CHALLENGES 2020

Welcome to Challenges 2020!

Another superfun and creative, yearlong writing blogfest from your own creative writing community. Join us for these Challenges, developed after hours of brainstorming by your WEP hosts, and amp up your writing mojo.  Many of our members and long time participants end up expanding their flashes written here into a novella, some have even gone on to getting published. Who knows, yours could be the next star!

A quick recap of the house rules - any genre except erotica, max word count 1000. Present your interpretation of the prompt in flash fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction.  Remember the blurbs here are just to get your writing muscles warmed up; you can take them or leave them as you wish. Help yourself to an option here, or devise your own inspiration and blaze your own unique trail. It's totally up to you!

First, a big round of applause for Olga Godim, our inhouse badge designer par excellence, who has drawn up another set of sumptuous badges in consultation with the team for display on our sidebars. Put the annual badge on yours and let's get writing!

FEBRUARY: - what a way to kick the WEP year into gear!

This prompt was inspired by the famous painting of Van Gogh and it's wide open to interpretation. 

Will the heroine propose to the hero on the Cafe Terrace, seeing as how it's a leap year and we're in the Valentine's month? 

It can be the setting of a romance, a crime scene, a fantasy or mainstream, everyday flash. 

Or you might choose to veer off in another direction entirely and interpret it around the artist's life, or your own real or a fictional, imaginary life. 

As you can see, no call to nod to Valentine's if that's not your thing. We're cool with that.

APRIL:

Will Aunt Martha's antique vase be found in the attic and change her family's lives forever? 

Or will your Sammy topple a priceless one and shatter it only to expose the family secret hidden for generations? 

Maybe the one Neil finds at a flea market will turn out to be a portal to another universe? 

What will your antique vase hold - flowers, coins, memories, fantasies, or just a bunch of withered old leaves? Because an antique vase can contain a lot of things, sweet smelling and not-so-sweet!

JUNE:

A city where the trees are pulling up their roots, bunching them over their branches like old fashioned women's skirts and trudging away to greener pastures.

A city under the haze of volcanic ash where no birds, no airplanes can land, no living creature can breathe.

The underground city within a city where fatbergs and noxious fumes create a deathly trap for your characters.

A concrete jungle where the walls close in and collapse every morning and everyone must wait for the night to be alive again. 

Tell us, what is your urban nightmare?

AUGUST:

The past casts a long shadow, or maybe it's a hypothesised future that's  the shadow over the present.

Was the MC in a pub brawl, a failed experiment, a war crime, a messy divorce...and any or all of these won't leave them alone?

Or the climate crisis, the political shenanigans, the science of gene splicing, the mass over-consumption of  opioids or violence or post-truthisms or personality cults...that's what causing them to shudder in anticipation of despair?

Shadows are a-plenty, choose one of the above, or dream up one of your own and give it any menacing length and shape you desire...so long as it's not more than 1000 words long! :) 

OCTOBER:

Traditionally October is the month when we like to bring out and parade the skeletons...in the cupboards and on our brains. 

No better time for a nice juicy ghost story...a few zombies...and cosying up with the speculative, supernatunal and paranormal.  Most of our community go with the horror genre for this Challenge.

But if that's not your thing...no worries. We're flexible. Write about a grave mistake that's got nothing to do with graves or vampires or ghosties and ghoulies. 

A character rescues a strange looking being and faces unforeseen consequences...

A forgetful parent leaves the babies on the bus...

A team of scientists goes a little too far with one of their experiments...

A doctor performs an unorthodox procedure...

Because, you see...it's so easy to make a grave mistake! 

DECEMBER:

And to round off the year, the ideal prompt for the party season!

The mask can be literal...or it can be a metaphor...are you going to unmask a gunman come to rob a store...

Or a musician singing from behind one...

Maybe a card player of the perfect poker face...or...

A criminal who's posing as a climate crusader, maybe even a political leader...

So...what's behind it all?...the most alluring eyes and the most nefarious plot...and how will the MC unmask them?

PLEASE share this page with your friends, on Facebook, on Twitter and on your blog - or anywhere you hang out!

Help spread the word on the 2020 WEP challenges. @DeniseCCovey @theIWSG

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Which of the six 2020 WEP challenges are you looking forward to the most? @DeniseCCovey @theIWSG 

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Have a favorite 2020 WEP challenge? @DeniseCCovey @theIWSG 

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Here’s our entire 2020 challenge list. Don’t miss out and join in on the fun. @DeniseCCovey @theIWSG

https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/p/challenge.html