Contests

Register for Our Live Writing Contests Now!

ALL Registration and Submission Deadlines are 9am Pacific Standard Time

Upcoming Contests:

  • Short Story Contest TBA

The Write Contest is dedicated to our creative community and we believe your voice should be heard. If you are in need of a contest scholarship please contact us.

FEATURED PREMIERE SHORT STORY CONTEST – WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Short Story Contest Final Round Results

Congratulations to:

1st Place Clare Bonner

2nd Place Tracy Bradford

3rd Place Tie Bernie Nofel
3rd Place Tie Joshua Flores

4th Place Emily Sullivan

5th Place Nora Fry

Prizes:

  • 1st $500 and “Ask the author” zoom session all available published books from our featured authors in your chosen format.
  • 2nd $350 and “Ask the author” zoom session and two available published books from our featured authors in your chosen format.
  • 3rd $150 and “Ask the author” zoom session and select e-books from featured judges.

How It Works

  1. Receive story details via e-mail on May 21st (including Genre, Character prompt, and a Location prompt). If you have not received your prompts by 9:30am PST contact us.
  2. Write and upload your story via the link in the e-mail before the Submission deadline May 23rd 9 am PST
Parameters are as follows:
  • The story can have up to 2000 words
  • Microsoft Word will be the standard to measure submission word count and adherence to the word count limitation is included in the judging criteria.
  • Stories must be submitted via the link sent in your e-mail before 9 am PST Sunday May 23rd and must be a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file type. This gives you 48 hours to write and submit your story.
  • Stories cannot be submitted or accessed after the submission deadline, so make sure you plan ahead and upload your story in plenty of time.
  • PLEASE make sure there are NO identifiers within the title or body of your uploaded work. Submissions received with names, contact information, and/or web/social media links will be disqualified.

There are various interpretations of genres. You can put your own spin on them, but we will be going off the following basic definitions:

Sci Fi: Science fiction stories involve technology, environments, or worlds/cultures more fanciful or advanced than our own. Aliens, time travel, or even implants that allow a person to lift a building—we want stories that use speculative elements to enhance characters and build a world different from the one in which we live.

Romantic Comedy: Rom/Com (Isn’t there a movie or two that defines this genre pretty clearly?) We are going to stick with lighthearted stories that focus on romantic ideas, makes us laugh, and generally working out in the end—although maybe not the exact way we thought it was gonna end.

Mystery: A story that follows a crime of some sort and sets the reader in a role of trying to figure out the details of the crime and/or the identity of the criminal.

Comedy: Make us laugh with your wit and interesting perspectives. Comedies are meant to incite amusement.

Horror: A story that shocks, frightens, or incites a feeling of dread. It is the stuff of nightmares (but we just can’t turn away 🙂

Romance: Romance stories primarily center around interpersonal relationships. They focus on how love conquers all, but never without overcoming often seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Supernatural: “Supernatural” stories incorporate speculative elements beyond our traditional plane of existence. Ghosts, mediums, possession, demons, angels, werewolves, vampires all qualify—anything that lurks outside our limited view of reality. Supernatural stories don’t have to be scary or horrific (although they certainly can be)—it’s more important to engage the reader’s thoughts about what lies beneath.

Historical Fiction: This one can be challenging because it has to be based in some fact. Historical fiction is usually a combination of true and imagined events and individuals. These stories include history with a flair for creating compelling and moving experiences that bring threads of history alive within the reader. Please set your stories a MINIMUM of 20 years prior to now. 2019 might feel like a lifetime ago, but for this genre, we’d like stories set prior to the turn of the century. You can have 100% fictional characters in your story, but they must be living/interacting in a distinct time period and dealing with either non-fictional events or locations.

Dialogue-Only Contest Final Round Results

Congratulations to:

1st Place Angela Teagardner

2nd Place Laura Burdett

3rd Place Tie Tracy Bradford
3rd Place Tie Mary Hill-Wagner

4th Place Johannah Simon

5th Place Tie Sylvia Allen
5th Place Tie David Kent

Prizes:

  • 1st $200 and a book from one of our judges in your chosen format
  • 2nd $100
  • 3rd $50

Who here has ever skimmed over rich detailed paragraphs of description scrambling to find the next section of dialogue?

Yup! Guilty.

Well-written dialogue can move your story forward more effectively than pages of narrative.

The Dialogue-Only Contest is an opportunity to create a clear and compelling story using nothing but dialogue.

Your entry can be up to 250 words. Even the smallest words add to the word-count (we believe in the power of the little guys) and contrractions count as one word (because working together makes us better!)

You may have as many characters as you choose, but the dialogue must stand on its own without any description, gestures, narration, or dialogue tags (i.e. he/she/they said).

For this contest grammar is secondary and your entry does not have to follow standard rules for writing dialogue.

Just have some fun with it.

 

NOTE: If you have registered for a contest through us previously, please log in to your user profile to register.

Short Story Contest (1500 words)

Contest Start Date TBA

Categories:

  • Open Genre
  • Title: “Today”

Prizes:

  • 1st $350 and “Ask the author” zoom session and a selection of published books from our featured authors in your chosen format.
  • 2nd $250
  • 3rd $150

How It Works

  1. Write your Story with the Title “Today” / Register and Upload your Entry
  2. Pay for contest and Receive your confirmation e-mail
  3. Check the website for the Contest Winner Announcement and Prize Distribution

Parameters are as follows:

  • The story must be previously unpublished and your own work.
  • The story can have up to 1500 words
  • Microsoft Word will be the standard to measure submission word count and adherence to the word count limitation is included in the judging criteria.
  • Stories must be submitted before 9 am PST Sunday December 12th and must be a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file type.
  • Stories cannot be uploaded or accessed after the submission deadline, so make sure you plan ahead and upload your story in plenty of time. If you have any difficulty uploading your story please email us.
  • PLEASE make sure there are NO identifiers within the title or body of your uploaded work. Submissions received with names, contact information, and/or web/social media links will be disqualified.

NOTE: If you have registered for a contest through us previously, please log in to your user profile to register.

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Future Contests

  • MicroFiction
  • My First Contest
  • NonFiction / Memoir
  • Poetry
  • Road Less Traveled (Surprise Selection)
  • Screenplay 
  • Partnered / Sponsored
  • Video (complete or scene 1-5 min.)
  • Visual Arts

The Write Contest is dedicated to our creative community and we believe your voice should be heard. If you are in need of a contest scholarship please contact us.

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