55-word Fiction Competition

The Book Council is holding its annual 55-word fiction competition, which is exactly what it sounds like: you write a story that is exactly 55 words. Post it on our wall, get all your friends to like it, and win prizes!

Stories can be about anything under the sun, so long as you follow our guidelines below!

Watch out for the next edition of 55-Word Fiction Competition!

Results!

Congratulations to all the winners! 

Judges’ Choice:

Twins (Winning Entry)
Carol Lerh, Singapore Polytechnic

“We complete,” said the first girl.
“Each other’s sentences,” finished her lookalike.
The shopkeeper blinked blankly at them. “So what do the two of you want?”
“We want a,” said the first girl.
“vanilla cone,” said the second.
The shopkeeper frowned. “So one cone or two cones?”
The two of them held out one finger.

1st Runner-Up: Eunice Yeo, Singapore Polytechnic
2nd Runner-Up: Aloysius Khoo, Fuhua Secondary School
 

People’s Choice:

When Stars Align  (Winning Entry – 50 Likes)
Rachelle Chua, CHIJ Secondary School

Everyone was born with a star on their wrist. 
A small one that shone when they would first meet their soulmate.
She was crossing a road when it happened. 
Staring at it in wonder, she never saw the car coming. 
She lost consciousness before she saw the driver. 
A shame.
His star was shining too.

1st Runner-Up: Sng Hui Ying Eunice, Crescent Girls’ School (46 likes)
2nd Runner-Up: Megan Ngai, Chung Cheng High (Main) (38 likes)
3rd Runner-Up: Dorothy Yuan, School of the Arts (25 likes)

2016 Entries 2015 Entries 2014 Judges’ Choice 2014 Popular Choice 2013 Entries

Guidelines

  1. Stories must be EXACTLY 55 words. No more. No less. Flouting this rule disqualifies your story!
  2. All entries need to be posted on the official All In! Facebook page.
  3. You can submit up to three entries! Subsequent entries will not be considered, no matter how awesome they are.
  4. Your title should not be part of your word count.
  5. Contractions count as one word. Hyphenated words are one word too.
  6. Inappropriate posts or comments will be deleted (vulgarity, swearing and all that sort are unacceptable).
  7. Your post should end with “By [Name to be listed in the registration for the All In! Festival]” and the school where you are from.
  8. No (explicit) sexual content is allowed.
  9. Open to anyone 13 – 25 years of age. Deadline for submission TBA.
  10. All prizes must be claimed within 60 days after the Festival. If unclaimed, organisers with consider the prizes as forfeited.

Categories

The competition consists of the following categories:

  1. Judges’ Choice, where a panel of judges will decide on winning entries
  2. Popular Choice, where the entries with the most Facebook likes win 

Prizes

The following prizes will be awarded for each Judges’ Choice and Popular Choice categories:

1st Prize: A goody bag worth $200, and a complimentary ticket to the first day of the All In! Festival in March 2017

2nd Prize: A goody bag worth $100 and a complimentary ticket to the first day of the All In! Festival in March 2017

10 WORD Story Sentence Competition

Once again, we’re stretching the boundaries of your imagination and creativity with the All In! One-Sentence Story! Aptly called 10WORDS, the piece will consist of only 10 words, but express a full story. 

Watch out for the next edition of the 10Word!

Results!

Winner: 

Tan Yu Quan, Yuan Ching Secondary School
“I always see her dancing alone, even in a duet.”

Runners-Up:

Wan Jia Ling, Nan Hua High School
Lim En Chi, Fuhua Secondary School
Jonathan Chiu, formerly Raffles Institution (Junior College)
Advaitaa Kathavarayan, Yuan Ching Secondary School

2016 ENTRIES 2015 WINNING ENTRIES

Guidelines

  1. Stories must be written as one sentence with EXACTLY 10 words. 
  2. The 10 words should include the topic word. This means there are 9 words you can add to form the one-sentence story!
  3. All entries need to be posted on the official All In! Facebook page.
  4. This competition will only be open for one week!
  5. You can submit up to three entries!
  6. You do not need a title.
  7. Contractions count as one word. Hyphenated words are one word too.
  8. Inappropriate content, posts or comments will be deleted.
  9. No (explicit) sexual content is allowed.
  10. The competition runs three weeks before All In! Young Writers Festival. Inclusive dates TBA.
  11. Your post should end with “By [Name to be listed in the registration for the All In! Festival]” and the school where you are from.
  12. Individuals who submitted an entry for the All In 55-word Fiction Competition are allowed to submit entries for this competition.
  13. All prizes must be claimed within 60 days after the Festival. If unclaimed, organisers with consider the prizes as forfeited.

Criteria

The one-sentence stories will be judged according to the following criteria:

  • Word-Play. The author justifies himself being called a guile wordsmith by his choice of words to convey the story in just 10 words.
  • Imagery. The story stirs the imagination, so much that it evokes an emotional reaction from readers: a giggle, a snort, goose pimples!
  • Storyline. The sentence is a full story in itself, with most story elements present, using only 10 words!

Prizes

The winners will be informed at least a week before the Festival. The top winners will receive the following prize:

1st Prize: A goody bag worth $100 and a full-day pass to All In! Day 1.

5 Runners-up Prizes: A goody bag worth $50 and a full-day pass to All In! Day 1.

 

POST YOUR STORIES!

The All In! Pitch

The All In! Pitch is a joint project by All In! Young Writers Festival and Havas Worldwide Singapore. Its main objective is jumpstart careers of senior students interested in joining the advertising industry through a platform that highlights their ability to craft campaigns based on a realistic brief from one of Havas’ main clients.

The top two selected pitches will qualify the presenter to a 3-month attachment as an advertising intern with Havas Worldwide Singapore, inclusive of a monthly allowance and the opportunity to break into the global advertising industry. Start date of each internship to be confirmed with Havas Worldwide after candidate selection. Internships tentatively will take place by the second half of 2016.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Interested participants must be senior/graduating students in a polytechnic or a university in Singapore, holding a valid student pass. Students must submit the following by emailing all requirements to the organisers on or before 1 February 2016:

  1. Resume
  2. Letter of Endorsement by the SL/HOD/Dean of the School
  3. PDF copy of Day 1 Full-Day Pass

There is no limit to the number of submissions from any given school, but only one submission per participant is allowed.

All applications will then be reviewed by Festival organisers and Havas Worldwide representatives. A shortlist of 10 pitchers and 5 waitlisted applicants will be released by 15 February 2016. Shortlisted and waitlisted participants will be emailed individually by the Festival organisers.

The Festival organisers will then send the project brief to the pitchers by 29 February 2016. For purposes of confidentiality, the pitch would only be sent via email to registered participants.

Participants will have one week to create a pitch and submit this to the Festival organisers by 7 March 2016.  Failure to do so will forfeit the participants’ slot, which will then be opened to those on the waiting list.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE:

  1. The pitching session is limited to 5-minute slots, each with a 1-minute preparation time. A total of 10 slots will be opened on a first-come-first-reserved basis. A waiting list comprised of 5 slots will be opened after all 10 slots are filled.
  2. Only verbal critique will be provided by the panel during the critiquing session.
  3. The panel’s decision is final.

PRESENTATION GUIDELINES

  1. Pitchers may only present as individuals, not as pairs/teams.
  2. Pitchers are encouraged to present within the 5-minute timeframe, in any way they can to impress the panel, which will comprise of three (3) representatives from Havas Worldwide Singapore. The sequence of presentation will be provided in the morning of 12 March 2016.
  3. A bell will be used to indicate the beginning and the end of the presentation.
  4. Presentations involving profanity, vulgarity and obscenity in verbal and non-verbal forms will be stopped immediately. Such presenters will be asked to leave the room.
  5. Please bring a printed copy of your presentation with you to the Conference for distribution to the panellists.
  6. Winning presentations will be announced on 13 March 2016 and will be announced accordingly on All In!’s Facebook page and website.
  7. File Extensions: If your Mac version of Office does not append the file extension, be sure to include it in your filename. Use .ppt or .pptx for PowerPoint files and .pps for PowerPoint slideshows.
  8. Equipment set up: The room will be equipped with standard audio-visual equipment to support an electronic presentation (laptop, data projector, screen, and microphone).  If you are using a Mac, please bring your own VGA adapter.

DISCLAIMER: The panel’s comments and opinions do not necessarily reflect the comments and opinions of the Festival organisers.

YOUTHspeak: The Future of Writing

How does the youth define its future of writing? Calling for paper presentation by All In!’s partner-schools, and see the future of content creation unfold!

YOUTHspeak features representative-students from partner-schools who will present preselected papers on a variety of topics approved by their mentors. Submissions close on 16 January 2017.

Guidelines

Results!

CONGRATULATIONS to the following students whose papers have been selected for presentation at All In!’s inaugural YOUTHspeak Paper Presentations:

  1. Writing as an Art, as an Outlet, as a Vision” Crescencia Chay (Innova Junior College)
  2. A Day in the Life of an Ordinary Youth” Kimberley Khoong (River Valley High School)
  3. The Youth and Social Media; Thrills, Frills and Challenges” Li Qin Hui (River Valley High School)

All In! Young Short Filmmakers Exhibition

The All In! Young Short Filmmakers Exhibition invites young filmmakers from around the region, aged 13-25, to submit for a short film exhibition, which will become one of the highlights for All In! 2017.

OBJECTIVES

The exhibition intends to

  1. Promote writing in its many forms, while fostering film writing as an industry that young writers can explore;
  2. Provide a platform for young content creators to showcase their creativity in writing and production through a wholesome and accepting youth-centric environment; and,
  3. Produce tangible work based on core writing skills relating to industries such as film and production.

 

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The following criteria will be used for the selection of the short films that will be featured:

  1. The short film must be written and/or directed by a director/writer, aged 13 to 25 years old. A director/writer can submit up to 3 entries for selection.
  2. The short film must be at least one (1) minute and a maximum of seven (7) minutes in length, excluding a short credit roll, and be in either .avi or .mov format. It may or may not have audio, dialogue or musical background. The film may be shot in black and white or in colour, using the creator’s chosen visual recording medium.
  3. The film must reflect an Asian theme, value or tradition. It must not contain any form of profanity, obscenity, and dialogue or gestures that are deemed denigrating, offending or derogatory towards any race, religion, creed, or sexual preference.
  4. The following must accompany the submission:
  • CV of writer/director, including links to previous works (if any)
  • One-paged film synopsis in English with list of actors and production crew
  • High resolution photo of writer/director in .jpg

Last date of submission is 30 September 2016. Please save all entries and appending documents in Dropbox, and send the link to the Festival Manager at [email protected]

The shortlist of films to be included in the exhibition will be released in January 2017.