Last week I wrote about my plans to enter a 48 hr writing contest.
Here's my update: I did it!
Here are the details I received when I checked in last Friday when the contest began at 5 pm:
1900-2200 words
Write a mystery involving a digitally manipulated image or video.
Shades of the Princess Kate family photo kerfunkle? Well, Ok. Away we go...
Friday night - This was my thinking time. First, I latched on to a story not taking place in the present after I found out that photos were being altered as far back as the Civil War. All those photos of ghosts at Gettysburg Battlefields...maybe those ghosts had a little assistance appearing. It wasn't just ghost lovers. Advertisers, artists and even the media did a little photoshopping. Turns out one of the most famous photos of Abraham Lincoln is his head on someone else's body! Yes, I did go down a Civil War photography rabbit hole.
Then, I went back to the rules and was caught by the word "digitally". Oops, back to the modern world. So why would you want to change an image? Prove somebody was someplace they weren't or wasn't someplace they were. Prove ownership. Mess with the timeline of an event. To what end? Money, revenge, murder, power, blackmail...I went to sleep thinking about something involving the reading of a will and who got what depending on a photograph.
Saturday - Realized I'm running out of time and I can't do anything that needs too much research into how something like a police investigation or a will reading happens. Plus only 2000-ish words so it can't be too complicated. Settled on the day after the murder with a twist on the classic party at an English country house that Agatha Christie was famous people. Except these people were waking up in an East Coast beach house wondering why one of their friends killed the other. In their conversations everyone has a bit of a reason to want that someone dead - some strong, some weak, some hidden, some years old. Write, write, write.
Pause to go see my niece play Sebastian in her school's production of The Little Mermaid. Hysterical! The mermaids were on Heelys!
Sunday - Realize that when you do a timed contest you have to communicate that to the people you share a house with or else they keep bothering you about things like meals. Who has time to eat? Submitted. Realized I mixed up two names at one point. Panic! Re-submitted with hopes that they allow for that.
My Thoughts: I recommend this type of contest. It's such a whirlwind and it really gives your creativity a jumpstart. Just double check before you hit submit. And even if you don't win a prize it's fun to be able to say "I did it!"
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