NPR (that's National Public Radio, for you non-Americans) hosts a contest called Three Minute Fiction. The goal is to write a story that can be read in under 3 minutes (in other words, 600 words or fewer). Anyone can enter the contest and the winner gets their story read on the radio, on Weekend All Things Considered. Woot! Each round is a different challenge, and is judged by a different author. Round Five has just begun, and I think we Protagonizers should take a shot at it. So here it is.

This challenge was created by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham. He's written an opening line and a closing line, and the challenge for us is to write everything in between. He'll personally read all the entries and decide on the winner, which he'll then read on the radio. And I think the winner gets a signed copy of two of his novels. So! Without further ado, the opening line you must use is:

"Some people swore that the house was haunted."

And the closing line:

"Nothing was ever the same again after that."

The 600 word limit includes those two lines, and the contest closes on Sunday, September 26th. So we have 2 weeks. Let's get started!

Also, along the way they read excerpts from entries that he likes, so if you send it in early, you might get a bit of airtime. For details about submitting your entry, see the Author Guidance.

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Author guidance for This story

All the information is available at
www.npr.org/threeminutefiction

Hmm... I just looked and it turns out, not only do you have to be American (sorry 80% of you), but you also have to be over 18. (Sorry 80% of the rest of you).

But, some of us still qualify! And for the rest of you, it still sounds like a fun thing to write, so try it out anyway :)

updated Sep 12 '10 by Rac7hel