Writing Contest in Q1

So for Q1, one of my classes was English 9 Honours. My teacher suggested a writing contest from the local Coquitlam library. Because it was for Halloween, it was a scary story in less than 500 words. I submitted a story for fun, and was surprised when it actually won first place, with a given prize of $50.

Here is a section of my short story:

I froze when I recognized the liquid to be blood. I stood there for a moment, then panic took over and I ran back down the hall. The lights kept flickering as doors whizzed pass me on either side. My heart was jumping into my throat, and I was beginning to feel uncoordinated, stumbling and tripping over my own trembling legs. Racing down the endless hallways without thinking, I could only hope to find the exit of the hospital.

This is something I did for fun, a few weeks before Halloween. My goal was to just submit it for fun, perhaps I might win a prize. I was not aiming for first or second prize, just merely writing the story was enjoyable for me. I’m proud that it got first place, and I was featured on an edition of the Tri-Cities news. I also like how much I took joy in writing it, to let my imagination spill on paper.  A challenge was getting started and actually writing the story, once I started, it was easy to keep going. The beginning was slow because I wanted to choose a good storyline. If I were to do it again, I would be more descriptive, and increase my word count.

Because the prompt was so throught-provoking, I ended up writing four stories and submitting all of them. Here is a part of another story:

All hope I had before was now dying fast. The fast-paced steps echo a few floors below, not quite sounding human. It dawned on me that this building would be a mausoleum, with me as the corpse it would be housing.

I did the only thing I could do. I ran.

Even though this one did not make it to the podium, I still enjoyed writing it and coming up with the story. Something does not have to amount to a physical reward as long as you take joy from it. If you like doing this activity, that is payment in itself.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *