Writing Competition

So, I signed up to participate in an informal writing competition over at EN World, a site dedicated to role-playing games especially D&D. There are no prizes other than bragging rights, but it offers a chance to hone my writing skills and have some fun.

The way it works is that you are paired off against someone in each round. Each bracket is given four pictures chosen by the judges and you have 72 hours to write a story driven by the pics. There is no minimum or maximum length; the only requirement is that you must use all four pictures and they must be a meaningful part of the story, not a throw-away piece. The judges decide which story they like better and the winner advances to the next round to do it all over again. It goes like that until the final round in which the final two have six pictures to write about in the 72 hour time span.

This is the first time I have participated and it is intense. I turned my story in just minutes before the deadline and most of the second half was written in the hour previous. I wasn't completely happy with it, not that writers are ever happy with their work even when they have years to work on a piece. I got some positive feedback from the judges and I am advancing to the next round, but mostly because my opponent turned in his piece half-finished and very late. There are some good writers in the group and a few previous competitors. Still, this first round gave me some confidence, so we'll see how it goes.

If you are curious, here are the pictures I had to use. And here is the story, I wrote. Comments and criticism welcome, of course. Just remember it was written in 72 hours and I have not revised it since.

UPDATE: Fixed story link.