'Arrest Us' - Announcing LitReactor's Crime Fiction Writing Challenge

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred... (Wikipedia)
In 2012, we launched a public writing challenge, soliciting tales of bone-chilling terror with Scare Us. Then, in 2013, we went off-world with Teleport Us, our science fiction writing challenge.
It's 2014. Time for another challenge. Now we want you to Arrest Us with some down-and-dirty crime fiction!
The opportunities here are endless. You can do noir or hardboiled or cozy or heist or espionage or locked-room mystery. You can gross us out or break our hearts. You can comment on the justice system or give us a good laugh. Crime fiction offers a rich tapestry of situation and emotion, and it's a great opportunity to dig to the root of a character—it often involves people in their worst moments, and there's no better time to get an accurate measure of a person than when they've hit bottom.
Just like last time, this is a public contest. You don't have to be a paying member to participate. It doesn't matter if you're a beginner or a seasoned wordsmith. Even if it's the first story you've ever written—anyone can submit. Also, anyone can read and rate stories, and offer comments and criticism.
And, as before, we're going to offer prizes and rewards...
Grand Prize: Publication in Thuglit!
Thuglit, edited by Todd Robinson—author of The Hard Bounce—delivers first-rate crime fiction in print and digital formats once every two months. "A Good Marriage" by Ed Kurtz, originally published in Thuglit issue 5, was recently picked for The Best American Mystery Stories 2014.
After the dust has settled here, Todd is going to read through the top-rated stories and pick three to run in future issues of Thuglit. And you'll be paid just like the rest of the contributors.
Writer prize packs!
As before, we'll be asking accomplished authors and editors to read and comment on stories.
But it's going to be a little more exclusive than in previous challenges. Each person we enlist will only read and comment on one story. As for who's going to do it, and the selection process—well, we don't want to unveil everything just yet...
Reader prize packs!
We want to reward the people who read and rate stories too. So we've enlisted Mulholland, Broken River, Hard Case Crime, and MysteriousPress.com, to donate grab-bags of books.
The five most prolific raters will get a selection of books, picked at random, by one of these excellent publishers of crime fiction!
Run of show
Monday, June 2: The challenge opens, and you can begin submitting stories. The reading period opens on this date, too.
Tuesday, July 1: The challenge closes to submissions, but the reading period remains open.
Friday, August 1: The reading period ends, and we start the process of sorting out of the prizes.
Story parameters
You can't just write whatever you want. There are caveats.
First, you've got your word count: 3,000 to 5,000 words. Go over or under at your own risk; as soon as you do, it's out of the running for the prizes. Sorry, but thems the breaks.
Now for the fun part. In the past we've given you prompts. Things your story needed to include to qualify. We're not going to do that this time.
Instead, we talked to Todd about the tropes that he sees far too often in stories that are submitted to Thuglit. And we're going to make you write a story without using any of them. So here are the things your story cannot include:
No Italian mafia
No hitmen (or hitwomen)
No sex crimes
No serial killers
Anything else is fair game.
Questions? Ask in the comments.
Otherwise, start writing... submissions open in less than a month!
UPDATE: The submission window is open! Do that here.
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Comments
Nice! Get in on this, folks!
I'm super pumped about this, and I can't even participate. Kirk looks FIERCE in his balaclava.
Rawr
Sweeeet! I'm all over this one!
Been kinda struggling to get my latest story over the line but this is really giving me the kick up the arse I need!
wow
I don't know how to write a story without hitmen.
The rules say nothing about hitponies.
^future regretted suggestion
And now I fear brony-noir will happen.
This MUST happen. Also, I take no responsibility if you submit a Brony story and lose.
I'm definitely up for this!
This is so fabulous it hurts!!!!! Good luck to everyone!
Finally!!!
Yes! Been hoping for this. The prizes are pretty damn sweet, too.
Nice!
Hell yeah!
That's a shame, I'm more a flash fiction girl. (That or novellas.)
I'm going to play this time around. Researching for ideas this week, gonna crunch out a draft next week.
Are non-American authors welcome?
Awesome!!
I think I proved conclusively in the first Battle that crime fiction is not my strength. Still, every contest needs a whipping boy so I'd better start writing.
Candice--of course!
This might seem obvious but ... no Italian mafia doesn't extend to 'mafia' or 'gangs' or 'the mob' in general does it?
Oh cool, so the Reactor's contest series resumes, eh? Been lookin' forward to this.
Toby--
Yakuza? OK. MS-13? OK. Italians? NO BUENO.
No hitmen. No hitwomen. Hit-tranny? He's got tits that kill, and the balls to use them.
Moon, I feel like hit-tranny can be folded into the Brony-noir story.
That would be going full brony. You never go full brony. Never.
I'll bring the DAMN cupcakes
Question: can these stories be workshopped or revised based on reviews after the initial posting and resubmitted before the deadline? And, are LBL's okay or is a simple review sufficient enough?
+
On it!
R.Moon--yes you can!
Great news!
One of the best parts of these challenges is all the silly questions ppl ask about the rules. ; D
Aroraphobic-Hasidic-Dominatrix-Con Woman?
Well now ... There goes my free time for the entire month of June ;)
Sweeeeeet! Now to find some good inspiration. Tips?
A lot of my short stories are inspired by reading the news. The Times did a piece on the cutthroat food truck industry in NYC: Boom. Short story. Which, incidentally, will be in the next issue of Thuglit.
Process:
1. Find out about Arrest Us.
2. Scare Us and Teleport Us were awesome, but decide I can't be distracted from primary writing project this time around.
3. Tell friend about writing challenge.
4. Friend states, "...wondering what kind of nastiness my mind is going to drudge up for Arrest Us."
5. Muse takes note, and starts feeding me story ideas like a plot-generating super computer. Despite the fact that it's 3am, she won't shut up. Never written crime-fiction before, but she thinks she's an expert. (She's not.)
6. Give in. Launch graphic program, draw cover.
7. Sigh.
DO IT!
Seriously, crime fiction is so malleable. So many storytelling opportunities. It'll be a blast.
I've read my share of crime fiction and I kind of blur the genre into my sci-fi stuff, but I've never tried a short story in the crime genre at all. But hold up lads, I've got an idea...
One question though before I try it out: can I write the story in the form of a letter?
I would say if you can call it a short story, and it fits the criteria, it counts. We're looking to include as much as we can, not exclude, so I would say if it isn't specifically forbidden above, you're free to surprise us.
Is it open for people from other countries as well? :)
Absolutely, Joe.
Wanna take wagers on who'll be the first to submit a story about a crime writer entering a crime-writing contest?
Wow, there's a coincidence. Mine just happens to be about a person who wagers on crime writers entering crime fiction writing contests. And let me tell you, it's sordid.
How very meta.
I looked over the reqs twice, but still may have missed this: can we write more than one story for contest consideration or is the first story submitted automatically the only one considered for the contest? Prolly a dumb question, but hey...
You're probably best served by putting everything you've got into one story.
Yeah, I figured as much, I just wonder why anyone would submit right away when they can take the duration of the submission window to perfect one story . Or is part of this that the writers are to rework their submissions after receiving reviews? Sorry if these questions are dumb, despite my best intentions, I never participated in the previous permutations of this.