Writing Battle Short Story Collection

Introduction

Writing Battle is a quarterly competition that I began participating in 2023. Here I will be keeping an archive of those works, with the genre and prompts, plus the word count limit, and my placement in the competition. It is my expectation that each story will improve compared to the last.

By nature of this competition the genres and content vary exponentially, so plenty of interest for everyone.

☆ A Centurion's Duty: Written during the Winter of 2023. Prompts: Genre, Winter Survival; Character, Centurion; Object, Fishing Pole. Word Limit: 1000.

Placement: I was in the lower second half of the competitors. This was my very first entry into Writing Battle, safe to say, that I was new and terribly inexperienced. My grammatical errors were out the window and many readers said they felt the character development was lacking. My inspiration for this particular story came from a German vs. Roman battle. I attempted to create a light historical fiction vibe, so readers could partially envision the setting and character's clothing without me having to waste too much time explaining. Lastly, this battle required a synopsis, so I shoved some character info into there to eke out some more content for my story (yes, stretched the rules a smidge). After this, Writing Battle did away with the synopsis and the stories now have to get by solely on their own merit. Staying true to the word limit the new edited story I publish here is under 1000 words.

☆ True or False: written during Spring microfiction 2023. Prompts: genre, conspiracy; subject, paradox; word, enigmatic. Word limit: 500. Earned 5 of 10 points in pool play.

This story took a long time to think about and process. I only had three days and it was a very busy weekend. After reading about several different paradoxes my brain was fried and I had not written a single word. Creating a conspiracy to go with a paradox in only 500 words was a daunting task. Unfortunately, I did not pull it off and only got an average score for the competition. However, I did learn many things from the feedback I received and this helped when my next battle came around.

☆ Farewell to Innocence: Written during Summer Nanofiction 2023. Prompts: genre, quiet horror; character, first-time butcher; word, pragmatic. Word limit: 250. Earned 9 of 10 points in pool play.

This story landed me in the top eight out of 159 other competitors in this genre. I am very proud of such an outcome. Especially since it was only my third submission into the competition. My confidence has been boosted and I am on fire with the desire to write. Hopefully, from here on out I will continue to write and have more works to share as time goes on.

There are more stories to come...