Win a free writing assessment with our February/March 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.

Write a scene in which a couple are meeting for their first date. Gives us clues throughout the scene of how the date is going and how the relationship will progress from here.

Write no more than 250 words. Submit your entry here or paste your entry into the form below by midnight on 31 March 2022.

WritingTips:

1. Don’t be too obvious or “on the nose”. Show your reader what they do, say, notice and feel, and allow us to do the interpreting.
2. Give a sense of who these characters are and how their relationship will develop through their dialogue, body language, etc.
3. Don’t start your scene by explaining where they are and when this scene is taking place. Immerse us immediately in the moment.
4. Write from the perspective of one of the characters (either in first person “I”, or in third person “he”, “she” or “they”). Don’t jump between them. Allow us to see the world through the thoughts and observations of only one of them. The other character and their reactions we’ll see only from the outside.