New Free Monthly Competition NOW OPEN!

Hello everyone. A few months ago I made the difficult decision to stop running my 100-word competition due to family commitments and bereavements. I’m pleased to say life is easier and I’m throwing myself back into writing. Although I loved reading the stories, each being only 100 words, running a competition does take a significant amount of work and time, so I had to really consider whether I would pick it back up again. Flash fiction and short stories are my favourite format so I was keen to do so but have come to a compromise. So…

Yes, the good news is that it’s back but in a slightly different format. Instead of a 100-word requirement, i.e. no less, no more than 100 words, it’s now 50 words, again no more, no less. As you’ll likely know from Ernest Hemingway’s six-word piece (For sale, baby shoes, never worn), stories can be that short so you can pack a lot into fifty words.

There will be a different theme each month, with three chosen from the entries, one per author, all of which will be published on this site.

It’s still free to enter and, yes, there are still prizes!

• 1st prize: free prose critique up to 1,500 words;
• 2nd prize: free prose critique up to 1,000 words;
• 3rd prize: free prose critique up to 500 words.
• Each prize will be valid for six months from the closing date (i.e. the prizes for the top three stories for May are valid until end November) so you can combine your ‘winnings’.

• Deadline: the deadline for the inaugral competition is midnight (UK time) on Friday 31st May 2024. It opened on Wednesday 1st May.
  Each theme will open on the first day of each month, closing on the last day of each month. Please do not submit a different story outside of these dates.
• Theme: the theme (which changes each month, the next few are listed on the comp page below) for May 2024 is: ‘second time round’… however the theme strikes you. Please do stick to the theme or your story will be disqualified. The top stories are usually ones that closely follow the theme and are well written, this is a writing competition after all.
• Submissions: Max three stories per entrant. I will pick my favourite of the three to go through to the final. I’ve had trouble with contact forms on my site where they’ve garnered a lot (many each day) of spam messages so this time I’m inviting submissions via email (one email per story please) with the month, theme and story title as the subject line, e.g. MAY: Second  Time Round – Bobby’s Girl. This means you won’t receive an automated confirmation but I will reply within a week confirming receipt. All stories must be in English.
  Please include a title for each story and your name please. If you’d like a website (or sales page) linked to your name please include that. So…
  Name:
  Title:
  Story Title:
  Story:
   Thank you!
• Fee: there is no fee for entering this competition. I enjoy reading flash fiction and being a competition judge.

Further details on the https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/50-word-comp page.

Morgen’s free 100-word & BeaconLit comps are open for January!

Hello everyone. Yes, December’s competitions are closed, with the results due to be announced in the next few days.

My 100-worder (exactly):

The theme for January is a second-person point of view story which you can submit any time until Friday 31st January (midnight UK time). You can send up to three stories per month (individually or at the same time). It’s worth doing because some people have missed out because of errors (usually not 100 words exactly) in the only entry they send so they are immediately disqualified. This happens almost every month. <sigh>  This is a free competition with editing or online courses are prizes to the top (up to) eight placed. Further details on the 100-word competition page.

BeaconLit’s 500-word (maximum):

The yearly BeaconLit Festival is running its third 500-word (maximum) charity fundraising (for local libraries) competition in collaboration with judge Gareth Davies. The current (January’s) theme is ‘sweet and sour’. You can submit as often as you like at £3 per entry with a £525 prize pot. See https://beaconlitblog.wordpress.com/500-word-competition for details.

Morgen’s Free 100-word competition is now open for July!

*** PLEASE check your word count (100 words exactly – no more, no less – EXcluding title) and do submit more than one story to give yourself a better chance of being placed. ***

Hello everyone. Yes, June’s competition is closed, with the results due to be announced in the next few days. The theme for July is ‘given the chance’ which you can submit any time until Wednesday 31st July (midnight UK time).

And remember, you can send up to three stories per month (individually or at the same time). It’s worth doing because some people have missed out because of errors (usually not 100 words exactly) in the only entry they send so they are immediately disqualified. This happens almost every month. <sigh>

There are lots of rules so please read the 100-word competition page carefully but the two most important are:

1. Your story must stick to the theme (which varies each month).
2. Your story must be no longer or no shorter than 100 words. This excludes the title which can be as long or as short as you like. Any stories of less than or greater than 100 words will be disqualified so please check before submitting. Hyphenated words (e.g. well-known) count as one word so 99-word stories because of a hyphenated word will be disqualified. This may sound harsh but it’s then fair on everyone. Also bullet points do not count as words so do not include them in your word count. Neither do ellipses (e.g. ‘and… we’ counts as two words), ages, e.g. ‘a two-year-old child’ also counts as one word (according to Word, which is what I use).
3. You can send up to three stories per month.
4. Please don’t submit your story / stories (or a variation of them) elsewhere until the results are announced. I score them as they come in (to longlist them then go through them again when the comp closes) so I don’t want to then be told that you need to withdraw the story because someone else wants it. The most you’d have to wait is six weeks (the competition month plus two weeks max. to the results being announced mid-month).  Thank you.

And the prizes?

• You could win one or more of my online creative writing courses, or free editing and critique of your writing up to 2,000 words (worth up to £20 (€24 / US$28 / CA$ & AS$36)). There’s no time limit for you to use this critique so you could save them up for your novel!

Good luck and I look forward to reading your stories.

Annual Essay Competition

Hello everyone… I’ve received the following:

Dear Morgen,

Castle Craig Hospital would like to include our essay competition freely open to students. Would you be as so kind as to place our information on this post?

Castle Craig Hospital would like to invite all interested undergraduate and postgraduate students to enter its International Addiction Research Essay Competition 2018.

This annual competition has been instituted to mark Castle Craig Hospital’s 30th anniversary. We hope it will serve to foster connections between academic institutions and treatment services, and that this will eventually support best practice in the field of addiction treatment.

The top award of £1,000, and runner-up awards of £250 will be a welcome financial assistant to the successful candidates. The competition will be judged by a panel including Professor Jonathan Chick, and Dr. Glynis Read of Castle Craig Hospital.

Please could you take time to share this initiative with students at your university. Full details about the competition are available on this page of our website https://castlecraig.co.uk/essay. Further news and updates will appear regularly on this page, and this link will continue to be updated for competitions in successive years.

We suggest that you link to our competition on social media and any other page you think would be appropriate.

The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2018 with the winners announced on the 30th of April 2019. The winning submissions will be published online by May 1, 2019 on the Castle Craig Hospital website.

As we become increasingly integrated as an international community the exchange of global ideas and dialogue in this field is paramount to addressing the increasing demand for addiction treatment throughout the world. Castle Craig Hospital would be honoured to have you join us in this mission this year and in the future,

Sincerely,

Castle Craig Hospital

Morgen’s free 100-word competition is now open for August!

*** PLEASE check your word count (100 words exactly – no more, no less – EXcluding title) and do submit more than one story to give yourself a better chance of being placed. ***

Hello everyone. Yes, July’s competition is closed, with the results due to be announced on (or before) Wedneday 15th August. The theme for August is ‘leftovers’ which you can submit any time until Friday 31st August (midnight UK time).

July’s 100-word FREE competition is open… ‘a horror story’

*** PLEASE check your word count (100 words EXcluding title) and submit more than one story to give yourself a better chance of being placed. ***

Hello everyone. Yes, June’s theme of ‘the wheel’ has closed but July’s is now open with the theme of ‘a horror story’, used in any way you like, i.e. a story fitting that genre or not. Even something trivial happening to your characters could mean it’s a horror story to them.

And remember, you can send up to three stories per month (individually or at the same time). It’s worth doing because some people have missed out because of errors (usually not 100 words exactly) in the only entry they send so they are immediately disqualified. This happens almost every month. <sigh>

There are lots of rules so please read the 100-word competition page carefully but the two most important are:

1. Your story must stick to the theme (which varies each month).
2. Your story must be no longer or no shorter than 100 words. This excludes the title which can be as long or as short as you like. Any stories of less than or greater than 100 words will be disqualified so please check before submitting. Hyphenated words (e.g. well-known) count as one word so 99-word stories because of a hyphenated word will be disqualified. This may sound harsh but it’s then fair on everyone. Also bullet points do not count as words so do not include them in your word count. Neither do ellipses (e.g. ‘and… we’ counts as two words), ages, e.g. ‘a two-year-old child’ also counts as one word (according to Word, which is what I use).

And the prizes?

• Prizes: you could win one or more of my online creative writing courses, or free editing and critique of your writing up to 2,000 words (worth up to £14 (€20 / US$22 / CA$ & AS$28)). See prize breakdown below. Alternatively you can choose one of my eBooks.

Good luck and I look forward to reading your stories.

Morgen’s March’s free 100-word competition is now open!

*** PLEASE check your word count (100 words exactly – no more, no less – EXcluding title) and do submit more than one story to give yourself a better chance of being placed. ***

Hello everyone. Yes, February’s competition is closed, with the results due to be announced on (or before) Friday 9th March. The theme for March is ‘superstitious’ which you can now submit and any time during until Saturday 31st March (midnight UK time).

Writing Competitions and you… success? near miss? the judge? Let me know!

Hello everyone. I’m Writers’ Forum magazine’s Competitive Edge columnist and I’d love to know whether you have entered any writing competitions (of any type), and have been successful, a runner-up perhaps, or been unsuccessful but have learned from the experience, have advice for other entrants, or maybe you’re a competition judge and have some tips on entering (and funny stories to tell!).

September’s free 100-word competition now open

*** PLEASE check your word count (100 words exactly – no more, no less – EXcluding title) and submit more than one story to give yourself a better chance of being placed. ***

Hello everyone. Yes, August’s competition – with the theme of ‘ticking’ is now closed, with the results due to be announced this Friday, 8th September. The theme for September is ‘afraid, very afraid’ which you can now submit and any time during until Saturday 30th September (midnight UK time).

And remember, you can send up to three stories per month (individually or at the same time). It’s worth doing because some people have missed out because of errors (usually not 100 words exactly) in the only entry they send so they are immediately disqualified. This happened again last month. <sigh>

September’s theme is ‘afraid, very afraid’ to use however you wish. You can write them whenever you like but don’t send them to me until Friday 1st September.

August’s free 100-word competition now open

*** PLEASE check your word count (100 words EXcluding title) and submit more than one story to give yourself a better chance of being placed. ***

 

Hello everyone. Yes, July’s competition – with the theme of ‘strangers on a train’ is now closed. The theme for August is ‘ticking’ which you can now submit and any time during until Thursday 31st August (midnight UK time).

And remember, you can send up to three stories per month (individually or at the same time). It’s worth doing because some people have missed out because of errors (usually not 100 words exactly) in the only entry they send so they are immediately disqualified. This happened again last month. <sigh>

September’s theme is ‘afraid, very afraid’ to use however you wish. You can write them whenever you like but don’t send them to me until Friday 1st September.