Here is another short-short story contest, this one with no restrictions other than word count. It is sponsored by the Sacramento Branch of the California Writer’s club, but listed as open to all writers.
750 word maximum,
March 31 deadline.
$10 entry fee.
Prizes of $100, $50, and $25. Winners will be announced in the June Sacramento Branch newsletter and subsequently published there. Here are the details:
http://www.cwcsacramentowriters.org/special-events/contests/2011-short-short-story-contest/
The First Gates 
I would enter this but I’ve yet to write a short story under 1,000 words.
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I had not written a short story of any length for quite a while, until last October when something clicked and I wrote the first draft of a very short ghost story in a day or two. Now I’ve come to enjoy the process – kind of an extension brainstorming plots – “What if…?” Like a quick sketch when I was an art student, and in fact, the short-short stories began with a single image. The ghost story derived from a brief conversation with an admin at work who described a spooky moment her skeptical husband had when they spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast that was rumored to be haunted.
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That sounds fascinating. My “what if” questions usually lead to more questions and before long I have written enough for another novel!
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Nothing wrong with generating ideas for another novel!
Before I tried the first short-short story, I’d actually been working on entries for a 25 word story contest, so 750 seemed like gravy. You’ve got about three pages, act 1, act 2, act 3 if you want to think of it like that.
Page one you introduce a character or two, page two you complicate things, page three you create a resolution. Not that it’s easy, but its a puzzle that is not going to take a very long time to complete.
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