Behind the Story: Liquid Cold

Bonjour readers! Back in October 2024 I participated in my first ever writing contest and what a wild ride it took me on. Did I create a master piece or had I created a monster? More on that later, but first, the back story!

Last summer I found myself headed for a weekend retreat to Piers Island and was able to catch up with my good friend, and fellow writer, Alex (she also has an incredible podcast). We got to talking about writing and she mentioned this website called Writing Battle where you're randomly assigned one of four genres and then given a setting and character prompt that you have to include in your story. But the best part is, not only do you get to write, you also get to judge! That's right, you get to help choose who has the winning story for each genre and in the end there's a cash prize (in USD no less)!

Needless to say, I was interested, and following our trip I immediately registered for the next contest slated to start in October. It would be the first time I had ever entered my work into a publicly judged arena, and let me tell you, the nerves were a'flowin.

But my excitement overpowered those nerves and when I got my prompts I was stoked. Not only did I get Cemetery Tale as my genre (I'm a huge horror fan so this was great) but I also got Oilfield and Spirit as additional prompts. It felt like the cards were in my favour and in no time my creative juices got to work and birthed what I thought to be a shoe in to win.

The prompts I received along with a 2000 word limit

And of course, everyone always warns you not to count your chickens before they hatch, but baby I had a dozen eggs and I was sure I was going to get a dozen chickens! I had barely even hit the submit button on my story and I could already smell the USD washing over my body. "Maybe I should make this into a full novel," I had confidently said to Michael, thinking everyone and their mothers would be begging me to continue the story I had so expertly wove. "What if they say I'm the next Stephen King?"

Alas, I shouldn't have held my breath. When the results finally did come through after about a month of waiting, I ended up winning five out of the ten head to head battles my story was put through. Two wins away from qualifying for the final round of judging.

Now this is not a bad score, especially for something that's so subjective. But I'm saying this now with the perspective of many more contests entered, and lots of time to process. However back then I cried. I cried more than once that day and I definitely subjected poor Michael to multiple expressions of lamentation.

It's funny to think of now, but at the time it hurt. Still, I wouldn't change a thing. I like that I believe in my own stories. Sue me! The tears aren't so bad especially when I had a few moment there where I really thought I was going to be the next famed horror novelist...

Good news is, there's still time.

Thanks for sticking around!

Until next time,

M.