How to participate

#LitFest2444 Phone It In is open to any person residing in Australia between the ages of 15 and 18. It is free to enter and you can submit more than one entry if you wish.

Be sure to read the  Conditions of Entry carefully and check out the helpful resources below.

Students can ask their teachers about getting their school involved in #LitFest2444 and the Phone It In competition. We also have a section on our website  for teachers.

 

How do I enter Phone It In?

Write, record and submit a microlit piece on this year's theme of SOUND to enter the Phone it In competition.

How do I start? HELP!

Thinking about entering but not sure what is involved?  Relax! Alex Wegman from Spineless Wonders has put together a bunch of resources you can find under Learning Exercises below to get your writing started.

Plus, Little Fictions actor, Alex Neal offers some helpful tips and tricks on how to prepare, record and upload your submission for the Phone It In Competition. Find them further down on this page.

How to submit

All you need to do is upload the audio file via this Submittable link. Your submission should be no longer than 2 minutes in duration.

Tips, resources and warm-up exercises

Writing tips and guides

Cassandra Donna Edwards, Microlit Award 2018Editor of Shuffle: An Anthology of Microlit, Cassandra Atherton, shares some tips of writing microlit. She advises that writers try to find their own “ideas and style” by “think[ing] ahead to find something outside what everyone else is thinking about…It’s no good writing another Game of Thrones or vampire narrative.”

Atherton also discusses how to approach writing for a theme. Atherthon believes “When there is a theme for writers it is always important that the approach or reference to the theme is not too obvious or clichéd.”

Last but not least, she reminds that the main goal of writing should be to “capture the reader’s interest and engagement” and to carefully craft your work around this objective.

Click here to read more tips from Cassandra Atherton.

CASSANDRA ATHERTON is an award-winning writer, academic and critic. She is Associate Professor in Writing and Literature at Deakin University and is a past Harvard Visiting Scholar in English. Her most recent books of prose poetry are Trace (Finlay Lloyd, 2015) and Exhumed (Grand Parade, 2015).

Recording your story

Before recording your audio story, here are some tips from actor Alex Neal that we hope you will find helpful.

Part 1 – Tips for setting up for your home recording
Part 2 – Preparing your script for reading aloud
Part 3 -  Vocal Warm Ups: Preparing your voice for recording
Part 4 – Recording
Part 5 – Editing and uploading your audio recording

ALEX NEAL| Actor Graduated QUT Acting in 2017, and has been living and working in Sydney for the past four months.  He is currently working on an AFTRS short film and will appear in the Australian film Danger Close.

 

Learning exercises

To learn more about microlit, try reading some of the example stories above from Shuffle: An Anthology of Microlit. You can also have a go at some of the learning exercises below, which will have you writing your own microlit in no time!

Learning Activity 1: Getting To Know Microlit

Learning Activity 2: Digging Deeper

Learning Activity 3: Perspectives and Character

Learning Activity 4: Setting and Place

Learning Activity 5: Establishing A Voice

Now over to you - here are some writing prompts on the theme of SOUND to get you started.

SOUND Story Prompts

If you have any questions about the learning exercises, about how to submit your entry to the Phone It In competition, or if you just want to tell us what you think, email Alex on info[at]shortaustralianstories[dot][com][dot][au]

 

Microlit & recording examples

Please find some text and audio versions here to download and listen. these examples are taken from the Shuffle microlit anthology.

Warning: some of the content on this website does contain strong language.