05/31/07

Conquest: Story in a Bag (permalink)

conquest kansas_city convention con writing book scifi science_fiction fantasy competition

While attending the Conquest KC science fiction and fantasy convention this year, I participated in the Story in a Bag contest. For the contest, the conquest staff prepared a series of bags containing short sentences or words that had to be incorporated into a new, custom written story which the contestants had one hour to complete. The best stories in each of three categories (science fiction, fantasy and horror) were judged within three skill levels (youth, adult amateur, and adult professional/published).

For my entry, I chose to write within the Science Fiction category and qualified for the Adult Amateur level. My topics were as follows:

• Theme: A Trip Home.
• Character: A Crying Baby.
• Item: A Box of Chocolates
• Setting: A Run Down Apartment Building
• Starting Sentence: "Seven years ago today my life changed completely when..."

I ended up writing a story about a researcher who was indentured into service only to return to his home planet seven years later and try to pick up his old life. It turned out ok, considering it took me 20 minutes to decide on a plot which left me only 40 minutes to write and edit the 6 page story.

All of the stories were judged by convention attendees, and in the end out of the four stories that were submitted in my category and level, I won a close second place. I hope to compete again next year and try for first.