It’s that time again! NPR is hosting round five of Three Minute Fiction. This round’s entries must start with the phrase, “”Some people swore that the house was haunted,” and end with, “Nothing was ever the same again after that.”
The judge for this round is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham. Always a fan of a good ghost story, he supplied the phrases for us to play around with.
Deadline is September 26th so get cracking! Rules are simple, start and end with the provided phrase and keep the story 600 words or less.
Cunningham will read the winning story on air, and the winner will receive signed copies of his books, The Hours and By Nightfall, to be released in October.
There are some great entries from the last round available for the public to enjoy, look on the contest info page on the right sidebar.
My Literary Quest 
Thanks for the heads up!
Nice one. Thank you.
Cool, think I may give this a try just for fun 🙂
Ah bugger…cannot take part as you must be a resident of the US…oh well…never mind..
D’oh! Didn’t check that requirement, sorry. It makes a fun writing exercise nonetheless.
Could be a lark. I’m always motivated by a deadline.
This looks like a fun challenge. It’s a pity I’m not eligible to enter. I might give it a bash anyway just for fun. I do like a ghost story!
Do it and then post it – it would be a blast to see what different angles we all come up with!
Ok, I’ll get cracking!
Finished my story at last! I tell you, the fewer words you have to work with, the longer it takes to write something. You can read my story here:
http://helencaldwell.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/some-people-swore-that-the-house-was-haunted/
Thanks for the prompt!
It’s inspired me to write a haunted house story anyway so it’s all good even if I cannot particpate since I’m in the UK
I heard this announcement on NPR this past Sunday. I jotted down the lines and have been cogitating on them ever since. Think I’ll try it this time around! Will you? I hope anyone who gives it a try will post it – whether they enter or not. I’d love to read them.
I’m going to try to play with some ideas in the next few days and see if I can pull something amusing together. 600 words isn’t much to work with. If I do and it makes the NPR site I’ll definitely post a link to it. If it doesn’t make the site I’ll post it here.
I submitted mine today. Yay!
Details tomorrow at 10 am on Fun with Words.
Looking forward to reading both of your subs! I’ll be posting mine soon! Not quite there yet. . .
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