Get The Creative Juices Flowing with a New York Midnight Challenge!

Stuck in the house with nowhere to go, the pandemic should have been a great opportunity for me to get the creative juices flowing and write.

That didn’t happen.

My writing was as stuck as I was.

Cooking shows, game shows, and predictable Hallmark mysteries filled my afternoons. I  spent my mornings scrolling on Facebook, which didn’t help break the block.

Until it did.

In December 2020, an advertisement popped up on Facebook for a writing contest reminiscent of the table exercises led by author Adrian Fogelin at the Fiction Among Friends retreats I had attended. In those morning and afternoon sessions, we were given a unique situation, a quirky character, and a few minutes to create a scene.

The NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge was very much like that. Presented with a random genre, situation, and character, entrants would have eight days to create a 2,500-word short story. Then, subsequent rounds would introduce a new set of parameters with a decreasing number of words and fewer days to develop the story.

I certainly needed something to spark my writing, so I entered in January 2021.

How It Works

The 7,000 plus entrants were divided into small groups, each with a different set of prompts. My group had the genre of thriller, the situation was a payday, and the character, a referee. This was a real head-scratcher to begin with. My story, Power Play, told of a female hockey referee making her debut in the NHL only to be asked to fix the game to pay off her husband’s debts. The stakes? They held her daughter. The feedback received in March from three judges was informative and constructive and well worth the price of the entry. I advanced to the second round.

My second set of parameters in April 2021 was equally as disconnected. I had another thriller, with a situation of glamour, and the character of an insomniac. This time I had 2,000 words and four days. Portrait told of a washed-up combat photographer now in a seedy photo studio shooting cheap glamour shots, and being asked to shoot what he strongly suspected was a young girl being trafficked. Again, I got positive, constructive feedback and advanced to the semi-final round.

Round three in June 2021 was a 1,500-word story in two days. Romantic comedy, a last chance, and a bounty hunter guided my writing. My inept bounty hunter, a high-school teacher in his day job, tries to deliver a skip to court in It’s All in the Wrist. While the feedback was positive, I did not advance. I admit facing a 1,250-word story in 24 hours was a little scary. However, being in the semi-final group of 260 out of the initial 7,000 was a great feeling.

NYC Midnight provides challenges for short stories, screenplays, flash fiction, and microfiction throughout the year. There are cash prizes for the top ten in each challenge, and as I said, the feedback from the judges is specific and constructive.

My writing has definitely been kick-started. I entered the Short Story Challenge in April 2022, but did not advance to the second round.

I also entered the 100-word Microfiction Challenge in Spring 2022. Presented with a genre, an action, and a word that had to be included, I had 24 hours to create a well-developed story. I completed two rounds of the Challenge and made the final round of 216 out of 6,700 entries, but did not win. Again, the feedback from the judges was helpful for my future writing.

Was it worth it?

Absolutely.

I’m writing again, creative juices are flowing, plus I have several pieces of writing I can further develop. So I collected a number of prompts from each challenge that I entered to use for starters on the days I don’t have a work in progress, or I just need a tickle to get me going.

To see the challenges offered, connect with other writers, and read winning entries from past years, check out NYC Midnight.

And get those creative juices flowing!

[Editor’s note: WAG would love to see articles on any and all topics of interest to writers. Please send your ideas or finished pieces to Cynthia D. Bertelsen at BlogEditor@writersalliance.org for consideration. Remember: these posts are more than just posts, for they are actual articles and can be cited in your CV/résumé in the same way you would a short story, essay, or any other writing credit you may possess.]