Our monthly micro fiction writing competition has great prompts and prizes.
All reading and voting is done anonymously so no putting your name on your story or telling people which is yours if you’re shortlisted.
How does it work?
On the first Monday of each month (apart from August and December when we have time off) we post the prompt and you get a week to write and submit a story based on it. Four days after submissions close we announce the longlist and on the third Monday of the month we publish a shortlist of 10 stories in a blog.
Winners of the cash prize are decided by our panel of judges and the shortlist of 10 goes to public vote to win the People’s Prize. Voting remains open for one week and then the writer with the most votes wins the mystery prize, which will change each month and be announced at the same time as the results.
The prompts are posted here each month. We’re hoping to see some different takes on the prompts so don’t always go for the first thing it brings to mind…
Word count: 100 words exactly – the title is not included in the word count. We use MS Word to count for us and will give leeway of a word or two each way. Hyphenated words are counted as one but don’t use loads to increase the words available to you!
Entry fee: £5 or £17 with detailed feedback on the story you submit (if you book feedback and your story then wins a prize you can send a different micro story in for our editor to look at)
1st Prize: 30% of the entry fees received for the competition (after Submittable fees are deducted).
2nd Prize: 20% of the entry fees received for the competition (after Submittable fees are deducted).
People’s Prize: It’s a secret! This will change each month and be revealed with the results.
Shortlisted (but don’t win one of the 3 main prizes): Free entry to the next Monthly Micro Fiction Competition.
All winning and shortlisted stories are also published individually in the Flash Fiction area of our website.
We’ll confirm how many entries we received and what the cash prize will be when we announce the longlist.
Please read all the competition rules at the bottom of the page before you submit. We get messaged with a lot of questions about this competition and the answers to all of them are already detailed in the rules section below.
November 2023 Micro Fiction Competition
Opens: 06th November
Deadline: 23.59 UK time 12th November 2023
Longlist published: 16th November 2023
Shortlist published and voting begins: 20th November 2023
Voting closes: 27th November 2023
Winners announced: 28th November 2023
Prompt: October prompt is:
Remember the prompt is just a jumping-off point for your imagination. The story is entirely up to you, just be sure to read the rules below. Where will this prompt take you?
Looking forward to reading this month’s submissions. Go write!
Competition Rules
- The competition is open to writers worldwide but stories must be written in English.
- Submit stories through Submittable using the button above (only shows when submissions are open) by 23.59 GMT on the deadline date. You will have to create a free Submittable account to enter. No email entries will be accepted.
- Do not include your name on the story or submission title but provide a short bio in the body of the message in Submittable as we can’t see this until shortlists are chosen. All stories are read anonymously so any showing the author’s name will be automatically disqualified and fees will not be refunded.
- Stories must be your own original work and not have been published online or in print, or have won any other competitions (longlisted and shortlisted places in other competitions is fine).
- Please do not include any copyrighted material in your entry (e.g. song lyrics)
- Simultaneous submissions are fine but if your story is accepted elsewhere you must withdraw it from this competition and your entry fee will be forfeited.
- By entering the competition you agree to your story being published on the website.
- Stories can be in any genre apart from children’s fiction. Please no racism, sexism, or any kind of hate.
- You can enter as many times as you like but all entries must be made separately and the entry fee paid each time.
- The judge’s decision is final.
- If you book feedback and then win a prize you can send an alternative story (up to 350 words) for feedback.
- Cash prize payments will be made through PayPal or BACS (UK OR IRELAND ONLY FOR BACS). Submittable payments are received a month in arrears so winner’s payments will be paid once we receive the funds from Submittable.
- In the case of a draw for first or second place, the writers will share the prize.
- In the case of a draw for the People’s Prize, both writers will receive the prize.
- There is no alternative to the cash prizes or the People’s Prize.