Group-Sponsored Carpe Noctem Contest

Details

Seize the night, or write in the daytime a story of 3,000 words or less.

Revisionists have decided that you should choose one of the four paragraphs below, revise it, and begin your own story with the revised version.

a) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." Charles Dickens — A Tale of Two Cities

b) "THREE INVALIDS. – SUFFERINGS OF GEORGE AND HARRIS. – A VICTIM TO ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN FATAL MALADIES. – USEFUL PRESCRIPTIONS. – CURE FOR LIVER COMPLAINT IN CHILDREN. – WE AGREE THAT WE ARE OVERWORKED, AND NEED REST. – A WEEK ON THE ROLLING DEEP? – GEORGE SUGGESTS THE RIVER. – MONTMORENCY LODGES AN OBJECTION. – ORIGINAL MOTION CARRIED BY MAJORITY OF THREE TO ONE. There were four of us – George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room, smoking, and talking about how bad we were – bad from a medical point of view I mean, of course." Jerome K. Jerome — Three Men in a Boat

c) "Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?' So she was considering, in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her." Lewis Carol — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

d) "Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. Her hand and wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters; and her profile as well as her stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments, which by the side of provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible,—or from one of our elder poets,—in a paragraph of to-day's newspaper. She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever, but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. Nevertheless, Celia wore scarcely more trimmings; and it was only to close observers that her dress differed from her sister's, and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements; for Miss Brooke's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions, in most of which her sister shared." George Eliot — Middlemarch

All sub-genres are welcome, but no poems, please. If your story has sex and/or violence, please remember to use the adult tag.

Also because we are from Revisions “R” Us, we decided to throw in some extra prizes consisting in critiques. Our members will critique a work of choice as an extra prize for the first four winners. The winners can also choose the type of critique they want.

Have fun and good luck!

Winning entries

Winners have been announced! Log in to see them.

Prizes

Rules

• To enter the contest, post your work on Scribophile and check the box that says "Enter this work into the Group-Sponsored Carpe Noctem Contest." The checkbox will be visible until the contest deadline.

• Entry is free, but you'll need karma points to post your work. You can earn karma points by writing critiques of work by other members.

• If your work has already placed in a previous contest, you may not resubmit it to this one.

• Only one entry per person is allowed; multiple entries will be disqualified.

Submission guidelines

• Entries must be no longer than 3,000 words per Scribophile's count. There is no minimum.

• Novel chapters are not allowed. Really. Please don’t post them.

• Your work must have public visibility on Scribophile until the winners are announced.

• Only new, previously unpublished work will be accepted.

• The contest will run from now until Midnight, March 25th, 2016, UTC. The winner will be announced by the end of day April 15, 2016, UTC.