writing contest
“Four!” [shouted]
days left to till the #18 entry deadline
I don’t play golf. I did hit a golf ball once, or tried to. I used a type of golf club called a ‘driver,’ though it certainly has nothing to do with the sort of person who drives an automobile. Or a truck. Or even a golf cart.
When you do it right, a driver is supposed to be capable of hitting the poor little golf ball a couple of hundred yards or so.
I didn’t do it right.
I took a mighty swing, and the golf ball rolled exactly 1.5 inches. (We measured.) I immediately retired from the sport.
But I got to thinking today, and I realized that 1.5 inches is 4 centimeters. If you had a 4-cm putt to make, you opponent would undoubtedly concede it. Why? Because the hole you’re trying to hit it into is 4.25 inches in diameter. In other words, the goal in making a 4 cm putt is to hit a little white ball that weighs 46 grams and measures 4.27 cm in diameter into a hole that is 10.8 cm across. If you formed three of the balls into a triangle, you could easily fit that triangle into the hole with plenty of room to spare.
If you blew on the ball with pursed lips it would go in. If there was a 3.5 Richter Scale earthquake just before ‘addressing’ the ball, it would go in without you having to touch it.
The only way you could keep the ball from going into the hole would be to drive it (preferably with a four iron) in the opposite direction.
Just before hitting the ball off the tee to begin with, you’re supposed to yell ‘Fore.’ This is to alert the other players who are ahead of you on the course that there might be a ball coming their way, and to watch out for it. That is, if you’re anybody but me. If you’re me, you have to change the spelling, because you (I) am only going to hit the ball for 1.5 inches. (Four cm.)
What I should have yelled instead of ‘Fore’ was ‘Four.’
What does this have to do with anything? Well, today is November 8, 2026. We have a writing contest going. It’s known as Q-Contest #18. The topic is If You Were a Ghost, Where Would You Haunt? Or anything halfway remotely spooky related to that question. Yes, I know, Hallowe’en was 9 days ago, but we’re stretching things a bit here. OK? [Here’s a LINK to the original announcement.]
There have been six entries received already. Since the minimum number to have a contest is 5, we have met that requirement, so the contest is on! However, six entries seems like an awfully small number for such a big topic. Hence this warning.
Picture me shouting ‘Four!’ today.
And then ‘Three’ tomorrow. Two, One, etc. Till the deadline arrives. Then I can rest my voice.
In a moment I will post links to the six entries, so that you can start reading now, before the voting starts. Please note: The voting has not started yet. It won’t start till we reach that entry deadline (“Four!” days from now). Don’t vote yet.
PLEASE don’t vote yet.
That wouldn’t be fair to the authors who are going to enter but who haven’t done so yet. Of which you who are reading this right now are one, right? Right? RIGHT?
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If the only thing holding you back from entering is that you don’t know how to enter, we’ll get to that in a minute. But first, as promised, here are the six entries so far:
Any contest has to have some rules, so here are the rules for this one.
First, you can have at most only two entries in any one of our contests. Having only one is fine, but two is also fine. Three or more? No.
Second, the entry has no length limits, either direction. No minimum length. No maximum length. (Though you might want to think hard and fast about the fact that people here on Medium almost never read anything that has a longer-than-ten-minute reading time. And if they don’t read it, they also can’t vote for the entry. Just sayin’.)
Third, there are three different ways to enter.
Way 1: You self-publish the post and let me know you intend it as an entry. (It doesn’t have to be published recently. It can be as long ago as you like.)
Way 2: You get (or got) the item published in some publication other than Questionality and let me know you intend it as an entry.
If you choose either Way 1 or Way 2, you need to send me a link to the entry so I can read it.
Way 3 (the most popular method): You label the post as an entry and submit it to Questionality. I publish it — or John Hansen PAL, our associate editor, publishes it — and you’re in.
Of course there’s a small catch to that third way. Q is not one of those ‘automatic’ submission sites where you can submit anything you like if you’re one of their followers. Nope. With Q, you have to be an authorized author, which you become by asking me to make you one. Since that can take upwards of a few minutes to a couple of hours or more, you might not want to wait till 11:59pm on the 12th before making the request, unless you can type and submit your entry in less than 60 seconds, which seems a bit iffy. In fact, making such a request might be something you want to do right away! (Hint, hint.)
But wait, we’re not done with the rules yet.
Rule Four (“Four!”): The entry can be made of any type of Medium-allowed entry that uses words. In other words, it can be poem or prose, fiction or non-fiction, literary or down-to-earth. Humorous or sad or tragic or entirely objective. Whatever.
Rule Five: It has to have a title. A subtitle is not absolutely required, but is strongly suggested, as otherwise the first part of your text gets shoved up above the illustration. A ‘kicker’ is entirely optional. But you HAVE to have a title. Not optional. You have to type it into the Medium format on the title line. Copying your whole post with a title into the format won’t work. A title submitted that way just shows up as part of the text of the post.
Rule Six: Speaking of illustrations, you have to have one. This is not my rule, it’s Medium’s. Used to be, an illustration was optional. Not any more. You have to have one. AND, you have to do some certain things TO it for it to count. You either have to upload it from Unsplash, OR you have to give it what’s known as a credit line, which is a little small-print line that shows up just below the illustration when you first attach it. (If you can’t see it, just click on the picture. The line will magically appear.)
This credit line has to identify the source of the illustration. If you made it yourself, you have to say so, and how you did it — including the app you used to make it. If you got it from the internet, you have to say where on the internet, even if it’s a public domain illustration. And if it’s copyrighted you have to reveal who owns the copyright.
Rule Seven (this is my rule, not Medium’s): The primary purpose of the entry can’t be to advertise your book — nor to supply links to other things you have written. Or to solicit donations. (You can mention those kinds of thing peripherally — just don’t make them the focus of the entry.)
Rule Eight: The entry must be submitted by midnight on Thursday, November 12, US Central Time. (The internet will be glad to tell you what time that is where you live and write.) That is, if the entry is a submission to Questionality, I have to receive it by then. (I do check my inbox every few minutes right up to the end. I even wait a few minutes before ‘slamming the door,’ to make sure I got everything. And the same deadline applies to entries not submitted to Q: You have to have informed me that the entry is one before that time.
Now, a while ago I mentioned that if the entry was not a submission to Q that you should notify me of your intent. How do you do that?
There are three ways:
One, reply to this article.
Two, send me an email at legendkeeper21@gmail.com
Three, send me a PM.
If you don’t know what a PM is, here goes:
A PM is a Private Message. Nobody can see it but you and me. It’s created by highlighting any word or phrase in this post and examining the little black strip that shows up when you create the highlight. At the right hand end of that strip there will be either a tiny icon of a padlock or the letters PM. Click on whichever of those is there. A small writing box will show up. Type your message into the little box and hit Send. Yay! You just sent me a PM. (I will acknowledge by the same method.)
That’s it for this time. I expect to see your entry soon. Meanwhile I’ll be playing something other than golf (probably the piano) and shouting a lot anyway.
