[OT] I need help understanding the subject I was given for a writing contest

Submitted by gimmeyourbadinage t3_10hwy92 in WritingPrompts

This is my first time ever posting here but I thought it might be the best place to come for help. Mods, please let me know if I need to remove this.

I entered a short story writing contest and was just given my genre, subject, and character.

Genre: Drama (understood)
Character: An Expert (ok, great)
Subject: Weekly (what??)

What do they mean, the subject is weekly? Am I just misunderstanding? I’m hoping to avoid having to reach out to the people in charge so if anybody has any ideas, thank you so much!

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Mindweird t1_j5b21mu wrote

Not an expert at all, so I would wait to see if others confirm. I would interpret it as giving you a new subject weekly. Like it will be a multi-part contest and every week will be a new subject.

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gimmeyourbadinage OP t1_j5b5lah wrote

No, there are five rounds and the rules are all explicitly laid out. Each group in each round gets a different genre, character, and subject. The other groups I’ve seen were all normal in terms of subjects for a story?

Thank you for trying for me though!! I feel like I’m in a Seinfeld episode lol

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Astrid-Wish t1_j5bfp61 wrote

Okay so you could do an experienced weekly reporter. Or twist things up a bit and use a scientist who for some reason has an experiment each week blow up. You could make that like a curse or something.

Think outside the box and brain storm some. Go nuts.

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Glum-Award-2115 t1_j5ex8gs wrote

I understood as something like this. Weekly is a very general content. Something that happens on a weekly basis
Could be the reporter thing, an experts class your character goes to or is the teacher, a gym class, weekly meeting with your boss, weekly expedition to a place this expert makes some kind of research
could be a beauty expert and her weekly meeting with a karen.....you go for it

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robert420AU t1_j5ble1a wrote

Can we get a pic of the contest specifics? I might be able to figure from context clues. Or you could jist intepret it however you want and get real creative with your writing.

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gimmeyourbadinage OP t1_j5byr0i wrote

Here: the rules are in the first paragraph beneath “how it works“

Just getting real creative as Plan B, for sure!

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robert420AU t1_j5c27k0 wrote

Okay the word weekly has to be a central part of the plot.

A weekly deadline

A weekly check in with your cia handler

A weekly trip to the confessional for a sinner

They left context out deliberately. Really wide open prompt.

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gimmeyourbadinage OP t1_j5d8pmz wrote

That’s pretty much how I’m taking it as well and I have a lot of ideas forming. Thanks so much for your input!!

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robert420AU t1_j5blyxs wrote

A "Weekly" is also a type of periodical (newpaper or magazine). Perhaps the story is supposed to be about a reporter? Or formatted as a news story?

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gimmeyourbadinage OP t1_j5c2g7x wrote

They gave me the character as an expert so you could be on the right path, but the subject for other groups didn’t really seem to correlate like that.

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robert420AU t1_j5c303x wrote

In the rules they say the assigned subject must be a major plot point. So weekly timing on a task or Weekly as a noun aka a newsletter, magazine, or newspaper.

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gimmeyourbadinage OP t1_j5d8rl4 wrote

Thank you so much! Sometimes another pair of eyes is all that’s needed

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HalSharpTooth t1_j5chefp wrote

I would guess that the subject is meant to be open to interpretation since it is creative people that they want submissions from.

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