Young Writers Society

‘Tis the season! And for many of us here on YWS, Christmas is imbued with a warm historical richness and the fond nostalgia of years gone by. Remember the old Christmas stories and songs you’ve heard since you were a kid? There’s a certain, special, magical feeling when you recall snowy trips to your grandparent’s house, the way your mom fixed up your hot chocolate with peppermint, making snowmen on the front lawn, or sitting in front of a crackling fire while snow fell during the night. A lot of those feelings and emotions are universal. The joy, expectation, good-will, heartache, and love are the same to you today as they were to your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. After all, it doesn’t matter what century we live in; we are all human. Why not try and capture those feelings on paper?

On that note, I present An Old Fashioned Christmas Contest!

Objectives:
You can chose from two different prompts for this contest. The first is to write a story based off of a traditional Christmas carol. The second is to write a story based on one of the Norman Rockwell Christmas paintings in the list provided below. (If you don’t know who Norman Rockwell is, well, you should. You can read about him here.)

Note: Just to be clear, I did not mean that you have to write a story about yourself, per say. But you should give your story a personal touch. In the dreaded words of your English teacher: “How does this story show what Christmas means to you personally?”

Christmas Carols:


Christmas Pictures:
You can pick any of the five pictures here. What story do these paintings suggest to you? There are many creative possibilities, and I will be looking for unique and interesting situations and perspective.
(If you cannot view the images, PM me and I will send you a different format.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Elements of Style:
These are a few of the things that your story will be judged on. This is to help you write, but they are by no means required. It is something I will be looking for though, so do try and be consciously aware of incorporating some of these things into your story.

1. No spelling errors and few grammatical mistakes. Traditional vernacular is fine and good, text speech, for instance, is not. Use common sense.

2. I want to see stories that are grounded in reality. This does not mean that it can’t be fantasy. (Santa and Snow Fairies are fine, but I’d strongly suggest that you don’t write about rocket-powered sleigh rides to the North Pole, for instance.) It means that there is a plausibility to the actions of characters and a logical progression of the story’s events.

3. Your story should have a moral theme. This does not mean that they can’t be tragic, or that you can’t question the true nature of man, for example. In fact, I’d like to see you wrestle with some difficult themes. However, there must be a moral clarity to your story. The good should be good and the bad should be bad. What does this story tell us about ourselves? What do we need to change?

4. Historical Accuracy. A lot of the prompts I’ve given you are historical in nature, so I’m expecting some historical fiction. (This doesn’t mean you have to write something historical, but it was sort of my intention. Interviews with grandmother as she recalls childhood memories, etc. would count.) If you choose to write historically, please try to be historically accurate. In other words, no Frisbees in Dallas.

Rules:

1. The submission deadline has been extended to midnight (12:00) December 31st. (Formerly it was on Christmas Eve, now you have an extra week to write.)

2. The length of your work must be a minimum of 800 words, and a maximum of 5,000. This gives you a lot of freedom to play around with length and style. Don’t abuse it. (;) )

3. The rating on your work should not be higher than for age 12+. That includes most PG rated material, and excludes profanity and explicit sexual/violent content. Basically, anyone and everyone can enter this contest, so anyone and everyone should be able to read your story. (If you feel that you absolutely must give your story a higher content rating due to dark/mature themes, we can talk.)

4. You cannot edit your work after submitting. (This excludes minor grammatical or spelling fixes/typos that you might notice later.) This will be on your honor. (Although I will know if you are cheating, mwuh hah hah.) If it is an absolute necessity that you edit your work you must notify me so that I’m aware of the changes. Keep in mind that I’m going to be judging as the submissions come in, so it would be a great inconvenience if you haven’t polished your draft before submitting.

5. This is a short story contest, so only short stories will be accepted. Pretty obvious.

Submission:
Post your story as you would any other work on YWS, through your publishing center. Link to the final version with a post in this thread, and indicate which prompt you used for the story.

Prizes:
It’s Christmas, so I tried to be a little more generous in the prizes here. The reviews are on a piece of your choice, as long as it’s your own. (Obviously.) Now on to the fun part:

Honorable Mention- A gift and a review, and a hearty high-five.
3rd Place- A gift, two reviews, and 1,000 points, and a slap on the back.
2nd Place- A gift, three reviews, and 1,250 points, and an elf hat.
1st Place- A gift, five reviews, and 1,500 points, and your own personal reindeer.

Once again, if you have any questions about anything regarding the contest, please let me know by sending me a PM or by postin’ in this here thread.

Good luck to all contestants!

I really, really, really want to do this.

Well, subscribe to the topic, it will help you stay informed. You have a month to write, so you can even upload your early drafts and revise as you get reviews. That's what I might suggest.

(So in other words, you're in. )

It's December, so I'm bumping this thread.

This contest has recieved a few likes lately, *we know who you are* please post whether or not you are participating in this thread.

I shall definitely try this! (Though, I may forget about it... Is there a way that we could receive reminders?)

Subscribe to the thread, and you will get all the updates. I can post reminders on here about twice a week, if that works well for everyone.

I might participate!

I'm doing it!!!

I am so in.

Eloquent, if you don't mind, I'd like to give you some points so we can make the gifts a little larger. Say add 500 or 1000 to each prize?

17 days until the deadline! Ask your friends to participate. And keep writing!

@TheMessenger, if you want to do that, it would be fine with me. We could up it to 750 for 3rd, 1000 for second, and 1500 for first.

I would love to participate, but I'm just too busy! I have been wanting to write something about Christmas, though, so I'll write you a short story in my own time, outside the contest.

I totally got this!

@Cole, okay. But uh, since you're already writing one why not just tweak it a bit to fit with the contest? Might as well give it a shot.

(Plus, I don't know about you, but writing a Christmas story into Febuary doesn't appeal to me. )

I'm planning on writing a story about the birth of Christ through the eyes of Joseph, but I don't know when I will have time to do that, so I think I'll miss the deadline.

Christmas stories published after the holiday might seem strange, I suppose, but Jesus was born in spring.