500 Word Essay Contest

I got my start writing first person essays for local rags in the Bay Area. For you die hard screenwriters under the age of 30, a rag is a printed daily or weekly publication of negligible importance. But that's where you had to start back in the day. Before there were blogs and everybody was a writer in the time it takes to click "publish". Back then you had to work your way up from local to regional to national publications. Now you can go international in seconds. But - and there's a big but - nobody reads you or comes back for more if you can't write compellingly and entertainingly. So it's still a test of your writing mettle; bad bloggers don't have many visitors and die on the vine. It doesn't matter how great your blog design is, how flashy your graphics are - if ya cain't write, ya cain't write.

From time to time I ask Wavers to write haikus and short scenes. You know you love it, Wavers, you love writing exercises that test and stretch your writing skills. Now I'm going to challenge anyone who'd like to participate, to write a 500 word short essay about overcoming a difficult time in your life. 500 words. That's short. That's almost a flash-essay. But when you write for an editor, you have requirements and that's my requirement. A good essay must have a beginning, a middle, an end - a narrative arc and a point. It needs to wind up provocatively, pointedly or evocatively. It needs to, as we say, "land". Go out on a high note. Make 'em laugh. Make 'em cry. Make them see your point, in your voice.

The Wave-inatrix will be the sole judge and decider of the best 500 word essay and the prize shall be in the general area of a $25 gift certificate or equivalent free screenwriting book, etc. Not much. But it's something.

500 words. Overcoming a difficulty. Make it funny, make it sad, make it great. You have until Monday at 5pm pacific time to SUBMIT.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.