Writing awards
For the NYCmidnight 250-word flash fiction competition, each entrant is assigned three prompts - Genre, Action, Word.
I was assigned Drama / Surrounding / True
All competitors must create a story and submit their entry within 24 hours.
Here’s my story (revised based on judges feedback):
Second Place
A Necessary Distance
The place is packed, faces turned to the glowing television above the bar, strung with patriotic bunting. Someone cracks a beer. Strangers press into me, all of us pulled toward the grainy, ghost-like image of a man descending the Apollo ladder.
The crowd holds its breath.
I stand here, surrounded by awe.
This isn’t live. The landing happened months ago, in a sealed room where six of us watched the real feed stagger in from the void. Flawed by signal lag, a slip on the ladder, a stretch where the signal broke and nearly took him with it.
That version is buried. The truth shook too badly for broadcast. This one is engineered not to break, rough enough to feel real, and loud enough for Moscow.
The bar goes silent.
The woman beside me forgets to breathe.
Guilt claws my throat. I almost speak.
“One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”
The cheer breaks loose, loud enough to rattle the bottles. People hug. Someone cries. A cork pops. A man in an old military uniform snaps a salute.
I don’t move.
No one here sees the man hired to play Armstrong shaking once the cameras stop.
I came to see if the lie would hold. It does.
The flag fills the screen. The anthem breaks out, sloppy and loud. I push into the night, back to the job that owns me now.
The singing follows me into the street.
Here are excerpts of the judges feedback:
“An excellent premise combined with a lean, understated style. The tension escalates consistently throughout. I loved idea of him being 'surrounded by awe,' and the admission that follows really intensifies the meaning of that phrase.”
“The concept is really interesting … Your descriptions of the lead character being surrounded by people, the different sounds he hears as the talking quiets because everyone is so locked into the screen - it's a great sensory experience.”
“The tension builds at a great pace, and has just enough dramatic irony in it to make it feel real. The reader is left wondering what the "real" story is in-universe, but the decision not to reveal that works really well for the story.”