Podcastle Flash Fic Contest Results

So, as some of you may recall, both Perry and myself entered flash fiction pieces into the Podcastle Flash Fiction contest. We each entered two pieces.

THREE of our stories made it all the way to the semifinals.

TWO made it all the way to the finals.

And one claimed second place! I’ll let Perry decide if he wants to tell you about his stories, but I entered revamped versions of short fiction that was once posted here on the blog.

I rewrote the stories about the suburban gardening witch into a fluffy little piece called The Wicked Witches’ Most Dishonorable Gardening Gala, which got some chuckles and nice commentary.

The second place winner, however, was a rewrite of a teeny little pinfic you may remember called The Bear.

The prize? A contract so they will produce The Bear in audio format for their podcast, along with $20.

Not bad at all.

The contest itself was incredibly nervewracking — we weren’t allowed to vote for each other, and we weren’t allowed to “out” ourselves as authors until the very end. I learned a lot about biting my tongue and silently accepting criticism. It’s not often an author gets to watch through a two-way mirror (so to speak) while people openly discuss what they dislike about your writing.

Though my story came out pretty near the top, I feel like the time spent writing, refining, revising, and editing those little pieces with Perry beforehand was my true reward.

There’s only so much nitpicking you can do to a 100,000 word story. There is a LOT of nitpicking you can do to a little 500 word snippet, and it was amazing how tiny changes in word choice transformed an okay piece into a great one.

It was a tough competition voted on by very discerning readers, and it was an honor to even make it to the semifinals.

I’m also more than a little proud that the Saucy Ink members who participated did VERY well for ourselves. We’ve been writing and critiquing and rewriting for a while now. It’s nice to see that it’s paying off.

Congrats to ALL the winners, and for the blog readers here, rest assured that I’ll be letting you know as soon as Podcastle produces the story so you can listen in!

Related posts:

New Flash Fiction Up
Flash Fiction Update
[Perry] Podcastle and Criticism