E.S. Raye

For the last two years, I have participated in a couple of NYC Midnight’s writing challenges, specifically the Short Story and Screenwriting Challenges. Last year, I made it to the second round of both contests. Right now, I’m waiting on results from the first round of each contest to see if I advance again (results for the short stories should be coming next week.)

I like these contests for several reasons, not least of which is that they give great feedback. But I think the most important reason to take part in challenges and contests like the ones at MYC Midnight is that they force you out of your comfort zone as a writer.

I can’t speak to all of NYC Midnight’s writing contests (and they do have several), but for these two at least, participants are supplied with a subject, a character, and, most notably for this discussion, a genre.

So far, I’ve been given heist, spy, thriller, adventure, horror, and mystery.

I write horror and science fiction, and while some of these, like thriller and adventure, are commonly mixed with my preferred genres, heist, spy, and mystery were more challenging for me. But I was mostly successful (with “heist” anyway; I’m still waiting on my “mystery” success). And I think it’s because I took a little bit of my allotted time to learn at least some of the tropes and story beats common to those genres.

And that is what I think is so important. I don’t know about other writers, but I can get comfortable and complacent in my chosen genres and rely perhaps too much on the tropes found there. This makes those stories risk getting boring, even predictable. Even the subversion of some tropes has become so common that audiences and readers can see them coming a mile away.

But if you take the time to study and learn the tropes and clichés from other genres, you can apply them to your own for more exciting stories.

For example, when I was given heist, I (of course) combined it with science fiction. Since I was also given the subject of kindergarten and the character of a proud mother, I wrote a story about a squad of alien gerbils sent on a mission by their brood mother to rescue one of their greatest scientists who was mistaken for an Earth gerbil and became a kindergarten’s class pet. (It’s called “The Offspring Garden” based on the gerbils’ mistranslation of kindergarten, and you can read it here) Although it was technically a rescue mission, the squad had to devise a plan, infiltrate the school without being seen, overcome obstacles set in their path, and get out without being caught.

Ultimately, I think it ended up being one of the best stories I had ever written. The judges agreed enough to pick me as one of the top five in my group, and I moved on to the second round.

Similarly, the deadline for the first round of this year’s Screenwriting Challenge just passed. For this year’s challenge, I was assigned the subject of a tea party, the character of a housewife, and the genre of mystery.

Going back to the common story beats of a murder mystery where the main character’s investigation takes them down several dead-end paths with several suspects, I submitted the story of a street-corner fortune teller who uses her Tarot deck and skill with tea leaf reading to investigate the death of her housewife client at her tea party/wake. I will know how successful my foray into mystery was on May 7th, but I learned a lot and had fun doing it even if I don’t move on to round 2.

In fact, I’m blending mystery with one of my preferred genres again right now: I’ve been asked to contribute a short story to an upcoming anthology and I’ve decided to revisit my science fiction Maltese Flacon-esque mystery about a piece of long-lost and extremely valuable alien technology that may not be what the legend says.

So, if you’re a writer reading this, try branching out, even if only to mix your favorite genres with another. Bring those tropes into your writing and gain a fresh perspective or a whole new spin. Either way, you’re writing to grow and improve.

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I want to end on an unrelated note. If you’re a fan of short science fiction, fantasy, or cosmic horror stories, check out my new, completely free digital magazine, Perseid Prophecies! The first issue just went live on April 1st and contains stories from the greats like Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, and Tom Godwin.

Perseid Prophecies will publish a new issue on the first of the month following each season change, i.e., winter issue on January 1st, spring on April 1st, summer on July 1st, and fall on October 1st.

The first issue features stories from the public domain, and I intend to continue to feature at least one or two such stories in each issue. However, I am also accepting short story and art submissions! Submissions are open now and will be until April 14th. I intend to open submissions for two weeks every three months, beginning on the same day each issue is released.

So, writers, send me your short stories! You can find a list of what I’m looking for on Perseid Prophecies’s Submission Guidelines page.