A challenge and the chance to see your story in print

I am proposing a writing challenge.

• Are you a writer?
• Would you like to be a writer?
• Do you write flash fiction?
• Do you fancy seeing your work published?

To celebrate the launch of Xbox Live TV, and its integration with YouTube, I am putting together a collection of flash fiction stories all inspired by songs on YouTube. This will be published as an eBook on Amazon with ALL money collected going to the charity One in Four, a registered charity which provides support and resources to people who have experienced sexual abuse and sexual violence.

I’ve always used music to inspire writing. This was the case for virtually every short story I wrote for ‘Freaks!’ and there’s a single line in a song that inspired novel 4.

It seems to me that many writers can find inspiration in a song lyric or video or the emotion that a certain song evokes within. I know that there are songs that I loved last year that will take me back to certain writing moments by hearing their opening bars. Those songs will take my breath away, just for a moment.

NOW, tie all of this in with it being a new year and many of us all being armed with our new notebooks and determination to write BRILLIANT things this year… AND I have a TINY writing challenge for you.

So here’s what will happen:

• Someone (still a secret, sorry) will pick the best stories (and I’ll be throwing one of mine in there too).
• These will then be professionally edited by BubbleCow and I’ll find someone to proof (Eek! I like a challenge!).
• A Kindle version of the book will be available on Amazon for a small price (all money going to charity so no one will make a penny from this book other than Amazon and the charity).
• The cover will be professionally designed (Eek, again, but a challenge is being set!).

So what do you have to do?

• Write a story or a flash of a moment based on, linked to or inspired by a song on YouTube.
• It MUST be 100 words or fewer and in a language I can understand.
• Either email the story to me or blog it and let me know about it by leaving a link in the comments here or tweet the blog link to me (@Caroline_S with the hashtag #XboxMoreThanGames).
• Remember to name the song that influenced the story - that way we can build a track-list too.
• No song (for copyright reasons) lyrics should be included in the story.
• It must be written and given to me (in one of the above ways) by Wednesday 11 January (GMT). So you have less than ONE week!
  
• I’ll then bribe someone to read them all and select the stories to include.
• And THEN I’ll post the names of the selected stories on my blog on Friday 13 January.
• This writing challenge is open to everyone and the judge’s decision is final, but obviously you can send them abusive emails if you don’t get selected.
• Writers MUST hold the copyright to their stories and the stories MUST NOT have been published elsewhere.

But, really, this is all about writing. Because that’s what writers do, isn’t it? And if we can raise a few pennies for charity, then that’ll make me VERY happy. The reasons for choosing the charity One in Four will be obvious if you read THIS post.

So, off you go… 100 words or fewer in a week.

I’m waiting.