1k Words: A Writing Contest

ssurprisetalk about 4 hours ago 26 commentsRead Article on writingclub.world

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gregsadetsky•33 minutes ago

Very fun!

I submitted this more 'nonfiction-y' entry:

https://gist.githubusercontent.com/gregsadetsky/08b6cdd56902...

It looks like it's only one entry per person, so I'm playing fair and not submitting this second entry, which encodes a compressed version of the image using a 128 word dictionary (ie each word encodes 7 bits).

The explanation + the dictionary + the encoded image result in 1000 words.

https://gist.github.com/gregsadetsky/97ac9c8efe9c2a9f08c9cfe...

esquivalience•about 3 hours ago

For all the people asking whether or not it is exactly a thousand words or only more or less than that, I think it is very plain from the content. For example:

> "Write 1,000 words about it"

> "you are writing the definitive 1,000 words for this photo. Make them count."

> "Does it have to be 1,000 words? Yes...Your entry must be exactly 1,000 words"

It also says that the prize is $1,000, and there's 1 picture - but I haven't seen anyone asking whether each of those is an upper or lower bound!

kmoser•about 4 hours ago

> Does it have to be 1,000 words?

> Yes. That’s what a picture is worth, after all.

Not to be pedantic but does this mean "1,000 words or fewer," "at least 1,000 words," or "exactly 1,000 words?"

I'm asking because with school assignments the number is usually a lower bound, but with writing contests it's often an upper bound (sometimes even a fuzzy limit).

Gualdrapo•about 3 hours ago

Took the bait and sent them my email to apply because, in the page linked, they would "send you the instructions" to it.

But no, no exact definition of what they mean for "1000 words" - wether if it's minimum 1000 words or what, or how are they counting those 1000 words - throwing everything to a Word doc? a parsing script? Will they count things like an "I" or an "a" as a whole word?

I'm thinking about giving this a try, though, but not being pretty clear about that rule seems quite odd.

bjourne•about 3 hours ago

"Does it have to be 1,000 words?

Yes. That’s what a picture is worth, after all. Your entry must be exactly 1,000 words, not including the title (if you choose to write one)."

kmoser•about 3 hours ago

Good catch, thanks. Unfortunately that information wasn't in the email.

Now, do hyphenated words count as one word or two? Do numbers count as words (e.g. is "12 years old" three words or two?) If I write 1,000 words but concatenate them without spaces, is that still considered 1,000 words, or one single word?

bjourne•about 2 hours ago

I don't know of any English word counting algorithm or MoS that does not count "12" as a word, do you?

ko_lqc•about 4 hours ago

if it's not exactly 1000 words, then no skill is involved and the writers may as well be published by Penguin or HarperColins or something.

danlitt•about 3 hours ago

I don't understand this comment at all. "At least 1000 words" would require at least the skills of writing decently & writing a moderate amount based on little. I get that getting to exactly 1000 requires some skill, but how on earth is that the only skill involved?

sheept•about 3 hours ago

It's relatively easy to write many words, but it takes more skill to express the same message with fewer words, like how video compression needs more time for fewer bytes and same quality. As Pascal once wrote, "If I had had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

grimgrin•about 3 hours ago

fwiw, this entire thread exists because of the ignored [2] in the link.

[2] Write 1,000 words about it by August 31st, 2026.

this is 1 of the two constraints. you may have to rework sentences. the skills exercised are these efforts

omoikane•about 1 hour ago

I can't find any restriction on the submission language, maybe that should be explicitly spelled out. 1000 words in German would carry a different amount of information from 1000 words in English or 1000 characters in Japanese.

stronglikedan•38 minutes ago

It doesn't need to be spelled out when it's clearly indicated by context alone.

HaphazardGuess•about 1 hour ago

they say "a picture" is worth thousand words....not every picture....certainly not this one. fun idea but the choice of picture is dubious, but hey its not my money on the line.

stuxf•about 1 hour ago

Been looking to write more, this looks great! I love the general premise of just converting picture => 1000 words.

random__duck•about 3 hours ago

I am partially worried of discovering that writing a 1000 words is actually much harder for me now than it was when I was 13.

PcChip•36 minutes ago

probably for a lot of people, AI has been degrading our skills

tom1337890•about 4 hours ago

Looking forward to some writing assignments. Like in school. Sometimes I miss that in my day to day job. Using just human intelligence. Or maybe "dog intelligence" ;-)

ChrisMarshallNY•about 2 hours ago

I used to exercise, by writing “mini-sagas.”

50 words exactly.

Got the idea from Dan Pink, although he didn’t invent it.

moron4hire•about 3 hours ago

Sounds kind of like they are spending $1500 on an email list of people interested in creative writing, plus gaining writing samples.

msm_•about 2 hours ago

There are A LOT of cheaper ways to get some writing samples on the internet. This is just someone having fun, and creating an interesting challenge for others to have fun with.

debo_•about 2 hours ago

This is an exceptionally boring picture to write about. You can of course be imaginative about anything, but seriously.

gwern•about 2 hours ago

That's what makes the contest interesting. Anyone can write an interesting 1k words about an interesting picture. But can you write an interesting 1k words about an uninteresting picture? Remember what G. K. Chesterton said...

(So far, judging from this page, it is easier to write an interesting debate about whether the rules require exactly 1k words and what is a 1k word entry, exactly, than about the picture. So far so good! We wouldn't want it to be too easy, after all. Gotta earn that $1k.)

Metricon•about 1 hour ago

Wouldn't a subjectively boring picture present an even greater challenge to the creativity of the writer involved in the competition? It could have been a picture of a Barton Newman painting; that would be a significant challenge to structure a 1000 word essay on.

shawndumas•about 1 hour ago

from the dog’s pov; so much noise and so many strangers. the smell of fresh dirt, then cement, water… so much water. the kids were excited and when it was done, oh the days of swimming, fetch, and fun. soon the stress was forgotten. the hot days of cool water and the smell of the food on the grill. but then the kids grew and left. and then the adult male was gone, too. now this is a reminder of how much fetching and roughhousing we did. now she’s gone a lot too. stupid fence; at least i could swim… but no.