The folks over at Rektor’s Revenge asked me to pass on notice of their short story contest. As always, I can’t guarantee the legitimacy of any requests for material appearing here, so do your research first. Today, your exercise is this: regardless of whether you plan to send in a submission, write a piece that would be appropriate to the call. Then, consider submitting it. If you do submit it, come back and let us know so we can cheer you on!

From their contest guidelines page:

First Prize: The First Place Winner receives $500.00.

Second Prize: The Second Place Winner receives $250.00.

Third Prize: The Third Place Winner receives $100.00.

Conciliation Prize: The Conciliation Winner receives $100.00.
The conciliation prize will be a random drawing from all the stories submitted with the exception of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners.

Plus: Via press release Mak Rektor Publishing will also be announcing the contest winners and will be showcasing all winners on our site.

Entry Deadline: September 30/08

Judgement Day: is on Halloween, all winners will be notified via email on October 31/08

Entry Fee: $5.95 USD.

You may opt to pay your entry fee electronically, or by sending a cheque and your story to the attention of Mak Rektor Publishing at the following address:

Mak Rektor
P.O. Box 546
Station A
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 9H1

One of my favorite little ten-minute writers’ creativity exercises is to take a random set of words and free-write something from them. Try to include them all in a short or short-short story, essay, etc., or just free-associate off of the combination. The challenge of incorporating wildly differing items, concepts, etc. into one short piece over a brief amount of time can definitely teach you how to access your creativity! Today, here are your words to work with:

• Onion
• Fork
• Floodlight
• Pocketwatch

Today, brainstorm/free-write for a page (or 10-20 minutes) about the most ridiculous idea you can come up with for a holiday discount, sale, or special. Come up with something that, if you saw it, would leave you with your mouth hanging open in surprise, shock, or just plain “huh?!”

If you happen to come up with something truly bizarre that leads to the question of “why?” or “how?”, then take this a step further and turn it into a story!