Contest Fortnight Flash Fiction March 18 - 31

I enjoyed the freedom of using words to do a bit of worldbuilding, even though it is only 1,000 words. Just enough to start a conversation but not enough to have a dialogue.

It's a really good way to have a creative spark and potentially get some feedback for it from fellow writers. Writing novels is a long and lonely process, as are writing competitions which take MONTHS to hear back from (if at all). This informal approach is a great bit of brain exercise.

Hoping for more interaction and feedback, but seems like everyone is on their own track. Was also confused by why the contest moderator or 'site monkey' would comment on a single entry. This felt like a conflict of interests, but I am new to the Savvy world. I enter events and contests for feedback, to improve my craft and was hoping this would be such a venue. I also recognize it takes time to grow ... although many particpants seem to have been around for years and probably know the ropes better.

I really enjoyed having the option to participate in this. It came at a time where I needed a little brain cleaning for some focus. I'm excited to participate in future flash fiction events.

Since my genre of choice is mystery I was especially pleased to find it would be the subject of this Flash Fiction. There were a larger number of entries this time as well, which would indicate the level of interest among the members. Perhaps add more of this genre to the list.

One other suggestion about future contests, instead of using a photo for the prompt, consider having a basic plot that authors must use in their flash fiction story. An example might be, "Blair had been looking for months for the perfect house, and when she finally found it..."

Great contest as usual. So many variations on the theme this time and they were enjoyable reads too!

I very much enjoyed the challenge and reading others' stories. Lots of fun, and always cool to see how people take a prompt in all different directions. And there was a lot of talent in the contest!

That said ,there was not a lot of voting, perhaps because of two issues. First, I found it extremely hard to locate the contest and the voting on the website, and I don't think I got any emails promoting it (other than those I received as a participant). Not sure how many people really knew about it. Second, because there were quite a few entries (a good problem to have!) I think it may have discouraged people who are very busy these days from committing to reading all the entries and voting. I don't know if there is another way to break it into smaller chunks.

Thanks a lot for running the contest!!

Good fun and excellent writing practice! I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Another wonderful interesting prompt. It certainly kickstarts the imagination.

I like the concept. I think it works well. But I was shocked at the low number of participants and the low number of total votes. Granted, I was not able to see what the final vote counts were after the event ended, so it's possible the total was considerably higher than when I last checked. I'd like to see some sort of incentive implemented to increase the number of total votes, as a total of less than 10 votes between 3 stories is barely worth recognizing.

I love this contest. Long may it continue. I learn so much from having to write the short story. Thank you.

Such a lovely, friendly way to hone craft, enjoy friendly competition, and get to read great stories.

Always an interesting challenge. I love the varied prompts which stick starts my imagination. I hope the small numbers entering won't stop the competition carrying on as I find my other writing benefits as well.

I did not participate in this week's flash contest but overall I am satisfied with it and how it is run. I'm still unsure, however, who is judging the stories as voting seems to have been suspended.

This was my 1st Flash attempt. It was so fun and challenging to try to convey fully formed characters and backstory in >1k words. Will definitely participate in future contests!

It would be helpful to have an impartial voice providing a critique for each story.

This is a really fun class. Allowing the winner to pick the prompts gives great diversity. The only thing I would say to do differently is have the winner picked by actual judges. There does not seem to be enough involvement yet to pick winners from voting, sometimes every story only gets one or two votes.

I was not expecting the prompt to be just an image, although this is my first contest. Perhaps a genre would be nice next time. I also continue to struggle with the links and finding the actual stories as they are posted. It seems there are too many links rather than a simple drill-down or menu pull-down method. I found myself going down a number of rabbit holes without finding what I was looking for.

This was enjoyable and helped to get the juices flowing. The differences in the prompts gave a nice chance for everyone. The week to write and the week to vote was a great pace. When work was overwhelming I could read and vote and not write but would have the opportunity to write again soon. Enjoyed it immensely and will sign up for more.
CAC

I enjoy taking part in this contest. I don't get the chance to thank people for leaving comments about my stories, but I always find them helpful. There's constructive criticism if necessary. This is a definite plus as it isn't a given in other contests. That's my experience anyway.