Starting #40 Set up a high school scifi/fantasy short story contest

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Perhaps it's because I just finished judging a short story contest for high school students. This was my third year and I've learned a lot from the experience. I think I'd like to do my own contest that is genre specific.

Imagination Begins With You is not specific and the talent is widely diverse. Which is wonderful! However, I keep thinking that if I could judge areas that I am more invested in, I might be able to give better feedback to these young writers. They are starting earlier than I did and therefore I feel they have the chance to really excel at this craft.

The plan:

• Talk to the creator of IBWY and see how he pulls it off each year
• Research some different methods for the students to submit their stories
• Find scifi/fantasy authors who would be willing to judge
• Pick a topic
• Market, market, market!

Goal:

Have the rules and regulations, a website, facebook page, twitter account and judges ready to go by August 1st. With a November 15th entry deadline.

Summer project!