To participate, registration at Liberty Hall is required. If you cannot see the Flash Challenge forums, either you are not registered or you have not logged in. Please register or log in.
Challenges start on Friday mornings and end on Monday mornings. Actual start and finish times might vary each weekend, depending on the Moderator. There will be an announcement made on Liberty Hall when the Flash Challenge is OPEN. You are free to start once we post the announcement.
How to take up the challenge:
1. Ensure you have at least 1.5 hours to do the challenge. 2. Read these rules and the formatting guidelines. 3. Send a request for your Flash Trigger to the given email address. 4. Check your email immediately for the trigger. (see Troubleshooting if you have problems) 5. Begin writing your original story inspired by the trigger. Flash is usually 1000 words or less. You may write more than 1000 words, but others may hold this against you during voting. We will accept any length story. Please write a brand new story, do not edit or rework a story you’ve already written. 6. Email your titled story back to the “reply-to” email address before time runs out. The time limit is noted in your trigger email. It is usually 1.5 hours, but it may be less.
What happens next?
We post all stories anonymously on Monday morning. Your story will be in one of several groups.
On Monday and Tuesday, each group critiques and votes on the stories. We also open up the Guessing Frenzy. You are encouraged to comment in the group(s) that DO NOT contain your entry. However, you may comment in any group. Critiques and comments are open through Friday.
A Final Vote Off between the winners of Best Flash in each group occurs on Wednesday. Final Best Flash voting starts and ends Wednesday! The Overall Winner of Best Flash chooses the next weekend’s trigger. Please begin to consider your trigger if you are a finalist in the Vote Off.
Thursday, we open the “Reveal Thyself” board, and you may optionally reveal which story you wrote.
Friday, all topics are locked and the next Flash Challenge Begins.
Troubleshooting
If you do not receive your flash trigger within 5-10 minutes of request:
1. Check your email; you may need to manually force a send/receive. 2. If you manually forced a send/receive and you still do not have your trigger, contact a moderator or administrator immediately.
posted
If I send a request from an email account different from the one in my registered account, will it screw up the system?
Posts: 836 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I have to say I liked the trigger. It took me a few mins before I had an idea, but I like what I got. This was fun for my first Flash Challenge. Thank you HSO.
posted
I liked the trigger too, although it may be at least in part because it worked with an idea I had this morning for completely different reasons. I might have had to fudge on that "q" word a bit...I think I would have liked to see that one in context, but I think I got the right principles in there.
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
The trigger was definitely good. My story sucked, but it wasn't the fault of the trigger. When I rewrite it, I'll probably end up with a story closer to 2,000 words: maybe 3,000 now that I think about it.
Posts: 836 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Glad that you guys liked the trigger. After two weeks of photos, we are using words as triggers. Granted, stories may still be similar, but I truly believe they'll be good stories that will someday be publishable. I've peeked at a few while preparing them for post and I've not been disappointed.
Presently, we have 8 entries... a few ongoing and should come in soon. We've also had two drop-outs (authors who have requested the trigger, but did not send in a submission.)
[This message has been edited by HSO (edited May 27, 2005).]
posted
Well, I wrote one. It's a bit different from my usual flavor, hopefully I won't be guessed as easily. I hope it is a good story. I'm never good at figuring out whether what I write is any good or not. At least not right away.
Posts: 818 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I have mine in now, too. The trigger was a fun one. Hopefully the random keystrokes I typed out actualy became a story before I sent it out.
Posts: 24 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:I'm never good at figuring out whether what I write is any good or not.
Perhaps interestingly, I didn't like my story much last week. I finished it and thought, "No one is going to like it. And this is what I get for pandering to the women." After I submitted, I let my wife read it. She said it was great. And since it won, I now know that if I don't like what I've written, it's probably good.
posted
I was one of the two dropouts. Yet to get one in so far out of three attempts but this one wasn't completely due to running out of time. This time I suddenly realised I was probably going to be just over 1500 words let alone 1000 and couldn't figure out a way of chopping large chunks. I'm keeping it for future work though because the idea had potential for something longer. Nice trigger.
Posts: 156 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
I should have dropped out. Too many things went wrong yesterday, including getting sick. I wrote, then realized I'd have no time to finish, so just whipped something out in the last few minutes I had. I think, like a lot of people have said, it's better to finish and just send in a disqualified entry. Oh, well, live and learn. My hat's off to everyone who turned in a real submission.
Posts: 150 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
For me, that was the most challenging trigger yet (I've done 5). It was fun, but it took me up to the last second and far too many words to put anything coherent together. I finished, but it was a little sloppy.
Posts: 77 | Registered: Apr 2005
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When we had only 20 stories, I averaged the word count at 801 words. I suspect it's slightly higher now -- I'm just not awake enough or bored enough to average them again. Maybe later. Expect some heavy reading, though. Good thing we have groups.
Just a reminder of the schedule:
Writing period open now through Monday 0900 GMT + 1, or 0400 EST
Critiques and comments open through Friday
Monday and Tuesday is group voting
Wednesday is Final Vote for Overall Best Flash
Thursday is Reveal Thyself Day
Friday we start a new challenge.
Sometime on Saturday, the previous challenge is deleted from the boards, so copy your crits and comments on Friday if you want to save them for future reference.
posted
33 all told, I believe. This was a good one. There is great diversity in the stories and equally great depth of feeling. And the challenge was well run. Thanks, HSO.
Posts: 2710 | Registered: Jul 2004
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