Each round of the contest will have three prompts.
Contestants will pick
one of the three and write a short story that uses that prompt.
The story should be not more than 3000 words.
To enter, please use the form at the bottom of the "
Tales Shown, Not Told Contest"
page.
There are a few more technical rules below, but that's the basics.
Choose ONE of the prompts for your story. This round's prompts are:
Genre Prompt: Mystery/Detective. There's a crime to solve, and someone intends to solve it.
Words Prompt: Write a story using the words
aurora , elixir , and
paradox.
Character prompt: Protagonist has at least some symptoms of
OCD.
Choose ONE of these prompts for your story. You're free to explore these prompts in whatever way you wish, but
the prompt must be part of the story.
Suggestions.
For
genre prompts, stay within the bounds of the genre. For the
words prompt, use the words in a natural way, for example in narrative, description, thoughts, or in dialogue. It will help the judges if you
boldface the words so that judges can find them. Grammatical variations of the basic word are permitted, for example "paradoxical" uses the word "paradox." For the
character prompt, consider showing the reader how the prompt relates to the protagonist's
character arc, i.e., their
goals, obstacles, or
stakes.
Mixing genres would be awesome! A science fiction story that's also a romance, for example, or a horror tale that's also a western. Be creative.