Not bad. I’ll take it!
The hardcover of “Toggs: The Christmas Elf with a Fitting Gift” is now available to order! Limited signed copies are also available at no extra cost. Check it out at https://toggstheelf.shop!
Humane (Short Screenplay)
Prompts:
Genre: Horror
Location: A jail
Object: Bonus
1 week, 8 pages
“After a prowler suffering an injury wakes in an unexpected location, he quickly finds what he’d been searching for, and learns that he’s right where he belongs.”
Old Blood (Short Screenplay)
Well, I did not do well in the first round of the 2020 NYC Midnight Short Screenplay competition, with “A Taste Worth Savoring.” One point. Better than zero, sure, but still crummy. My only hope is that this one gets 15 points, and even then it’s a long shot.
Prompts:
Genre: Horror
Location: An amphitheater
Object: Cider
48 hours, 5 pages
“A pair of fraternity alumni bemoan what has become of their Alpha Omega, as they attend the initiation of its latest pledge. The active membership see a different problem altogether, one to be remedied once and for all, tonight.”
Who would have thought this would be the first thing I publish?! I hope everyone enjoys this! Please message me if you’d be interested in a copy in exchange for a review of any kind on Amazon!
A Taste Worth Savoring [Short Screenplay]
I’m back at it again with the NYC Midnight competitions. I always find the Short Screenplay competition fun, and it’s sparked some ideas that I’d eventually grown into larger works or entered into other contests, some garnering a few small-time awards.
This time, my prompts didn’t really inspire anything new in me, so I fell back to a short story of mine and made some adjustments to make it work. It came out better than I thought!
Rules of this round:
Genre: Drama
Location: A Wine Bar
Object: An ATM Machine
Limits: 5 pages, 2 days
A man on an important life-or-death mission faces the realities of mortality, as he digests the realization of his dark place in its process.
Sealed Fate [Microfiction]
NYCMidnight has a couple of new competitions: 250-word Microfiction, and 100-word Microfiction. I passed on the 250-word one when it came about, but with COVID-19 going on, something about the 100-word version struck me, so I signed up!
Writing microfiction is quite the different beast to a full-on short story. “Kill your darlings?” More like slaughter your darlings, their friends, their pets! Brutal, but fun.
My first round assignments:
Genre: Ghost story
Action (must happen in the story somewhere): Licking an envelope
Word (must be used in some way in the story): focus
Time limit: 24 hours
Confirmation [Short Story]
[Edited original photo by Elviss Bitans]
I will never forget the sound Evil made when it died in the Baxter’s house one night in the fall of 1982.
Undone [Short Story]
I have to admit: I’m surprised I made it through to the 2nd round of NYCMidnight with my last entry, but I squeaked by!
The prompts and restrictions this time:
Genre: Fairy Tale
Subject: Permanent
Object: An architect
48 hours, 2000 words max.
Tagline: An old and indecisive Conjurer, consumed by the need for true companionship, looks to his Architect to fill the void. As the Architect struggles to find the purpose of his own existence, a plan is forged to give both the Architect and Conjurer what they truly want.
The Saddle [Short Story]
(Edited photo by Josh Puetz)
Why do I continue to abuse myself so?
I’m back at the NYC Midnight Short Story competition again. You know the drill: genre, location, object, 2500 words, 1 week. That’s the first round, at least. This time I’ve got: Crime Caper / A reunion / A police officer. At first glance, a bit too simple. Everyone’s gonna do the class reunion gone bad, or a family reunion with someone out to steal Grammy’s jewels. Trust me: you need to steer far, FAR away from such tropes. The judges will get sick of them, and yours won’t stand out, never mind a chance in hell.
The good news about having “crime caper” as a “genre” is that it’s not so cut and dry as “drama” or “comedy” – you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want, so long as you’ve got a planned crime involved. Comedy, drama, horror – it all works!
I had a few ideas in mind, but they were a bit too … cutesy? In the end, I decided I’d make the best of the levity and make the story work out for me, even if it doesn’t cart me forward in the contest: throw in some horror, of course. Later, without the 2500-word restriction, I can tighten and lengthen it, then slip it into my planned anthology perfectly. Works for me!
Something I want to note about my writing, that I’m pretty clear on: I tend to get wordy and deter from “the point” quite a bit. Ramble, maybe? I’m not sure yet if that’s a fault of mine or just an acquired reading style. Stephen King: he rambles. At least I think he does. He’s successful. Is it because he’s earned the right to ramble and so gets a pass? I know I’m no Stephen King but … OK I’m rambling. On to the story.
