While I was online the other day I ran across an article on the blog News from the Realm of Narnia about a college that is being built in honor of one of the greatest Christian authors of all time: C.S. Lewis. According to the article, it’s still a work in progress and the school probably won’t open until 2012, but I was immediately fascinated. Lewis’ books (including my favorites The Chronicles of Narnia and The space Trilogy) have touched the lives of several generations of children since and before his death. As many of us know, the entire Chronicles of Narnia are being made into major motions pictures, the latest of which The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is scheduled to come out this December in digital 3-D. (Those, in my opinion, are some very great accomplishments for a man who is no longer living.) I am just one of the authors who claim his works as my original inspiration to become a writer.
So, in honor of C.S. Lewis, I propose a short story contest: The rules?
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1) The work should be no longer than 5k
2) It should use some form of mythology, since Lewis, as I learned, was a professor of mythology and used it in his writings.
3) It should have some sort of underlying allegorical theme (preferably Christian)
4) Submissions start May 1rst (that should give us all some time). All submissions must be sent in by the deadline of May 31rst. (if for some reason you can’t get the story to me by then, there will be a mercy deadline of June 1rst) Polls for judging will open June 5th and close on June 30th.
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The winner of the contest will get their winning story posted on a new page on my blog dedicated to their story, and may also advertise their own blog on that page if they wish. The page will be allowed to stay up for three months.
When you’ve finished your story, you may send it to me at silverdreams3@gmail.com. On May 31rst, I’ll start compiling all the submissions to post on a page on my blog. By the 5th of June they should all be up, and I’ll have a poll set up as well.
Just to let you all know, I will not be the only one judging the stories. I will set up a poll and you, my readers, will be the ones judging this contest, not me. Also, I will not be entering a submission (to keep everything fair). I’m still planning on writing a piece, but it will be posted in the regular section of my blog and not eligible for judging.
With all that said, I hope you all have fun with this. I’m really excited and can’t wait to see what you guys come up with! :)
10 comments:
You're tagged! Head over to my blog to check it out (you don't have to participate if you don't want to)
Squeaks.
Nicole,
I've given the contest some thought and I do believe I will enter (although it may take some time for me to write a composition as I'm quite busy with school at the moment). Just so you know, I've advertised your contest over at my blog :) Hope it'll direct a few more people over here.
Squeaks.
Ooh. I want to do this - I hope I'll have time. Only 5,000 words though... hmmm. My short stories tend to be a little long! ;)
Oh this contest looks way too fun. :) C. S. Lewis is my favorite author so anything in honour of him attracts my attention. I will do my best to enter, but because of several previous obligations, I can't promise that I'll have anything finished in time. Does the allegorical theme have to be allegorical or can it be straight Christian? Hm, I don't know if I can write mythology... it's out of my comfort zone and it seems like there is no storyline that hasn't been used before. I promise to do my best though! :) I hope you get a lot of great contestants.
Merriette, it can have a straight Christian theme, no problem! :) And All it has to have for mythology is something small... say, you like centaurs, so throw one in there somewhere and "walla!" it qualifies. And it wouldn't nessisarily have to be Greek mythology you use, AND it doesn't really have to be accurate. As far as I'm concerned, you can even make up your own type of mythology for the story and as long as it's understood to be myth in the place where your story is set, it's all good. This contest is just for fun, and to honor one of the best (in my oppinion) authors of all time. Have fun with it! :)
Thank you for the answers, Nicole! This sounds great. :)
I suppose I can't enter more than one story? I don't think I'll want to, I'll just feel more comfortable submitting whatever I do come up with if I know I can submit another one should I like it better. That's fine if that is not okay though. It makes more sense to have only one entry per contestant.
Oh, how ironic. I finished writing a short story a month or so ago, and the main character's favorite book character just happens to be Lewis's Jewel the unicorn. Isn't that funny?
The story's not exactly mythology, but it does mention Jewel, and thusly unicorns. And while it's not allegorical, per say, it makes use of Jewel's 'true country' statement. I'm trying to decide: is my story elegible, or not? It's under 5k, so it meets that criteria. But it's a bit iffy on the others...
Merriette,You can submit several stories, but only one will be eligable for judging to make it fair. If you like one better than another, just say so in the subject of your email.
Celeb, that's so cool! That story would totally count too. It has unicorns in it, unicorns are considered a myth, therefore it qualifies! :)
Great! =D Thanks.
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