Want a voucher to one of our courses? Enter our June/July flash fiction challenge

All About Writing’s latest writing challenge offers the winner a literary assessment on 5000 words of writing worth R 2750 / £ 150 or a voucher to the same value to use on one of our courses or programmes.

This month, we’re seeking flash fiction set on a university campus. What small or big dramas unfold on the plaza, in the lecture halls, in the professor’s offices, in the library? You could write this in any genre you pleased: horror, romance, adventure (think Indiana Jones), sci-fi or even, at a stretch, a Western. Have fun!

Write no more than 250 words. Paste your entry into the body of an email and send to pam@allaboutwritingcourses.com by midnight on 31 July 2020.

Here are some writing tips…

• Write small to show large. Don’t write about large events or many characters. Show us a small number of characters and what happens to them.
• Even if the world of your story is not familiar to your readers, resist the temptation to explain.
• If your story revolves around a conversation or discussion, remember to give your characters something to do. It’s more interesting than ping pong dialogue, and you can tell a lot about people and how they feel from the way they do something.
• Try to show us a detail or two of the environment, so we can picture their setting and immerse ourselves in the moment.
• Give every character just a distinguishing detail or two which allows us to have a sense of them, even if it’s the way they smoke a pipe or walk through the door.