Welcome to The Shortys, a bite-sized writing challenge for poets and short story writers brought to you by the ShortStory and Poetry profiles!
In the words of Neil Gaiman: "A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick—a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart." And it is with this in mind that we share our excitement in hosting the first-ever SHORTYS!
Shortstorians, sharpen your wits, unleash your fierce imagination, and take us on a trip in five thousand words or less. To all our amazing poets, show us what you can do with the pen (or keyboard) in hand. Whether it's a Pyrrhic verse, a narrative poem, a dramatic monologue, or a free verse. We invite you to participate in this unique contest that gives you artistic freedom in how you take on the challenge.
We shall leave it there, but don't you glare. The beginning is near, we soon shall share.
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For this writing challenge, we will have three categories:
🦋 Poetry (10 to 20 lines, with the exception of Prose, which is limited to 1000 words)
🦋 Flash Fics (500 to 2000 words)
🦋 Short stories (2000 to 5000 words)
You will have one month to write a new entry for one or more of the categories above.
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A story can be born from a single creative thought, but every novel or ongoing series is shaped by the characters, world-building, dramatic scenes, story arc, and careful framing of words that give life to the creative sparks that fire through a writer's mind.
This challenge is intended to help you explore those creative sparks. Writing a short story can help you shape an idea, flesh out a character, build a scene, or describe a part of the world you wish to share, and poetry can help you explore an emotion you want to bring into your writing, build on beautiful lines and prose, and give depth to your world.
The Shortys will challenge you to create and share short-form content with your readers and help lay a foundation to build upon for the coming writing season. Once you've written your Shorty, you can then use it to explore your new world or characters, build on what you've written here to create even more, and develop these snippets of inspiration into novels and ongoing stories for the upcoming Open Novella Contest,Wattys, and Ambys.
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As we prepare to launch our first-ever Shortys Contest, we want your help to spread the word all over Wattpad!
Tag your friends and followers who....
... might be interested in joining The Shortys.
... would like to write short stories or poems for the first time.
... are looking for a prompt to inspire them to write.
... want to cheer you on as you take on the challenge.
... might want to write a short story as an inspiration and extend it into a novel later.
