Citibank – Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2010 is not yet to be open officially, but it is surprising that Kilat!Flash Fiction Challenge, a competition to write fiction mini online, just get the overwhelming response.

Since it was launched on 17th August, until nowadays there are at least 800 papers, 6,000 comments, and more than 17,000 support for the existing paper. Fantastic amount for a writing competition.

These fantastic amount followed by the increasing number of visitors of Quick! Flash Fiction Challenge website. Noted, daily increasing number of web users reaches 20,000 visitors, where it is come from 88 countries.

“Through this activity, we hope to introduce this festival to audience abroad, as well as to provide a forum for young writers in Indonesia so they can show their work,” said Sarah Tooth, Co – Director, Citibank – Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2010. “By posting their work to the website,at least these young writers have the opportunity to attract the audience and obtain comments from the readers of their work. Based on the plan, we will publish the works of the winners of this contest into a collection of stories that we can share with all participants during the festival period. This is manifestation of our appreciation for their contributions to this program. In addition, we also plan to hold a special event for them during the festival period, “she added.

Online fiction writing contest was originally conceived by water & stone, a digital company based in Bali. “This contest is one of our favorite kinds of promotion. The concept which is very creative, and fun, can be accepted by the audience. It’s really a great step to grab the attention of the public, “said Ric Shreves of Water &stones.

Other great thing, according to Ric, to promote this online writing contest, they only relying on social media and friend forum. Facebook, twitter, and kaskus are proven very effective to capture the audience in Indonesia. “Of the two types of entries we received, the number of papers in Indonesian language is more than the English ones. The comparison between the two is 8 to 1. So does with the comments received, the majority also in Bahasa Indonesia, ” he added.

Kilat!Flash Fiction Challenge, a contest to write a short fiction story that should not be more than 350 words. The texts that go through the website Kilat! divided into two groups,  Bahasa Indonesia and English. Through the same web, web visitors can enjoy every paper that come in, give comments and support in the works that are considered attractive.

Kilat! Flash Fiction Challenge is open only until 24 September 2010. The winner announcement will be made on October 1, 2010. For further information just visit the web at http://flashfiction.ubudwritersfestival.com.