. This faculty assessment is not actually necessary for someone wanting to try out the technique and evaluate its merits, nor are the final two lessons on pulling out the outline and inserting the dramatic ingredients. Nor is it necessary to enter the NHA contest. Any of the fifty contests on the WDC contest list could be used to serve this purpose. Everyone is encouraged to test this technique and see if it’s something they can use .

The contest, once sanctioned, will begin in January and run weekly. The prompt will be officially posted on Tuesday and the contest will close Monday, at midnight WDC time. Winners will be announced on Wednesday. Contestants cannot win twice in a row to give everyone a fair opportunity. Those who win have the option of submitting the following week but as non competitors. Better yet they are encouraged to try other WDC contests.

Here are the rules

13+
Can’t win two weeks in a row
Don’t have to be an NHA student
1K-3K word count
Post the word count and prompt at beginning of submission
Submission will be evaluated by panel of judges using a rank order and point counting process.

We are hoping that this contest will offer a springboard for WDC writers to expand their skills into more ambitious projects.