'These darkly comic tales place the author snugly between Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Be sure: Chris Fielden is one funny feller.' Allen Ashley, British Fantasy Award winner.
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Writing Challenges

Quick links on this page:

about the challenges - submit - suggest a challenge - challenges run on other websites

Writing Challenge

Through the writing challenges, to date we have:

  • published 3,077 stories by 2,021 authors on this website
  • published 2,500 stories by 1,565 authors in 16 anthologies
  • sold 2,733 books
  • raised £6,562.19 for charity

These figures will be updated at the beginning of each month (last update 1st March 2024).

What Are The Flash Fiction Writing Challenges All About?

I'm developing these writing challenges for a variety of reasons.

Primarily, they:

  1. Guarantee publication (so you see your work published)
  2. Support some amazing charities

But there's more to it than that. Below is a little more detail.

The Fun Stuff

  • The flash fiction challenges get you thinking about different aspects of your writing
  • They encourage you to practice your writing and complete stories
  • Your submissions will be published (sometimes edited, but always published) on this website
  • Many of the submissions are published in anthologies:
    • Printed books (with registered ISBNs)
    • eBooks
    • All are sold through Amazon and raise money to support different charities
  • Submitting isn't too daunting and doesn't take long as the word count limits are so low (no more than 100 to 200 words) and the rules are very simple
  • In the future, we'll probably run more book launches for all the anthologies we release, which is a great excuse to enjoy some fabulous story readings and a few bevvies

Book Launch

Martin Strike, Captain Beany, Chris Fielden and a copy of Nonsensically Challenged Volume 1, celebrating the book's release

By getting a lot of writers involved I hope to generate a nice lot of money for some very worthy causes. All the published books will contain 100 very short stories, so up to 100 different authors could be featured in each anthology. By submitting and spreading the word about the books your work is featured in, you will be helping raise money for charity at the same time as gaining exposure for your writing. Everyone's a winner.

Some writers like to take pictures of themselves in fabulous locations all over the globe, holding their copies of the writing challenge anthologies. You can see their photos here.

If you are published through the writing challenges, you can join our Authors of the Flash Fiction Challenges Facebook group. The group allows contributing writers to 'meet', chat and share ideas. You will also receive notifications about new writing challenges before anyone else.

The Educational Stuff

  • Many of the challenges invite you to purposely make common writing mistakes (like using lots of adverbs or clichés, for example)
  • This will make you more aware of the mistakes and (I hope) will help you write better, more publishable stories in the future
  • By participating, you gain the experience of working with an editor/publisher (me) and have your work edited into a professional format for release in a book
  • You obtain a publishing credit to add to your writing CV, often in a book with an ISBN
  • You will be involved in launching and marketing the books your stories are featured in

One of the aims of running these challenges is to raise awareness of common mistakes that fiction competition judges and magazine editors frequently highlight as reasons for rejecting stories.

Challenging you to purposefully make these 'errors' means you'll become more mindful of how to avoid them in the future. This means you're much more likely to see your stories published.

You'll also be involved in launching and selling the anthologies you're published in. This means you'll learn how to successfully publish and sell books all over the world. You can learn more about the book launch process here.

How The Challenges Support Charities

Each time 100 stories are submitted to each challenge, I will produce a professionally formatted book in print and eBook formats**. The books will be distributed through Amazon and made available for sale all over the world. For every book sold, £1 will be donated to charity.

** I used to publish books via all of the writing challenges, but due to the number of challenges I run and the amount of work involved with publishing books, some of them have now become website publishing only. This was a difficult decision to make, but my time was becoming so stretched that something had to give, sorry. Please check out the submission criteria for each individual challenge for full details.

You can see how much money has been generated for charity by each individual challenge below, as part of the overview of each challenge. You can see the overall amount raised by all the challenges at the top of the page.

The books will be priced to generate an average profit of just over £1. I have to use an average because unit costs vary. This depends on the format the book is sold in (EG, print is more expensive because of the costs of printing a physical book) and many other factors including:

  • the country the book is sold in
  • current currency exchange rates
  • tax laws in different territories
  • the distribution channel the sale is made through (eg, if the book is sold by an independent book shop, the profit margin is lower as you have the print/production cost + Amazon's cut of profits + the book shop's cut of profits)
  • print costs (these vary, depending on the number of the pages in each book)
  • etc.

So, prices and profit margins do vary quite a bit.

As an example of price, Adverbially Challenged Volume 1 (the first anthology I released) retails at:

  • £5.69/$6.99 in print format
  • £2.49/$3.49 in eBook format
  • £1.49 in PDF format

I plan to ensure that every book produced through these challenges is always available for less than £10 in print format.

As I mentioned before, for every book sold, £1 will be donated to charity. The average profit per book is around £1.25. The 25p from each sale goes towards admin costs, so there is very little (if any) profit in it for me.

So why do I run the challenges? What IS in it for me?

The challenges are becoming increasingly popular, so more people are learning about my website. This means I gain more visitors/readers and brand recognition. I have adverts placed on my site (you can see them at the top and down the sides of the page). Each time someone clicks on an advert, I receive a small amount of money. Increasing the volume of website visits I receive means more people click on the adverts, so I generate more revenue from advertising.

I run my website full time and, currently, don't make enough money to live. But I want to be able to offer the content on the site for free, without having to put everything behind a payment wall. This creates a supportive community available to everyone to get involved in, even if they're totally skint. I hope to increase visits to my site over time and that will generate more money from advertising. So that's how running the challenges helps me.

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Challenge Sign

Get Involved With The Writing Challenges

Here you will find details of the micro fiction writing challenges that are currently running. Anyone of any age can submit from anywhere in the world. It doesn't matter how experienced you are - any level of capability is fine:

  • Beginner
  • Intermediate
  • Professional
  • Literary genius (we all secretly hope we're one of those...)

The rules for each challenge are simple and the word count limits are short, so they're not too daunting.

I love to publish writers for the first time, so please get involved.

You can review the writing challenge terms and conditions here (they're very simple).

Here are the challenges that are currently open for submissions (listed in the order they were launched):

1. Adverb Writing Challenge

This challenge's full name is: Mike’s Not-Entirely-Serious Wantonly-Rule-Breaking Adverb Writing Challenge

Writers Mike Scott Thomson & Christopher Fielden

Mike & Chris & the Humber Bridge

The idea for this challenge was conceived by Mike Scott Thomson. It was launched in April 2016.

Many new writers overuse adverbs in their writing. To raise awareness of this, the Adverb Writing Challenge was born. All you have to do is write a story crammed with as many adverbs as you can.

Learn more about and submit to the Adverb Writing Challenge here.

The adverb writing challenge has been running since April 2016. We release a new book each time we receive 100 stories.

You can buy:

We are currently accepting submissions for Volume 6 .

To date, we have sold 625 adverb-engorged books, raising £625 for charity.

We raised a further £10.98 from shrapnel donated to Darth at the book launch party for Adverbially Challenged Volume 3.

We raised a further £52.87 from cash donated to Darth at the book launch party for Adverbially Challenged Volume 4 and sales of copies of KM Elkes' book, All That Is Between Us, which he kindly donated to the cause. And we received another £7 from Dave McTigue, who made a donation to have his story 'To Boldy Go' read at the launch event.

One of the authors featured in Adverbially Challenged Volume 5, Pierre-Alexandre Sicart, generously donated £24.68 direct to First Story to celebrate the launch of the book. Big thanks to Pierre, he's a legend :)

Writing Improvement Software

 

2. N0nsense Writing Challenge

This challenge's full name is: Lesley's Nifty Nib-Nibbling Nonsensical Narrative Challenge

Chris Fielden & Lesley Truchet

Lesley & Chris hanging out on a Kawasaki, as you do...

The idea for this challenge was conceived by Lesley Truchet. It was launched in November 2016.

This challenge will highlight the need for a coherent plot and satisfying conclusion to a story. Leaving unanswered questions or having an incomplete story-arc can leave a reader feeling disappointed and unlikely to read any more of your work.

Learn more about and submit to the Nonsense Writing Challenge here.

You can buy:

We are still accepting submissions to this challenge, but it is now website publishing only.

To date, we have sold 389 nonsensical books, raising £389 for charity.

We also raised a further £335 at Martin & Jo's Nonsense Party.

Additional donations from attendees of M&J's party made directly to The Daisy Garland £60.

My nieces, Elspeth and Scarlett, also sold their doll's house on eBay and donated the profit (after postage and eBay fees) to The Daisy Garland, raising another £20.05.

Martin also managed to get his employers, Care UK Ltd, to fund match the amount we raised at the book launch. So an additional £525.05 has been donated to The Daisy Garland.

We raised a further £10.98 from shrapnel donated to Darth at the book launch party for Nonsensically Challenged Volume 2.

Captain Beany Head Tattoo

Captain Beany's head tattoo, with The Daisy Garland logo emblazoned upon it

We raised another £2,400.00 when nonsense author Captain Beany sold the final tattoo on his head on behalf of the charity and The Dry Dock Co. Newbury bought it.

 

3. Sensory Writing Challenge

This challenge's full name is: Allen's Sensory Overload Challenge

Allen Ashley & Christopher Fielden

Allen & Chris, trapped in some sort of Photoshop-mirror-body-twin hellish nightmare

The idea for this challenge was conceived by Allen Ashley. It was launched in March 2017.

Many 'How To' books will tell you to be precise and careful when using sensory words. Here, we invite you to be profuse and bountiful in your use of purple prose.

Learn more about and submit to the Sensory Writing Challenge here.

You can buy:

We are currently accepting submissions for Volume 4 .

To date, we have sold 397 sensorial books, raising £397 for charity.

Donate to Darth Vader

The Donate to Darth chalice, sucking all loose change into a charitable vortex

We also raised a further £18.73 from shrapnel donated to Darth at the book launch party.

We raised a further £52.87 from cash donated to Darth at the book launch party for Sensorially Challenged Volume 2 and sales of copies of KM Elkes' book, All That Is Between Us, which he kindly donated to the cause.

 

4. 81 WordsWriting Challenge

81words Flash Fiction Writing Challenge

Sorry, we are no longer accepting submissions to the 81 Word challenge, it is closed.

This challenge was launched in April 2017 when, due to unexpected circumstances, I took over the 81 words website.

I decided to use the challenge to try and set a Guinness World Record for publishing a flash fiction anthology with the most contributing authors in history. The aim is publish 1,000 stories written by 1,000 authors in a book. Please get involved!

You can read more about 81 words and here.

We received our 1,000th story on 17th January 2021.

You can buy:

To date, we have sold 850 books, raising £850 for charity.

Sorry, we are no longer accepting submissions to the 81 Word challenge, it is closed.

 

5. Cliché Writing Challenge

This challenge's full name is: Chris's Colossal Cliché Count Writing Challenge

Chris's Colossal Cliché Count Writing Challenge

Chris Writefear, talking clichés to someone who doesn't want to listen

A lot of writers overuse clichés in their prose. This detracts from the originality of their voice and can lead to a lot of rejection from publishers. The cliché challenge will focus on this common mistake.

This challenge was launched in June 2017 as part of Bath's Flash Fiction Festival. I ran 2 workshops on 24th and 25th June at the New Oriel Hall in Bath.

Learn more about and submit to the Cliche Writing Challenge here.

You can buy:

We are still accepting submissions to this challenge, but it is now website publishing only.

To date, we have sold 244 cliché-crammed books, raising £244 for charity.

The Flash Fiction Festival raffle raised £300 for Book Aid International at the festival.

We raised a further £10.98 from shrapnel donated to Darth at the book launch party for Tritely Challenged Volume 1.

 

6. Preposition Writing Challenge

This challenge's full name is: Ville’s Preposterously Placed Prepositions Writing Challenge

Ville Nummenpää and Christopher Fielden

Chris and Ville, pictured in Portugal, at the same time, honest...

The idea for this challenge was conceived by Ville Nummenpää.

A common piece of writing advice is never to end a sentence with a preposition.

Ville says, "I have always resented that 'rule'. I keep hearing about it, and get the feeling it's just a very snobbish, intellectual-bully sort of thing, and it wakes up the little anarchist in me."

So we've decided to wake up the anarchist in every writer across the planet, and invite them to misuse their prepositions wantonly.

Learn more about and submit to the Preposition Writing Challenge here.

You can buy:

We are still accepting submissions to this challenge, but it is now website publishing only.

To date, we have sold 106 preposterously placed preposition books, raising £106 for charity.

 

7. News Writing Challenge

Sorry, we are no longer accepting submissions to the News Challenge, it is closed.

The challenge's full name is: Alice's 'Trump This' News Writing Challenge

In The News

Alice and Chris, smoking cigars, drinking whiskey and reading newspapers at 'The Club'

The idea for this challenge was conceived by Alice Creed.

When you're stuck for inspiration, you can use current events to spark your imagination. Fear, humour, exasperation, disbelief etc. are emotions often felt when hearing the news. Using a topical theme can inspire a writer, cure writer's block and give a story a strong focus.

Themes can form the core of a story. They can be used to connect all its aspects, including the characters, plot, conflict, situation and resolution. Having a clear theme helps a writer create a story that is satisfying to read.

In this challenge we ask writers to use a current news story to inspire a work of fiction that has a clear theme.

Learn more about the News Writing Challenge here.

You can buy:

To date, we have sold 120 news-themed books, raising £120 for charity.

Sorry, we are no longer accepting submissions to the News Challenge, it is closed.

 

8. Young Writers Challenge

The challenge's full name is: Amazing Young Writers Challenge

Amazing Young Writers Challenge

The idea for this challenge came from Mahvish Noman.

This is a challenge for children and students up to 22 years of age. Writers can submit creative writing in any form, including stories, poetry, non-fiction, memoir, anecdotes - absolutely anything.

Every submission is published on my website and each writer will receive a Certificate of Publication. I'm afraid that we will not be publishing any books via this challenge.

Learn more about and submit to the Amazing Young Writers Challenge here.

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Challenges Run on Other Websites

Here, I will list links to other website that run writing challenges.

Prose

A website running multiple flash fiction and short story writing challenges with tight deadlines.

StoryADay

StoryADay is a challenge to write (and finish) a short story every day during May and/or September.

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Suggest A Writing Challenge

NOTE: due to my current workload, I am currently closed for challenge idea submissions.

Have you got an idea for a writing challenge?

If your answer is, "Oh yes, and it's a beauty," please read the information below and contact me. I'll then consider launching your challenge on the website.

Please remember that the challenges need to involve an educational angle, like using too many adverbs or too much sensory description etc. They also need to be child friendly.

I prefer to run challenges with writers who regularly submit stories to the writing challenges and are active members of our Facebook group. So, please make sure you have submitted at least three stories to the writing challenges and have joined the Facebook group before approaching me with ideas.

There isn't that much time and work involved with running a writing challenge. However, if your suggestion is successful, there are points in the process where I would need input and time from you. These include:

  • setting the challenge up:
    • deciding the rules
    • deciding which charity to support
    • help with writing page copy
    • providing a photo, either with me if you live nearby, or one I can Photoshop if not
  • writing stories and an introduction for any books we publish, plus help with editing:
    • I do most of the editing, but it is very helpful to have someone proofread the books prior to publication – if you haven’t bought one of the anthologies, please get one so you can see what you're letting yourself in for
  • attending / hosting / reading at book launch events (not always possible if people live abroad or miles away, but nice if possible)
  • interacting with the community
  • etc.

You can see how other writers have been involved with previous writing challenges by reviewing those that are currently running.

 

How to Write a Short Story, Christopher Fielden

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Comments:

Your comments:

Judith W
By the way, your challenges are very encouraging for new writers, whether they are young, or not-so-young.

Thank you for your continuing contests and support.

Chris Fielden
Thanks, Judith.

It’s always nice to hear that people enjoy the website :-)

Lesley T
Great to know there are other challenges coming up.  I will keep my pen ready.

Chris Fielden
Fabulous.

I'm hoping to run 2 or 3 or 4 a year :-)

Lesley T
Lovely to see that the 2nd adverb challenge is reaching its target, the nonsense one too is over the half way mark. I can't wait for the forthcoming ones to appear.

Chris Fielden
Thanks Lesley. It's nice to see so many writers participating - makes it all worthwhile :-)

Shannon M
Good Day Chris, I am a very new writer, but was curious about the status of copyrights on your challenge. I don't see any notes on your site about authors retaining them, unless of course I missed it. And if it is there, would it be noted in any anthologies produced?

Chris Fielden
Hi Shannon. I keep the challenges simple, so there are no T&Cs.

However, all rights remain with the author. I add a note to the copyright section of the books confirming this.

By submitting, you just give me the right to publish the story. That’s it :-)

Shannon M
Thank you Chris. I might have a hundred word story that fits the nonsense challenge. Although there isn't nearly as much of a silliness factor as some of the others.

Chris Fielden
Hi Shannon. OK, great – I’ll look forward to reading it :-)

Judith W
Thank you for your site and your contests. I like to write and I've earned a paper back book and gotten one article published (for money). Your contests are really wonderful for all involved. Thank you.

Chris Fielden
Thanks Judith. I'm glad to hear you enjoy the challenges. And that’s great about the book and article – congratulations :-)

Judith W
Thank you. There is just something special about seeing your words on the printed page!

Rachel T
Hi Chris. I hope you don't mind me asking some questions here! Just wondering, if we submit a story, can we use pseudonyms, and must we really purchase at least one book (e-book/paperback form) of the antologies?

I am too young to buy books at my own consent (:p), so I thought I could just write for charity.
If we want to submit entries, we just submit it in the COMMENTS FORM itself?

Chris Fielden
Hi Rachel. Yes, you can use a pseudonym if you want to.

You don't have to buy a book, but I do encourage authors featured in the book to do as much as they can to generate sales when the books are released. This gets all the authors more exposure and generates more money for charity.

Yes, you submit your stories using the comment forms. Or just send me an email with the story in it – whichever is easiest :-)

I hope that answers all your questions.

Betty H
Hi Chris. Not written anything for a few months and I am keen to get started again. Bless you for your wonderful site and tempting challenges.  Plus buying some brilliant books on the way.

Chris Fielden
Thanks, Betty :-)

I'll look forward to receiving some more stories from you!

Elahe H
Hi. I am fom Iran and in my country I am active in litereture, especially writing stories and poems. In my country many authors are interested in translating their stories into English and taking part in internationall prizes. I found you are active, so please help us. We have a group and some of the members are writing novels and stories. Thanks a lot.

Chris Fielden
Hi Elahe. Great to hear you are part of an active group of writers.

I can't help you with translations or submitting to competitions (that's something a writer has to do themselves), but you'd be welcome to submit stories written in English to my writing challenges. Just pick a challenge, follow the rules and submit.

I hope to receive some stories from your group :-)

Kian Z
Dear Christopher. My comment about your work is to say everything on your website is wonderful.

But I'm a new writer. I have published one book of short stories. I read some of your articles on your website and they were interesting to me.Can I publish the second book with your help? Frankly, I cannot invest in it. The first one was published via digital self-publishing on FeedAread. The book's name is Not Always.

Now I have written 10 short stories, nearly 120 pages. I would like your advice. Is there a possibility of publishing it with you? I live in Denmark.

Looking forward hearing from you. Best Regards.

Chris Fielden
Hi Kian. Thanks for your kind words about the website - I'm glad to hear you like it.

And congratulations on finishing your second book. That's great news.

I'm afraid I don't publish other writer's books. I only publish my own books, the To Hull And Back short story competition anthologies and the Writing Challenge anthologies. I'm not actually a publishing house (yet - maybe in the future, when I can afford to take on staff).

If you self-publish again, I'd recommend using Amazon. It's free and offers global distribution and sales/marketing tools. It's what I use and works well for me.

I wish you the best of luck with your book. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Jordan M
Good day Chris.

I am writing to enquire how I should get involved. I am currently in the process of taking my writing masters and would be interested to know if you are accepting applications and if you would be willing to accept a short science fiction story that I have to publish as part of my publishing project.

I hope this is not too much of an inconvenience, and I wish to produce and publish a 2,500 word short story. Would you be interested in taking it when it is done?

Chris Fielden
Hi Jordan. All the writing challenges I run have their own set of rules - just read each one before you submit.

There is no restriction on style or genre, but the word limits are all below 200 words, so 2,500 is far too long I'm afraid.

You could enter my short story competition if you like - the limit on that is 2,500 words. You can find all the rules and how to submit on the main competition page.

Good luck with your masters.

Alan P
I'm working on an alphabetical challenge, where each new word begins with next letter of the alphabet. What do you think? More details later.

Chris Fielden
Hi Alan. It's a nice idea.

If you are suggesting it as a challenge for my site, there is one problem. Each challenge has an educational aspect. EG: don't use too many adverbs, don't use too many clichés etc. Even the 81 word challenge teaches the art of editing to a specific word count. I don't see an educational angle on this challenge.

Also, I'm not accepting any new challenges until the middle of next year at the earliest. I have some in the pipeline, but due to commitments to other projects, I have yet to launch them. There are enough to see me through to the end of 2019 at the moment.

However, if you are thinking of setting the challenge up yourself, I think it's a great idea. It's fun and likely to appeal to a lot of people. It just doesn't fit the format of my challenges. Unless there is an educational aspect I've missed?

Betty H
I asked family members to purchase the challenge books I hadnt got for Christmas. Perfect stocking filler.

Chris Fielden
Fabulous, thanks Betty! I hope you had a good Christmas :-)

Betty H
Hi Chris. Yes thank you. Hope yours was too. Happy New Year.

Chris Fielden
It was great, thank you Betty. Happy New Year to you too :-)

Pierce DL
Greetings, Chris. My partner and I are big writers and have entered writing competitions in the past. I love your unique ideas and challenges, the charity component to me is most compelling.

We have become interested in hosting our own writing competitions. We think it could give us the opportunity to do something cool for other writers, allow us to connect more to other writers and also allow us to make some money doing what we love--writing and reading.

Do you have any advice or knowledge into resources for beginning a writing contest?

Chris Fielden
Hi Pierce. Thank you for your message. It's great to hear that you're thinking about starting a competition.

I don't know of any resources about setting competitions up, but having run them for many year, I can give you some advice... :-)

Start with low entry fees and give generous prizes to attract entrants and attention. Advertise in as many places as you can and market the competition as much as you can. Consider naming the competition after a place, as that can help attract more entries. EG, Bath Short Story Award, Bristol Short Story Prize, Bridport Prize, Manchester Writing Prize - they instantly sound prestigious and all of them receive a lot of submissions. Publish an anthology of the winning writers. Writers love to see their work in print, so it is likely to help you attract more entries. Don't expect to make any money out of running a competition. It takes time to build it up - initially, you have to invest. I've been running To Hull And Back for six years and still don't make any profit. Admittedly, this is partly through choice, as I give 20 generous cash prizes and increase the prize pot every year (read the competition results pages for more info - I write about the competition every year and share all the stats), but that is part of the reason why people enter and are prepared to pay a high fee. Be prepared for the amount of time you have to invest into running the competition, especially if it becomes popular. I've had to start running To Hull And Back biennially, as I can't cope with the workload anymore. And finally, enjoy it - running a competition can be very rewarding, and help you become a better writer.

I hope that's helpful. Running a competition takes a lot of work, so I've given you the brutally honest version. If you have a team of people to share the workload with, it will probably help a lot. And, of course, it's great fun.

I wish you the best of luck with it.

Linda T
Which charities have benefitted? I see no names, only amounts... is there a receipt?

Chris Fielden
Hi Linda. As per my email to you, the details of the charities we support can be found on each challenge's dedicated page.

For reference, here is a current list:

  • The 81 Word Challenge supports the Arkbound Foundation
  • The Adverb Challenge supports First Story
  • The Cliché Challenge supports Book Aid International
  • The News Challenge supports Book Trust
  • The Nonsense Challenge supports the Daisy Garland
  • The Preposition Challenge supports Caring in Bristol
  • The Sensory Challenge supports the National Literacy Trust

The charities that have received donations to date are First Story, Book Aid International, the Daisy Garland and the National Literacy Trust. We are still filling up the anthologies for 81 Words, News and Prepostion, so haven't published the books yet.

Any receipts are shared in the challenge Facebook group, which you are invited to join when you submit. Feel free to check it out.

The challenges are set up to help authors learn about book marketing, as well as supporting charity. Most of the sales are to people featured in the books, but we do sell some to others via Amazon and at events. You can learn all about that including sales stats and honest appraisals of them here.

I run these challenges as openly as I can, sharing all the info which is why the website is large.

I hope that deals with any concerns you might have.

Linda T
Many thanks for this.

So, if you don't get enough for the 81 WOrd book (i.e. 100?) then does it not print?

Do you, as a professional, edit all the stories you choose, choosing alone? And does the writer get to see the edited version of stories etc. before agreeing publication, or does putting it on line commit the writer?

End of queries … after this, I promise!

Chris Fielden
No problem, Linda.

That’s right, we only publish books once we receive 100 stories from 100 writers. But as the challenges are ongoing, the books do fill up eventually. 81 Words is a little different – we’re trying to get to 1,000 contributors to set an unofficial world record for the most contributing authors published in an anthology. You can read all about that on the main 81 Word challenge page.

I edit all the stories submitted (if needed). They are then published on the website. The writer can then review the story on the site and request changes if they want to. The challenges are more about giving people the experience of being published than looking for literary perfection (it’s all inclusive for all ages and levels of experience – we also accept submission from writers living anywhere in the world).

If you decide you want to withdraw a story you can, as long as the book hasn’t been published. Once it’s in print, it’s too late. However, the copyright remains with the author, so you can still do whatever you want with your story.

I hope that answers everything.

Linda T
Yes, it does. Again… thanks.

Chris Fielden
No problem :-)

Amanda D
I've just found your website from a link in my home study comprehensive writing course, and I cannot wait to take part in some of your challenges and competitions. I just need to learn how to write better first!

I especially like the sound of the 81 words one and the sensory one.

Chris Fielden
That's great, thanks Amanda. I'll look forward to receiving your stories, when you have worked through your course and are ready to submit. Good luck with it :-)

Alan P
My idea is that the story includes at least 3 paragraphs of different versions of English. Happy to send an example if needed.

Chris Fielden
Hi Alan. Thanks for the suggestion, much appreciated.

I'm afraid submissions of new challenge ideas are closed. This is because I'm not planning to launch any new challenges in the foreseeable future. Thanks again for your interest.