Writing Battle: FIGHT!

A genre. A setting. A character. One week. Twenty-five hundred words. FIGHT!

I stumbled onto this Writing Battle group (www.writingbattle.com) that uses this lovely quasi-Ancient/Medieval style set up that engages writers in impromptu "battles" to compete for a monetary prize and, of course, glory.

You choose your class, which is the general genre in which you want to compete. They have quirky names, like Barbarian if you write dystopian/post-apocalyptic stories or Artificer if you write sci-fi. I chose Cleric, as one who tells tales of "love, friendships and heartfelt bonds."

You pay a little something, depending on which battle you select. I chose Verdant Owl, which means I will have one week to write a 1500-2500 word story that will be judged by a professional.

Shouldn't be too hard. I can just start thinking about it now, right?

Wrong.

On your start date, you are given a more specific sub-genre, along with a setting prompt and character prompt that you MUST USE. The setting and character don't have to be the main setting or character, but they must show up, and in a significant way.

You are given one genre draw, where you can redraw your genre, and 7 draws to redraw the prompts if you don't like what you drew. But be careful. Once a prompt is gone, you can't go back to. And you can't see what the future draws contain.

Once complete and submitted, a rubric is followed to rate all the stories in each grouping, and the top group moves on to the next round of battles where you go head-to-head with another story, and out of the five judges who read the two works, you have to get the win from 3 of the 5 to move on to the next head-to-head.

Eventually, you get a winner and a bunch of runners-up who win a cash prize and have their stories published on the website (you retain all the rights to your story).

So my first battle starts tomorrow.

When I signed up, I received an email that asks every participant why they decided to join the battle.

Well, I told them, the first was that I wanted honest feedback from someone who knew more than me. I may be in my mid-forties, but I am at the beginning of taking this journey seriously and nowhere near an expert.

Second, if I want to join the world of professional writers, I have to do the things professional and wannabe professional writers do. Join contests. Go to workshops. Take part in seminars and intensives.

Third, I wanted to stretch myself as a writer, force myself into certain parameters I might not ever have chosen.

Fourth, admittedly, I want to win. Lol. I doubt I will come close, but the competitive spirit in me still wants to win. But with what I'm going to get from the first three reasons means I can't lose.

So be sure to check back in with me. The entire battle doesn't end until May, but I can hopefully get the story I write over the next week up on my Writing Page.