Announcing Our New 'Flash Photography' Competition

Quote by krystalg

If my pussy likes it, I also submit the story. That's a good metric in my opinion.

Agree!!! 😊

Quote by KimmiBeGood
My current mindset still won't write sustained hot sex, so I did best I could with what I have to work with

Oh good, I won't be the only one, then.🙄

Mine is in, what a challenge. I'm so long-winded that 1K words is a major challenge in word conservation.

Quote by Jen

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that’s what we’re looking for with our new Flash Photography competition. Using one of the three pictures linked below, we’re looking for a sexy flash fiction story. As with all flash stories here at Lush, the maximum word limit on this is 1000 words.

Theme

The theme is wide open on this one, so get your creative juices flowing. Sometimes the picture itself will immediately spark an idea, but if not we always suggest having a look through the different available genres for further inspiration.

Please include one of the three given pictures as a cover image for your story. If you want to amend it slightly to incorporate your own title/author information, that’s absolutely fine, so long as it’s clear which original picture was used.

Are we allowed to use more than one picture or all three or is the limit ONLY one picture in the story?

Quote by LuceDevlin

Are we allowed to use more than one picture or all three or is the limit ONLY one picture in the story?

It's probably easier just to use one for the cover image, but if more than one inspires you and you can weave your world around them all, go for it.

Quote by Seeker4

Maybe. When the time comes, we shall see. I do have a story that was (IIRC) a comp runner-up on Stories Space that definitely has a noirish element to it (ex-con stops a mugging and takes the young mugger under her wing). Just never done a full-on noir before, let alone an erotic one.

I say write this one 😊

Open scene

The heavy summer heat slowly giving way to a heavy storm. There a knock on the door ...

Quote by fuzzy1954
The heavy summer heat slowly giving way to a heavy storm. There a knock on the door ...

See, in my hands, that would probably turn into a horror or urban fantasy. Noir is a common element in the latter, though (e.g. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files). So a lot may depend on what is allowed under the noir banner. My basic problem, though, is that if I am going to write noir, I am not sure I want to fuss with making it sexy or erotic. My favorite noir is Andrew Vachss (RIP) and while there is sex in his stories, they ain't sexy in general. Grim, dark, sleazy, but only rarely erotic or sexy. And that's kind of where I lean. In would love to write a dark noir thriller, but I am not sure that I would end up with something for here.

Quote by Seeker4
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files

Love these books. Love. Love.

Quote by AppleByBoom

Love these books. Love. Love.

Concur, Harley. My favourite Dresden scene is where he's riding the T-Rex skeleton to the rescue!

What a hoot!

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Concur, Harley. My favourite Dresden scene is where he's riding the T-Rex skeleton to the rescue!

What a hoot!

Harry Dresden riding a dino was spectacular. It's for sure among one of the coolest things he's ever done.

Insert one of my all time favourite gifs.

Quote by Ensorceled

Hmmmm. Tempting....

As Nike has told us for years, 'Just do it!' You don't write enough anymore.

Mine is close. Want to let it stew once more after doing some editing today. The story is finished and I am just doing tweaks and fixes.

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Concur, Harley. My favourite Dresden scene is where he's riding the T-Rex skeleton to the rescue!

What a hoot!

Have you read Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson/Henry Fitzroy series? Good urban fantasy-thriller series set in Toronto and environs. Even comes down here to London in one. There was an attempt at a TV series but, like the Dresden Files series, it fizzled.

Well, I think everybody and their grandma is gonna enter this Flash comp

And, imo, there are already podium-worthy and TopTen-worthy entries out there with no doubt many more coming. Gonna be hard for the judges!

As for me, i wrote the Flash piece i wanted, and now I've got my eyeballs set on the Noir comp. I've never written a story that long. Never made a story outline until now. Usually just write by the seat of my lil pink panties. I'm taking James (Bear) advice and breaking it down into manageable pieces. We'll see if it turns out to be a big pile of poo 💩 or a decent story. Whichever, I'm committed to completing my story and entering that comp!

Quote by KimmiBeGood

As for me, i wrote the Flash piece i wanted, and now I've got my eyeballs set on the Noir comp. ... I'm committed to completing my story and entering that comp!

I wrote a Film Noir thing back in April (so [NOT] cleverly titled Film Noir). If I can write one, you can write one...better.

I gotta say I really like knowing what the next competition prompt will be - so I have something to work on once I submitted my piece in the current competition. I didn't think I had any Noir ideas in me, but turns out I had something brewing after all - enough to have started and have 2k words already. I have no idea where it will lead, but it does help to have a 'this is what you can work on next' to ease my anxiety while waiting for the deadline date to arrive. Can we make that a recurring thing with competitions maybe?

Quote by Seeker4

Have you read Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson/Henry Fitzroy series? Good urban fantasy-thriller series set in Toronto and environs. Even comes down here to London in one. There was an attempt at a TV series but, like the Dresden Files series, it fizzled.

Fitzroy is amazing. The two seasons that they managed to put out was decent too - I have only read the first two books but they picked decent actors for the show. Sad it fizzled. I need to read the rest of the books though.

Interesting: this has become a thread about two competitions instead of one.

1. re: flash comp: Never mind the competition, I have written a deeply personal story for this. Deeply. Like, cunt-deeply.

Here it is:

Widadari Ophelia

2. re: noir comp: Not sure I have any noir ideas left, I think I used them all up here:

The Cursed Cunt

Ah well...

Quote by LuceDevlin
Can we make that a recurring thing with competitions maybe?

Happy to, assuming we're organised enough, lol x

Quote by LuceDevlin

I gotta say I really like knowing what the next competition prompt will be - so I have something to work on once I submitted my piece in the current competition. I didn't think I had any Noir ideas in me, but turns out I had something brewing after all - enough to have started and have 2k words already. I have no idea where it will lead, but it does help to have a 'this is what you can work on next' to ease my anxiety while waiting for the deadline date to arrive. Can we make that a recurring thing with competitions maybe?

I liked this too, and liked the short one followed by a long word length, so peeps can choose if they want.

And I know this won't be popular, but I'd love to see the addtl challenge of a MINIMUM word length on the Noir, to push those entering a little more. Maybe 8K to 10K... just a thought to maybe consider...

Quote by KimmiBeGood
I'd love to see the addtl challenge of a MINIMUM word length on the Noir, to push those entering a little more. Maybe 8K to 10K... just a thought to maybe consider...

Tries to hold the screaming horde of story verifiers back

🤭

Quote by Jen

Tries to hold the screaming horde of story verifiers back

🤭

Actually, I was wondering if I could get away with a Noir Flash, or even Micro!

NAH…I'm a wordy bastard. Although not as wordy as Stormy or Jake…I suspect they will both dive in with both feet, and be straining to slip under the 10K limit!

Quote by Jen

Tries to hold the screaming horde of story verifiers back

🤭

🤣🤣 (bending over awaiting spanking from mods)

Quote by Jen

Happy to, assuming we're organised enough, lol x

translation: ain't never gonna happen.

The judges are going to have a very difficult time on this one. So many excellent stories, already.

okay. serious question. i know we're not allowed to have people help us write the stories. since this has a REQUIREMENT of adding a cover photo, for those of us not photoshop/uploading cover images savvy, are we allowed to get help with that?

Quote by sprite

okay. serious question. i know we're not allowed to have people help us write the stories. since this has a REQUIREMENT of adding a cover photo, for those of us not photoshop/uploading cover images savvy, are we allowed to get help with that?

I'd say that's reasonable... but will wait for the Boss Lady to advise!

Quote by sprite
for those of us not photoshop/uploading cover images savvy

If boss says yes and you don't have anyone else lined up, drop me a line.

I've thrown my digital effort into the ring with Embers. If you like your sci-fi a bit twisty horrors then feel free to check it out.

I've read pretty much all the rest so far and love the diversity of how authors are interpreting the images. Such a creative bunch.

Still plenty of time to get your entries in, so if you haven't done so already, get scribbling!

Quote by sprite

okay. serious question. i know we're not allowed to have people help us write the stories. since this has a REQUIREMENT of adding a cover photo, for those of us not photoshop/uploading cover images savvy, are we allowed to get help with that?

Absolutely fine ❤️