Are you a fiction writer looking for a productive way to kick off the new year? Well you should head over to NYC Midnight, the website that looks to give aspiring writers and filmmakers an outlet for their creativity through challenges and contests, where they are currently looking for competitors for their 4th annual Short Story Challenge.

For both rounds of the competition, writers will be assigned a subject and given 8 days to complete an original short story. January 13th is the final date to sign up and there is a $49 entry fee, but keep in mind that there are large cash prizes being handed out to the winners of the second round with additional prizes soon to be announced.

A lot can happen in the course of a year. And with today being the day we usually spend in a state of (possibly hungover) reflection, thinking of all the little and big moments that made up the previous year, it seems appropriate to introduce a project that aims to capture all these moments for the coming year.

Enter the3six5, a project by Len Kendall and Daniel Honigman that aims to document all 365 days of 2010 with each day being assigned to a different guest blogger. The result should be a completely unique document of this year that covers everything –from the big events that affect us all to personal moments experienced only by the author. It looks like there are still lots of days up for grabs, so if you’d like to get involved just take a moment to read the author guidelines before contacting them with a few options for dates and a little bit about yourself. I’m personally really looking forward to my date (May 15th), and also to reading my way through a year’s worth of unique perspectives as the project develops.

When it comes to decorating your home for the holidays, people tend to go overboard. And while it starts out innocently enough with some lights and a wreath, it usually doesn’t take long for things to escalate into a Clark Griswald-esque situation.

If you or someone you know is in the process of creating a spectacular holiday display for your community, and you happen to be an aspiring filmmaker, you should consider documenting the experience and submitting it to Mega Joy: A Collaborative Film Project on the subject of Christmas light enthusiasts. The winning submissions will be edited into in a feature-length documentary on the subject and their directors will receive a contract for the national distribution of their work. Submission guidelines, suggestions for possible themes, and all other necessary info can be found on the official application form.

Are you a woman who has lead a uniquely interesting life? Did your actions break gender boundaries or defy the conventions of the time or place you lived in? If so, you should head over to the website of frequent NPR contributors, The Kitchen Sisters, and pitch your story for their upcoming radio and online series that explores the lives of “Girls and the women they become.”

Submissions are being accepted via Twitter, email, photo and audio uploads. You can also call their Story Hotline directly at 202-408-9576 and record your story.

Somehow, while you were still basking in the tryptophan glow of Thanksgiving, the winter holiday season began. Now that it’s December, there’s no turning back: it’s time to shop.

The trick to holiday shopping is finding a gift that suits a person’s personality without emptying your wallet. This can be an easy match when shopping for an athlete (sports gear), movie buff (DVDs), or musician (concert tickets). But what do you get for the storytellers in your family? For the Six-Word Memoirists? A gift certificate just doesn’t cut it. Not to worry; we’ve got you covered. Here’s a sampling from our very own holiday wish list, starting with a few SMITH classics.

SMITH CLASSICS

It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure
Which six words describe Malcolm Gladwell, Sarah Silverman, Junot Diaz, and Isabel Allende? There’s only one way to find out. Share the latest in Six-Word Memoirs with your family and friends, or walk into your next holiday party baring the gift of six instead of yet another bottle of $10 wine. You’ll be a minor hero as the conversation starts to fly.

I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure
What better way to express adolescent hopes, angst, and philosophies than in six carefully chosen words? Our SMITH Teens have only just begun their literary conquest. A great gift for the teenager in your family. We hold this truth to be self-evident: There is simply no better stocking stuffer or gift for the sixth night of Hanukkah.

We’ve teamed up with Spreadshirt to help you create personalized Six-Word Memoir T-shirts. Choose your favorite Six-Worders from Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs for Writers Famous & Obscure and peruse the editor’s favorites. For the family daredevil: “It’s pretty high. You go first.” For the elusive traveler: “Five continents down; two to go.” Or, better yet, write your own! Create one in just 30 seconds here.
Read more »

Sold! We recently teamed up with Rob Walker and Josh Glenn’s Significant Objects project to see how well Six Words works with their contention that objects with stories attached to them increase in value. The pair have recruited writers like William Gibson, Nicholson Baker, and Curtis Sittenfeld to craft significance for flotsam purchased on the cheap at thrift stores, then selling story and object as a pair on eBay. That’s what we did with the object you see above and this winning story by Rob Agred, a Bronx-based dolly grip: “You lose,” she puffed. True. Again.” With those six words, this cueball lighter you see above increased 2700%, from $1 to $27. Or, $4.50 a word.

It wasn’t easy to arrive at one winner—scroll through the entries—or, more than 400 ways of looking at one thing, six words at a time.

With Sarah Palin’s much anticipated memoir finally being released last week, there’s been some discussion about fictionalizing the truth. Well New York Magazine has decided to take this idea and run with it by asking seven writers to each take a political figure and insert them into fictional stories that look deep into “the hearts, minds, and libidos of anyone from Mitt Romney to Ashley Dupré.”

And now they’re opening up the project to their readers by asking you to put your own creative spin on the world of politics (Not unlike Huffington Post Blogger Susanna Speier’s Politiku, which is still going strong) in the form of a fictional story. Submissions will be accepted up until December 7th and can be in any format from short stories to screenplays.

Need some inspiration? I’d suggest starting with Adam Haslett’s “Night Walk” featuring Barack Obama.

Lying around in a tryptophan induced coma is a wonderful way to spend quality time with your loved ones after a Thanksgiving meal. In fact, advertisers encourage it—all the better to have supple meat blocks for soaking in their consumo-Christmas marinade. Instead of blocking out ads this Thanksgiving in fear that they will sublimate my mind into an oblivion, I’m going to watch them, jump on their game, and ultilize this socially acceptable phenomenon of slothing out to my ultimate advantage. In a very chill way of course, I’ve still got to take it easy.

When I “bond” with my dad by limply flipping through TV channels this holiday, I’m going to utilize his highly suggestible state to get some stories. My dad is a first-generation immigrant to the states that went from being a CEO to receiving welfare checks to buying a new home this year. I have a vague idea of how it went down, but he never really opened up. Besides approaching him when his cognition is most tenderized, I’ve got a solid excuse as well: November 27 is StoryCorp’s National Day of Listening (they’re the folks you’ve probably heard on NPR on Fridays, or seen the StoryCorps booth in NYC’s Grand Central Station). The simple call to action? Get stories from our family members to pass down through the generations. We’re encouraged to blog about it, too.

Hopefully, all these factors will finally get my dad to speak out, the stars will align, and we’ll end up with a story that’ll sustain us until next Thanksgiving. Or better still, he’ll start telling stories and be unable to stop. Storytelling, like the best holiday pleasures, can be enriching, enlightening, and, like Mom’s sweet potato pie, totally addictive.

Receiving a postcard is always a cool surprise. It’s always interesting to receive a small piece of a faraway location accompanied by a story. Unfortunately, up until now the only real way to receive a postcard is to know someone that happens to be visiting that place.

Enter Postcrossing, the new project that allows you to receive postcards from random locations worldwide. All you have to do is register with Postcrossing and start mailing postcards to the addresses they provide you with in order to start receiving cards from random locations. So why not sign up and start swapping your story with new friends from all over the world?

See the show, be the show. A few dozen Six-Word Memoirists are part of an amazing show this Tuesday, November 17 at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. We’re joining the one and only Rick Moody, master storyteller and now HBO sensation Jonathan Ames (illustrated here by Nick Bertozzi), This American Life’s Starlee Kine, Get Your War On author David Rees, comedians Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman, HBO Def Poetry Jam star Vanessa Hidary, and the band Care Bears On Fire. The evening is presented by The Rumpus and Tin House, in affiliation with Shine Global and SMITH. We’re calling the event “More Than You Expected,” and if you were at similar event we did with The Rumpus this past spring, you know you can expect an awesome amount of talent in one very fun, very fast evening, for just $10.

Doors open at 6. Show starts promptly at 7. We’re kicked out of the Highline by 10.
The Highline Ballroom
431 W. 16th St., NYC
Buy tickets here.