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Print it! (PDF)
Deadline:
July 15, 2009
(Midnight, PT)
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"Listen."
"I hear nothing."
"Nor I. No birds, no crickets. It's all gone so quiet."
"Quicken pace."
The
words
that flow from real people are not the same as those that
flow from
fictitious
ones. We may engage in
idle chit-chat from sunrise to sunset, with no goal in
sight, but they who emerge from the imagination may not enjoy such leisure. From the moment they
open their mouths, they have a job to do:
reveal character, advance the story.
And there is nothing
more dynamic than a well-crafted conversation.
Share your characters'
gift of gab. Write a complete story—not
a scene—that consists of pure dialogue. No narrative
whatsoever, not even a he said or she replied.
If it isn't spoken, and within quotation marks, it
can't be on the page.
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 $100
Story published in
The VERB
Story Opinion,
also published in The VERB
($29 value)
Entry Fee:
None
Length
may
be up
to 1,000
words. But
not a word more. (Your contact information
and your title are not included in the word count.)
Entries
must be original and
unpublished.
Send only
your best.
Once
submissions arrive, no
revisions
will be accepted.
Open
to writers worldwide.
(Payment to winners outside the USA are made via PayPal only.)
Unlimited.
You may submit multiple stories.
The judge
for this contest
is Elizabeth Guy.
Read
her bio on the
Readers
page.
Winner
will be notified via email
August 3, 2009.
The
winning story will be published in the
August ´09 issue
of The
VERB.
Only
the winning entry receives
a free
Opinion.
Read previous Opinions
here.
After the results have been announced, the remaining entrants will have
the opportunity to receive a Contest Opinion at half price ($14).
As always,
complete
contest
results will be announced at the
Contest
Café.
NEW!
Read about
the judging process and our new method of posting
contest results!
 
ALL
contest
entries must be
submitted electronically. You may paste your text within the body of an
email or send it as an attachment in a PDF or a Microsoft Word.doc.
We do not
accept any other formats.
AT
the top of your submission, please provide:
~ your name
~ your mailing address
~ your email address
~ genre
~ word count
CAPITALIZE title. All
submissions must have a title.
FONT
should be black
12-pt.
Arial, Courier or
Times Roman, double-spaced.
SEPARATE scenes with a few
centered pound signs: ######.
CONFIRM
we've
received your entire submission by including the words:
The End.
SUBJECT:
Dynamic Dialogue Contest
YOU
are now ready to
submit your work.
(If clicking this
link doesn't automatically open your email, send your work to
contest--at--readingwriters.com AFTER you've replaced the
--at-- with the @ sign.)
WE
confirm receipt of every contest entry. If you
haven't received a confirmation within 24 hours, we haven't received your
entry. Please re-send.
WE don't,
however, acknowledge spam-blocking
filters that require us to fill out a form to join an approved
list. If you use such an address for this contest, you won't
receive emails from us.
·
RIGHTS ·
Winner
grants ReadingWriters,
publisher of The
VERB writing
ezine, First Electronic Rights. Simply put, this means you allow us to
publish your story first
on the Internet.
After August 2009, the story will move
to The
VERB archives
and remain there until you ask us to remove it. You,
the winning
author, retain
all
other rights to your work.
These
First Electronic Rights apply to the
winning
entry only.
Remaining entrants retain
ALL rights to
their work.
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Making a
Scene
with
Mush Pump and Ice Noodle
Elizabeth
Guy
View the book trailer!
"Yeah, yeah,
I get it. Let me go." Ice Noodle fell to the ground,
fighting for air. He stretched out on his back and
stared up at the clouds until his breathing calmed.
"Daryl thinks Reva's in love with his brother. And it's
killing him."
"Hark!" Mush
Pump raised a hand to his brow. "We've made contact!"
"Fine. I can
do that." Ice Noodle sat up. "Daryl goes down to his
studio and bangs out a tune on the piano. He's a
musician. Logical reaction."
Mush Pump
glared down, folding his arms.
Ice Noodle
tried again. "Okay, he bangs out a sad tune."
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