If it’s July, it’s hot, so it must be time for shorts. Short stories, that is! Shorts in July is the name of our group’s annual writing challenge for the July meeting.
The Challenge
Pick a theme song. Your choices are (links below)
- Great Balls of Fire, Jerry Lee Lewis
- Smoke on the Water, Deep Purple
- Summer in the CIty, Lovin’ Spoonful
Write a story inspired by your theme song.
Your story should include the three challenge words SCORCH, SCALD, and SIZZLE.
The Details
First, you can write just a scene or other story fragment–a complete story is not required. Poems and essays are also acceptable, so long as you follow the other expectations listed below. Whatever you write, it should:
- be no more than 1000 words;
- loosely fit in one of our genres–science fiction, fantasy, or horror;
- include no author byline or other identifying information;
- Reveal, either in the story or in a separate preface, the name of the song that inspired the story and, if you wish, how the song inspired the story
- Use all three challenge words; grammatical variations like scorched are acceptable;
- Be in some way connected to the song in mood, lyrics, or some other manner of your choosing;
- Have a unique title–please don’t use the song’s title as your story’s title.
- Bring your story to the meeting in a plain, unmarked, 9″x12″ manila envelope. If you don’t have one of these, we’ll have some available the night of the meeting.
Genres are intended to be broadly interpreted–a slipstream story, for example, is fine.
The Game
We’ll proceed as we do at the Holiday meeting, with an anonymous reading of each entry. As the readings proceed, members will keep a pencil-and-paper list of the titles and their individual best guess of the story’s author. After the readings are complete, we will go through each entry in turn, discussing our guesses before the Author Reveal. The member with the most correct guesses will get a door prize provided by the Officers.
The Songs
Links to iconic performances of the songs and to the lyrics are below.