● Anyone may compete from anywhere in the world.

● There are 3 rounds of competition.

● 1st Round (January 20-28, 2012) :  Writers are placed randomly in heats.  Each heat receives a genre, subject, and character assignment.  For example; Comedy (genre), a family reunion (subject), and a pathological liar (character).

● Writers then have 8 days to write an original short story (2,500 words maximum.

● The judges choose 125 writers from the 1st Round to advance to the 2nd Round.

● 2nd Round (March 8-11, 2012) :  Writers are again randomly placed in heats and assigned a new genre, subject, and character, only this time they have 3 days to write a 1,500 word (maximum) short story.

● The judges choose 25 writers to advance to the 3rd and Final Round.

● 3rd Round (April 13-14, 2012) :  The remaining writers receive a new genre, subject, and character assignment and have just 24 hours to write a 1,000 word (maximum) story.

● A panel of judges review the final round stories and overall winners are selected!

Registration is now closed, but there will be plenty more great competitions in 2012.  Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on facebook, twitter, and google+ to make sure you receive all of the competition updates!

Click here to view the 1st Round Assignments!

Official Rules & Participation Agreement

Not only does every writer receive in depth feedback from the judges for every story submitted, but a special review forum is available for the participants to submit their stories for review from fellow writers throughout the competition.  During the Short Story Challenge 2011, there were over 1,600 comments made on the 150+ stories submitted on the forum.  Click here to visit the forums.