A letter from the reef
A fisherman's letter, sent home from a ship that anchored too close to a black reef, arrives in Arkham months after the ship was lost.
A letter reaches an Arkham address four months after the ship it was written aboard went down with everyone on it. The envelope is salt-stained but the paper is dry. Write the letter, or write what happens in the house where it is opened. The one thing the letter must do is stay a letter: it can only know what the writer knew, in the order he learned it.
- Length
- 400–1200 words
- Wanted
- story
- Tone
- A private voice, plain and increasingly precise.
What would contradict the canon
Reviewers check an entry against these. They are the difference between a decline and a seal.
- No narrator outside the letter, unless you write the household scene instead.
- The reef and what lies under it are never named outright by the writer.
- The ship's loss is a matter of public record. Do not undo it.
Already sealed, and binding
Read these before you write. Your entry can add to them; it cannot undo them.
One way it might open
An example, not a requirement. Take it, change it, or ignore it.
You will have had the telegram by now, and I am sorry it came before this did.
Pitch it before you write it
Optional. One paragraph on what happens and whose story it is. Readers tell you whether it fits the canon, before you have written a word of it.
Write it now. Nothing is needed to begin, your draft stays in this browser, and a name is asked for once, when you send it. 3 readers decide whether it is sealed.
Write this