Okay so everyone enjoys a challenge, right. I mean the word challenge ignites a thought pattern that you will have to summon your deepest skills to succeed at whatever comes after the word challenge. For a writer a challenge can simply be trying to put together a credible plot that can be developed into a full fledged story.
I just got this information about a short stroy challenge coming the end of this week that might be interesting to my fellow fiction wirters. It is hosted by NYC Midnight. The 9th Annual Short Story Challenge is a creative writing competition open to writers around the world. There are 3 rounds of competition. In the 1st Round (January 16-24, 2015), writers are placed randomly in heats and are assigned a genre, subject, and character assignment. Writers have 8 days to write an original story no longer than 2,500 words. The judges choose a top 5 in each heat to advance to the 2nd Round (March 12-15, 2015) where writers receive new assignments, only this time they have just 3 days to write a 2,000 word (maximum) short story. Judges choose finalists from the 2nd Round to advance to the 3rd and final round of the competition where writers are challenged to write a 1,500 word (maximum) story in just 24 hours (April 24-25, 2015). A panel of judges review the final round stories and overall winners are selected. 
Unfortunately since I got this notice so late the only entry deadline remaining is by January 15th, Thursday and the fee is $55. What do you get for this fee? Not only does every writer receive feedback from the judges for every story submitted, but a special review forum is available for the participants to submit their stories for review from fellow writers throughout the competition. During the Short Story Challenge 2014, there were over 3,300 comments made on the 200+ stories submitted on the forum.
Feedback is always a good thing and seeing what others write will help us all to improve.
Joe's Musings 