First things first - this is prep work for your novel. Above all else, write what is most helpful for you. Winning the contest should be a secondary consideration.

Many of us have read prologues and prequels, whether they are their own novel like Tolkein's The Hobbit or Terry Goodkind's Debt of Bones, or whether they are just a chapter at the beginning of the book. Think of today's challenge as more like the chapter at the beginning of a book, as you don't have time to write a whole novel-length prequel!

You have two choices as far as I can see it - write a story about your character(s) that takes place shortly before your novel starts or that sets things in motion for where your novel starts....or write about a completely different time in your character's life that helps give some insight into your character and why/how they turned out the way they did. I think of them as being the difference between X-Men First Class (which shows how all the 'old school' characters meet each other and choose sides) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which shows scenes from Logan's life that show why he became the kind of person he did and why he makes the choices he does).

Use the information you have discovered about your character and their voice, and try to keep them 'true to themselves' as you write the story.

As a judge of this round in a previous year, I can strongly recommend that if you want to win the contest, you need a strong character, and you need some action. Not Bruce Willis type of action (although that's always good too!) but some sort of conflict that makes us sit on the edge of our seats and wonder how your character will come out of the situation unscathed. And the judges are reading a lot of entries - make yours memorable.

What are you focusing on when you write your background story?

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