Short Story Contest!
In Today's Journal
* About the Potential Webinars
* Short Story Contest!
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
About the Potential Webinars
Okay, ain't gonna happen. At least not yet.
In case you missed the announcement, I was thinking about hosting a few writing seminars again, albeit virtually (so webinars), probably 2-3 hours long.
But I had a very low response to that post. Like 3 out of around 200 subscribers. That isn't enough to justify me spending the time and money necessary to make it happen.
In the Meantime
I've posted several "next level" topics in TNDJ over the past few months. To find those particular posts, visit the Journal website and key "next level" and/or "down in the weeds" (either one with the quotation marks) into the Search box in the sidebar.
Short Story Contest!
This is a stand-alone contest but it might lead to a new StoneThread Publishing anthology. If so, I will title it Echoes of Hemingway.
A few days ago I mentioned in TNDJ that I'd written a short story titled "A Kind of Cross." It was only a little over 2500 words, and I took the epigram for it from a Hemingway short story titled "Under the Ridge."
In that post I also wrote,
"I defy ANY fiction writer to read ANY short story or novel by Ernest Hemingway and not encounter a phrase or sentence that will serve as an idea or title or epigram for your own short story or novel."
Now I've decided to put my money where my mouth is, run a contest, and possibly publish an anthology as a result of the contest.
The rules for the contest are simple:
There is no entry fee.
There are cash prizes.
Any writer (only I am disqualified) may submit up to three short stories for the contest.
All entries must come to me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf attachment.
The deadline for entries is May 31, 2025.
You must provide the title of the Hemingway work that served as the catalyst for your story.
Any genre other than erotica is fine.
Word count: 2000 to 7999 words
Obviously, stories must be new and previously unpublished.
Each story submitted MUST
be based on an idea prompted by reading a Hemingway short story or novel OR
be titled with a phrase taken from a Hemingway short story or novel OR
begin with an epigram from a Hemingway short story or novel.
Tips (Not Requirements)
I recommend absorbing Hemingway's tone and writing your own story in that tone or with that feel.
Enable me to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel the setting, physically and emotionally.
When a story starter pops into your head as you're reading, I recommend setting the Hemingway work aside and writing the story right then. Just go with your gut and let the story lead you through to the end.
I recommend you let the story sit overnight, then cycle through it the next day to be sure any dialogue or description is presented as it happened or occurred.
Please also provide a short author bio (say up to 200 words) for use in the possible anthology. Be sure to include your website and/or social media URL. (I will only include your email addy if you put it in the bio.)
You do not have to write in the Hemingway "style," but I do recommend you write "the truest sentence you know," then another and another.
The Fine Print
I am solely responsible for judging all entries.
Writers retain the copyright to their story(ies).
If your story is accepted, you grant me and StoneThread Publishing the NON-EXCLUSIVE license to publish your story in the potential anthology.
You may also publish the story separately or in a collection or however else you choose whenever you want (even before the anthology comes out). No waiting period.Prizes awarded constitute full payment (so no royalty split) for the right to include prize winning works in the anthology.
I will pay each non-prize winning writer $10 per story on acceptance for each story I accept for publication in the anthology. That also constitutes full payment. All payments will be made via PayPal (you do not have to have a PayPal account to access your payment).
If I publish an anthology, every writer whose work is included will also receive a free ebook of the anthology.
Prizes
Regardless of whether an anthology actually results, prizes for the contest will be awarded as follows for stories of adequate quality:
$100
$65
$35
I reserve the right to withhold prizes if in my judgement the stories are not of prize-winning quality.
Any questions, please email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
By the way, this contest is brought to you by TNDJ's paid subscribers. If you'd like to ensure future opportunities like this, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
The Writing
I had a sucky day of writing yesterday. I'm so glad that doesn't happen often.
Vin and I spent about two hours back-and-forth trying to do an interview for the forthcoming True Pulp anthology and ended up with nothing (in my opinion) but a big mess.
The audio skipped and scrabbled all over the place here and there, etc. Just one of those things, mostly caused by interference from bad weather in New York.
If we take another shot at it sometime and come up with a good clip, I'll share it here first. For now, see a really clean interview with Vin and Troy Lambert in Of Interest below.
And please stop by and check out the True Pulp Kickstarter. While you're there, click to show your interest. Early interest will help with the Kickstarter. And thanks.
Of Interest
Pulp with a Legacy! Vin Zandri talks with Troy "Silence of the" Lambert You don't want to miss this!
You Don't Have to Earn Six Figures... Good article.
8 Tips for Turning Your Short Story into a Full-Length Novel
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 970
Writing of Blackwell Ops 44: Sam Granger | Following the Ghost Trail
Day 1…… 3613 words. To date…… 3613
Day 2…… 2893 words. To date…… 6506
Day 3…… 1824 words. To date…… 8330
Day 4…… 3025 words. To date…… 11355
Day 5…… 3697 words. To date…… 15052
Day 6…… 3428 words. To date…… 18480
Day 7…… 1013 words. To date…… 19493
Fiction for May………………………... 46497
Fiction for 2025………………………. 424910
Nonfiction for May………………........ 12880
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 113970
2025 consumable words…………….. 532370
Average Fiction WPD (May)……...... 3321
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 10
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 114
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
Short story collections……………………. 29
Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!
If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Thanks for the links, especially the "You Don't Have to Earn Six Figures" article. It made me feel so much better! I hadn't consciously thought about it, but I think I had internalized the whole earning six figures from my writing while being involved in the indie publishing world. I mean, it would be nice to earn that much, obviously, but it also sounds super stressful! For now, I think I'm better off writing AND focusing on building my accounting business.
And, of course I'll continue to write into the dark every day. :) That goes without saying.
Well, Harvey, you've got me hooked.
I started taking a web development course this week. Condensed 7 weeks. It's interesting but it's like learning a foreign language, takes me hours to learn one concept, and makes writing a novel look easy. It also, strangely enough, has made me miss writing.
So I'm going to try this contest. I can't promise anything great. We'll see. But thanks for the opportunity. :)