Weekend Writing Challenge: Take your fiction to the skies (and win some books)
After spending some time in New York with the awesome John Moir—the writer who won our 78th Annual Writing Competition—and dropping by The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times…
After spending some time in New York with the awesome John Moir—the writer who won our 78th Annual Writing Competition—and dropping by The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times and Audubon, I’ve landed back at WD headquarters. (More details on that to come, plus some of John’s insights on meeting with editors.)
But, before arriving home, I had to hit the skies. Hard. Most people who know me (or have had the entertaining experience of flying with me) are well aware that even though I’m constantly doing it, I hate flying and maintain a hearty nervousness, not to mention a vice grip on whatever magazine or books is unlucky enough to be in my possession, for the duration of the flight.
This time around, my irrational aviation fear was on high alert as I waited to board the plane and watched a spectacularly apocalyptic lightning theater roll toward the city. Trapped on the runway in a stuffy plane for a few hours while Mordor came and went, I eventually escaped into a series of plane-infused prompts, one of which follows below.
When I arrived back at the office, I couldn’t help but notice the towering stacks of books at my desk. They feature everything from writing texts to fantasy novels to literary fiction, and before they fell me, I think it’s high time for a Promptly swag giveaway. Post a response to the prompt below any time between now and next Friday, and I’ll pick four random writers next week to each win five books and a copy of the latest issue of WD magazine.
Happy (jet-free) weekend! (And a special thanks to Jessica Strawser for holding down the Promptly fort.)
* * *
WRITING PROMPT: High Time
Feel free to take the following prompt home or post a response (500
words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring) in the Comments section below.
(If you’re having trouble with the captcha code sticking, please feel
free to e-mail your piece and the prompt to me at
writersdigest@fwmedia.com, with “Promptly” in the subject line, and I’ll
make sure it gets up.)
Write a story that takes place somewhere extremely high—space, an airplane, a tower—but that features two characters doing the lowest things for what they believe is a worthy cause.
MORE RESOURCES FROM WD
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Zachary Petit is a freelance journalist and editor, and a lifelong literary and design nerd. He's also a former senior managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ZacharyPetit.
