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[CONTEST OVER; SEE THE WINNERS]

We want four life stories.

For the last four weeks of December (ending on New Year’s Day 2010), we’ll be publishing four different five-tweet serials. Each piece in the series should be a complete and engaging story (like always), but all five should come together to form something bigger and better. You could write about the same character and tell us his or her biography, but you don’t have to—the interpretation of “life story” and how to do it is up to you.

We’ll be accepting these serials through October 31st, at which point we’ll make the decisions and pick four. One submission per person. The four winners will receive $10 and (more awesomely) a whole week of Nanoism just to themselves. No Entry fee. Please submit using the snazzy form below. Questions welcome in the comments. Please tell your friends.

As a special incentive to get the word out, if you mention this “contest”-type thing on your website or blog before October 20th, you may submit two serials (just include the link with the second submission). Regular submissions remain open (our current response time is 0-1 day, despite what our last contest did to our Duotrope response times).

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December Serial Contest

Fill out all of the little boxes. Remember, each chapter/story can only be 140 characters. No bios, philosophies, or extra info needed for this, we’ll get it all when the time comes. Submissions will be read blind thanks to our Google Apps ninjutsu. We’ll email you when we see it, so if you don’t get a notification in a day or two, submit it again.

[CONTEST NOW CLOSED]

After nearly two months of submissions and over a month of wonderful short (short short) stories, Nanoism is having its first-ever contest.

Despite all of the excellent entries and buzz surrounding Robert Swartwood’s “Hint Fiction” Contest, I am certain much more nanofiction has been and needs to be written. But there is one small difference between the nanofiction we publish and other types of micro and hint fiction: we don’t use words here, we use characters—140 of them, to be exact.

What: Nanofiction up to 140 characters, including spaces. Every contest submission will be considered for publication in Nanoism. Reprints are fine, as always, just say so in the submission.

How: Submit up to five (5!) pieces in the body of an email with your bio (see submission guidelines). The email subject should be “Nanoism Contest Submission.” Send your entry to editor [at] nanoism [dot] net.  The contest runs for three weeks from May 14 until Friday June 5 at 11:59pm.

Prizes (paid via paypal):

• 1st: $20 and publication
• 2nd: $10 and publication
• 3rd: $5 and publication

I’m looking to be blown away by the number and quality of the entries. Share this on twitter, your blog, anywhere. Get the word out—I know nanofiction brings smiles to a lot of faces. If you’re on Twitter, follow @Nanoism for some excellent bits of fiction that you can read in a matter of seconds.

Nanoism is a brand new twitterzine, a Twitter-based magazine for tiny fiction. We hope to begin publishing nanofiction/twitter-fiction/twiction/tweetfic/[other short-fiction-name-du-jour] in April, both at this site and on Twitter using the handle @nanoism.

We’re open for submissions and we pay for stories, so check out the guidelines and send us your best. So follow @nanoism, start writing, and get ready to read.