New Writing Contest (Page 1 of 5)

Winter survival story (with werewolves, lol).  The Pacific Northwest is: freezing butts, rain, snow, Puget Sound, great artists, trees everywhere, lumberjacks, hunters with macho trucks, elk, moose, bears, bigfoot, and beautiful women in furs (faux furs I hope).

Again, can you please award 1st, 2nd, 3rd cash prizes.

Thank you ~ max

Let's be more specific--not a mystery, but a locked room mystery.

What is a locked room mystery?

A locked room mystery is one where they find a dead body in a locked room, no way anyone could get into it or out of it.  Or maybe, there's one person in it, but he or she says they didn't commit the crime (and are innocent), yet, who else could have done it?  There are variations of it.  It doesn't have to literally be a locked room--it's just that no one could have killed the person, yet, he or she is clearly dead and murdered.  Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affairs at Style's" is perhaps one of the most famous.  Reginald Hill wrote one where it seems that the person must have committed suicide--no other explanation--yet, he did not.  I suppose in that respect, Asimov's "The Naked Sun" is one.  Only one person could have killed the victim, yet, she couldn't have killed him either.  The challenge is to have the clues as to how the murder was done clearly in the text, yet hidden, by distractors or prose, so that they don't leap out at the reader.

Say, we had a "mystery" contest and nobody knew the genre -- unless they read this thread. Take care. Vern

I can write in any genre (even international thriller, contrary to what I just IM'd Randall.  Yes, I suck at it, but I can write in it.)  A prize for every genre would get messy, but a prize for a multi-genre entry ends up like AGT, where you have jugglers, magicians, opera singers, all competing).  So I suggest people do suggest their fovorite genre, or one where they would like to stretch their wings in.  It's all in fun; it's all motivational; and $100 will not be life changing.  And--when I didn't win the last contest, I just sent my story out, and it's been accepted, with revisions.  I bring that up to show that even if you lose the contest, it's a learning experience, makes you a better writer, and can lead to success.  So any genre is fine by me, for these reasons.  Maybe we should have someone compile the suggestions and then we take a vote.

And Then There Were None, also by Christie, is another good example.

You can take a closed room murder and put it into any genre. Doesn't necessarily have to be a murder mystery. It just depends on the characters, action, time period (thinking syfy) and action surrounding the murder. The story doesn't even really have to be about the murder.
Write in whatever genre you want.

I'm confused; you say no to Trump and then mention possibly using -- oops, never mind, you used Pinhead and I automatically thought Dickhead which of course would be a Trump calling card. My bad. Take care. Vern

How about a closed room murder that must also combine two fanfics that would never go together? I'm liking the idea.

Sounds like fun!

How much inventive effort goes into the story and how much into the setting?  When the effort to meet the qualifying rules exceeds the effort to create the story within, you change the nature of the contest.