International Women's Week - Story Time!

[Torrie]

This year there is a unique writting project for the 100 year anniversary of IWW! 100 Women, 100 Stories! Anyone is welcome to submit a story to the IWW website, but we Reds decided to make a contest of it!

Write a story, following the guidlines below, the Reds will judge the best and it will be submitted to the IWW site!

 

Please PM all submissions to me, Torrie, by March 3rd and we will let you know the winner by the end of IWW.

 

Story style required

 

Simplicity and wider audience relevance are key so that readers can identify parallels in their own lives or be inspired by the stories of others.

The stories are personal and often contain emotion and drama.

The narrative is engaging and vivid, drawing the reader in as though they were present.

The stories are written in the first person.

The stories have a beginning, middle and an end, often concluding with a twist, a punch or life message that creates emotion in the reader.

The stories should be about a single aspect, issue, situation or experience rather than about multiple events, experiences, dilemmas, problems or situations.

The stories connect women regardless of race, age, location, career or ability. They make women feel more thoughtful and unified through life's experiences. The stories make women readers laugh, cry, be happy, be sad, be angry, be shocked, be inspired or feel compassionate. Some of the stories cover a rollercoaster of emotions from heart-felt sorrow, to absurd occurrences through to good old light heartedness and humour.

 

 

Story guidelines

 

Write an inspiring, exciting, sad, funny or shocking story about something that has happened to you. Introduce the character(s) in an engaging way. Write your story in the first person (e.g. It suddenly dawned on me as I was travelling to Sydney on the plane. Instantly, I felt totally elated at the prospect of ...)

Write your story in a manner that will stir readers' emotions. Explaining your own personal emotions and feelings is very important. The 'tone' of your writing should clearly capture your emotion (e.g. frustration, joy, sorrow, exhilaration, anger, gratitude, confusion, elation, etc).

The beginning of your story should generally set some context and see some form of action. It should then include a dilemma or some kind of problematic issue or situation. Finally it should conclude with an outcome or result such as a life lesson learned, a resolution, or some type of positive result that is inspiring to others. Your story should be about a single aspect or experience rather than multiple aspects.

The word count for your story should be between 400 and 1,000 words and must not have been published already or submitted to a publisher.

There are some aspects that must definitely be avoided as our stories are not:

- a promotional piece for specific products, services or campaigns

- a lecture, academic article, biography or letter

- an attack on others or a means to have your say in an attempt to try to right wrongs

- defamatory of other people, libellous or slanderous

- written in the third person.

 

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/user/story.asp

[poetstorm]

Ooh..I am so in! I love story writing contests. :D

[Mystica]

Not a lot of time, but I'm in!