Round two is over! Okay, by the time you read this it will have been over for a while, but my relief is the same. I found out my Round 1 score on Wednesday before the competition and was SUPER EXCITED to see I’d come in 3rd! The top 15 people are awarded points with first place receiving 15, 2nd 14, and 3rd (me) 13! The highest combined scores after the first two rounds move on to the third round so I’m well positioned to move on. Woo!
To combine with my excitement, I was nervous about round two. It had the unfortunate timing of starting while I was at a wedding. So at 11, I stopped dancing to look at my phone and saw the wonderful, glorious prompt.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Location: A secret lab
Object: A mouse
Hallelujah! This could not be better. If you’ve been a fan of the blog for a while, you’ll know I adore historical fiction. And because the era is not specified, I could write about the 20s! I went back to dancing at the wedding, confident I could deal with the writing on the way home on Saturday.
While my wonderful husband and I got ready to leave in the morning, he helped me craft some ideas. We came up with a plan for a secret lab and throwing a mouse in was no problem. So on the way home, I pulled out my laptop and in about a half hour, typed up the story. I put it away for a few hours (while we listened to a football game on the radio), pulled it out for some quick editing, and sent it to Beta readers. By the time I got home, I had some feedback and did some small tweaks. A little more response trickled in on Sunday but to be honest, the story I submitted was 80% written in the car.
It was a surprisingly calm weekend as far as writing goes. I know I lucked out with that prompt. I hope I do well and can move on to round three. Though I’m not counting on ever getting a prompt that I like that much again. I’ve got to be ready for romance or political satire. Those would be a lot harder.
I get the results of round two on October 21st at midnight. Round three starts at midnight on the 23rd. This is bad timing for me again because I’m obligated to be at a football event with my in-laws on the 24th. (As a side note, I hate football. All football references in this post are to demonstrate the only bad thing about fall to me and how it ruins my life.) This will be a challenge.
Until next time, write on.
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Taking On a World of Words 
Congratulations on coming 3rd in round one! That’s great 🙂
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Thank you!! I’m really excited.
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It sounds like you had a much easier time with this assignment than I did, lol. I’m still trying to recover :-p So, it appears out of the three stories I know about from our group (including my own), we all chose different eras. That’s a relief. I was worried we’d all end up using the same time period.
Congrats on surviving R2, and a HUGE congrats on R1! I’m so happy you signed up for the challenge. It seems like it’s been a great experience. Fingers crossed you advance to R3!
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I’m glad to know we spread across the historical spectrum. I almost did WWII but changed my mind to the 20s pretty quickly. Would that have been a repeat? I’m lucky this genre came up because those prompts would have been a lot harder in a romance genre haha. I’ve got my fingers crossed for you as well! Have you done a post on round 2? I’ll have to go check it out. Happy writing!
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Oh, God. Romance would’ve been a nightmare, lol! I love the 20’s, so I’m surprised my brain didn’t go down that path. But, I’m glad it didn’t now!
Yes, if you’d like to read about my horrific experience, here’s my link about R2: http://wp.me/p3O1E2-1Ir
I also posted my story on my blog, so you can read it if you’d like. I would love to read yours if you care to share it. If not, no worries at all! Congrats again. I’m confident you’ll advance.
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I’ll go check out your post now. I always love the humor you bring to your blog. I’m not sure if I want to share just yet because I like the character I wrote and might use it as a scene in my novel. Thanks for believing in me and even more for telling me about this competition. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.
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Congrats Sam and good luck with R3!
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Thanks, Michelle! You should join in, this is really fun!
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