Topics

[Fragment]

The Fortnightly Writing Competition is a friendly bit of wordsmithing that takes place over a period of two weeks. Write a short story based on the theme, share your thoughts with votes or feedback, and enjoy the creativity that this community can bring to bear when they put their minds to it. This fortnight's theme:

Fragment



Your writing mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a max 600 word fragment of a bigger story (Title not included in word count). Your fragment should have no beginning and no end, but can certainly imply how these parts of the story pan out. What we want to see is some bit of the middle of a larger story, ideally the juicier or more thought provoking bits. The reader should NOT have a full grasp of exactly what is happening - that is part of the fun. Feel free to start and end mid-sentence!    See if you can suck someone into your story world without so much as an introduction or any serious world building. Be liberated by the fact that your cool story idea that probably wouldn't work can now see the light of day. Have fun, challenge norms, and let your muse run wi-

Contest deadline is April 31, 2025. I know, I know, it doesn't make sense, but neither will the entries, so just go with it. 

Good luck to all entrants!

[The Fortnightly Writing Competition]

The Fortnightly Writing Competition: Started in 1987 by Philip J. Ponch on the old ARPANET, the FWC is a light-hearted writing competition based around a theme selected by the previous winner. Participants have two weeks to compose a short story of between 50 and 2000 words, and then we all vote and give feedback on the results. Any genre of entry is acceptable (ad copy, poetry, instruction manual - we've seen it all). In fact, those word limits are more what you might call guidelines...  The important thing is everyone gets to hone their writing skillz and enjoy a bit of amateur storytelling. 

------------------------

So who's ready to devour some good reads?  Our topic this fortnight is:

FOOD



Food is central to the human experience, which means I expect not to see a lot of ghost or rock stories this time around.   Food can be scarce or shared, tasty or vile, tempting or wholesome, distressing or comforting. Food runs through the heart of our societies, our family relationships, or daily grind. Food can sustain us and destroy us in equal measure - can you feel the dramatic tension yet?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a short story through the vector of food. It can be a mystery, a comedy, a tragedy, a dramady, a romantasy, a poetry, a spelling bee, or even a wannabe.  It can be a dusting of cinnamon atop a frothy latte or a sixteen ounce sirloin with three helpings of mashed-potatoes. Extra points if there are food related puns.    Extra extra points if MrColossal shows up and provides another instalment of Rutabaga the Adventure Chef. 

Deadline for submissions is Friday March 21, 2025, 11:59 pm Hawaii Daylight Time. Usually we are open to extensions on a per-case basis, but I caution you that extra time in the oven is usually not a good idea when baking is involved. 

Good luck to all participants!

[Poverty]

Greetings fellow writers and wordsmiths. This fortnight we shall grapple with the topic of...

Poverty


Make of this topic what you will. It can be sad or hopeless, or comedic and senseless, or gruelling and inspirational. Acts of desperation, borne of poverty, make terrific dramatic fodder, resulting in triumph or tragedy. Will your daring MC beat the odds and escape the dire straits of their economic situation? Or will intergenerational trauma be passed down the ages indefinitely? Or will you take the high road, describing the nobility of the poor on their own terms, carving out a life using the only currency they have: honour, kindness, skill, cleverness, or sheer desperation?

Submissions are due Tuesday February 4, 2025, Hawaii Time. Do try to be timely, as extensions can be costly. 

Good luck to all participants!

[The Dark Forest]

Welcome friends!  The last round I hosted was "cozy", but this time I want to get everyone out of their comfort zones. This fortnight we are visiting a place that haunts the subconsciousness; an untamed place full of wild creatures beyond the pale of civilization.  Today we visit...

The Dark Forest



Tradition has it that we have a spooky theme this time of year, but you are welcome to submit any type of story so long as it contains a forest so old and wild that it is beyond the control of humans.  Of course, you are also more than welcome to creep us out with tales of druid sacrifices, witch covens, and sentient trees that strangle the unwary with their roots.

As a short story competition, I'm going to limit submissions to a 2000 word count this time around.

Stories are to be submitted by the time it is no longer Wednesday October 30 anywhere in the world.

Good luck to all participants!

[Thursday September 12, 2024]

The nights are getting longer, the air is getting cooler. Time to settle in for this fortnight's topic:

Cozy



(Or cosy, if you swing the non-North-American way. No judgement.)

What makes a piece of writing cozy? The genre is vaguely defined, but there is a general agreement that the stakes must be low to medium. Characters are not put through wrenching emotional trauma or even any real peril. Sex and violence, if present at all, definitely happens off-camera. Antagonists tend to be more misunderstood than evil, and secondary characters tend to be kind-hearted.

So what fills the void, you might ask? Well, it's not all just delectable beverages and cats (although these tend to feature prominently). Often the plot revolves around something constructive and uplifting, like building a business/home/relationship/community. There should be an atmosphere of warmth and relaxation, with rich sensory experiences. The world, whether real or magical, should feel extraordinary. The story should be gentle, calming, and instil a fuzzy feeling.

The real challenge, as an author, is to make all this feel engaging. I look forward to seeing what you guys can come up with!

Deadline is Thursday September 12, 2024, Hawaii time.

Best of luck to all participants in our cozy supportive writing community! 

[The Bad Boss]

Narcissism, incompetence, entitlement...all such rich fodder for a good story.  Your challenge is to write a story around a character in charge who everyone loves to hate.  You must write a tale of....

The Bad Boss



I'm open to a very loose interpretation of "boss".  It can be a chef in his kitchen, a tour guide in her venue, a grandmother at the head of the family table, etc.  Basically there must be some kind of hierarchy, with the person at the top not quite being cut out for the job.  Naturally this sort of dynamic lends itself to comeuppance, but feel free to play with the trope - maybe things miraculously work out, or maybe inertia just perpetuates the mediocrity?  The important thing is that a savvy underling must chafe at the way things are run, with dramatic, momentous, or hilarious effect.

Deadline:  Stories are to be submitted by Thursday, June 27, with voting to commence whenever I get around to it the next day.  Voting will depend on the number of submissions but will surely involve some combination of spoiler tags and multi-vote polling.   

Good luck to all entrants!

[NOVELTY]

Let's enjoy the unboxing experience of this New Year by celebrating freshness in all its newfangled newness.  This fortnight we will be writing about something new:

NOVELTY



Novelty is creative and original, and above all new.  Your story could focus on a new beginning for a tired character, a new home, a new world, or a new way of thinking.  Consider framing your story around inventions or discoveries, for they are also inherently new and fresh.  Births, while messy, are also fair game, as are hatchings, evolutions, and deliveries.  Novelty can also be cheap, as once experienced the novelty quickly fades; thus trinkets, baubles, and toys become fertile topics to explore.  Finally, it gets harder and harder to be truly novel as like-minded creators beat us to the punch, so highly experimental and unusual works would definitely be acceptable.  In the end I want you to get out there and push some boundaries, reinvent the wheel, or cheapen your own creativity - we want something fresh and new to read in a couple weeks!

Deadline: 23h59 Hawaii time, Monday January 15

Good luck to all participants. 

[The Other Side]

Welcome to the Fortnightly Writing Competition!  The rules are simple: write and post an original short-story based on the theme within two weeks, and then vote on the submissions to determine a winner.  This fortnight's exciting theme is:

The Other Side



What is out there, on the other side?  What exists so near at hand, and yet separated from us by such a seemingly flimsy barrier, such that there are hints of and whispers that flit just beyond our sight and hearing?  What would happen if someone were to stumble on a means of touching the other side, or seeing it, hearing it, dreaming it, or even walking it?  Is the other side just waiting for us to join with it, or is it something terrible that should be left in its own plane?  Perhaps the gateway is in some sacred place or ancient talisman, or simply a matter of seeing or believing what was really there all along?  Perhaps there are teachers out there who sound a little crazy at times, but can help you through the process if you could only set aside your preconceptions?  This fortnight you will have to open your mind to see what is truly out there beyond us.

This fortnight you must write about THE OTHER SIDE, but I leave that open to your interpretation.  Perhaps it is death, or heaven/hell, or a twisted reflection of our own reality, or a dystopian reality where AI's harvest your human brain energy while keeping you in a coma where you dream of putting in 50 hours of work a week because no one would ever want to escape THAT....  But I digress - the other side could mean the other side of an ocean, a galaxy, a fence, a social barrier or construct; heck, it could even mean the other end of the those 4 inch pipes that shoot your poop out of your house to god-knows-where.  Alls I'm saying is that you have to have this sense of otherness just beyond a character's grasp, that they engage with either tangentially or entirely.

Deadline for submissions is Thursday June 1 midnight Hawaii time.  Extensions - should they be sought - will be granted on the basis of alluding to something much more sinister than a deadline that may or may not be stalking you from the haze at the fringe of your peripheral vision.

Good luck to all participants! 

[Sacrifice]

'Tis the season!  Let's write about...

Sacrifice



Perhaps the most appealing aspect of Christianity is the idea that its messiah willingly sacrificed himself for the good of mankind.  Good christians are supposed to emulate this gesture to a small degree by giving up some trivial comforts during Lent in the run up to celebrating Easter.  But it is also Ramadan right now, where Muslims one-up their Christian buddies by giving up food and drink entirely during daylight hours.  In parts of the world animal sacrifice still occurs, with the idea that Providence will provide for those that give up what is valuable to them.

The history of sacrifice is perhaps even more fraught.  Ancient old world cultures sacrificed human beings to appease their gods, and ancient new world cultures weaponized sacrifice to do the same (and conveniently keep the neighbours in check).  Ancient Romans bizarrely believed that the future could be augured from the entrails of a sacrificed bird.  Kamikaze pilots in 1940s Japan would bring honour to their families with their self-sacrifice during World War 2.  Sacrifice can indeed be a bloody business.

But smaller sacrifices can be noble in their own right, and perhaps be more constructive.  Witness people sacrificing their own happiness to provide for a loved-one, or going without in the short-term in the pursuit of a long-term goal (a penny saved is a penny earned).  Love itself is a sacrifice of individuality.

This fortnight your submission must revolve around a sacrifice, big or small; noble or destructive; bloody or beautiful.  Deadline for submissions is Monday April 10 at midnight Hawaii time.  Good Luck to all participants!

[Feast with the Beast]

Now is the traditional period of holidays in western society, where people join with friends and family to eat a symbolic meal together.  And yet...  And yet those meals usually consist of both portions and personalities that are too large to rub together amicably for long.  Inevitably there is a monster lurking beneath the patina of toupees and makeup that makes other guests cringe.  But what if that person finally gets what's coming to them?  This is the plot set-up for....

Feast with the Beast


Your story is to revolve around a feast, be it holiday related or not.  At least one character must be jarringly, nay obnoxiously, nay incorrigibly rude or despicable, and in the end they must get their comeuppance at the hands of one of the victims around the table.  This might take the form of a gruesome murder or a farcical bit of slapstick, but it is intended to be a mystery who has done the deed.  Authors are encouraged to submit the solution to their story in hide tags at the end of their story. 

The deadline for submissions is tentatively slated for the end of the day Hawaii time on Saturday January 7, 2023.

Like the well-crafted stories I expect to read in two weeks' time, the voting criteria shall currently remain a mystery.

Good luck to all participants!

[The Paleolithic Pastiche]

From the dark depths of my paleolithic-wired brain, I bring you something "nasty, brutish, and short" (as Thomas Hobbes referred to the lives of cavemen)...

The Paleolithic Pastiche

Write me something about the dawn of humanity (roughly 2.5 million years ago until twelve thousand years ago).  No agriculture or neolithic tech allowed, unless you have a creative cave person who is an inventor within the technical means of the period (stone wheels, etc.).  I'll make exceptions for unhistorical caveman steampunk (flintpunk?) à la Flintstones, and imaginative interactions with more advanced societies (Atlantis, Space Aliens, Time Travellers, etc.).  But nothing historically accurate past 10 000 BCE!

Deadline is Tuesday June 7, 2022, 23:59 Hawaii Time.

Voting:  It'll be a secret ballot by PM with a set number of votes to alot based on merrit as voters see fit.

Good luck to all participants!

[Troll the Ancient Yuletide Carol]

What's with those lyrics of yore?  Why come they make some little sense?      Or maybe they do....  Are round yon virgins actually plump?  Do nautical explorers repeat the sounding joy?  If one were to ring a ling would water drip out?  Perhaps verily some of our authors might toil along the climbing way as we...

Troll the Ancient Yuletide Carol


Did you know that in Iceland Christmas trolls (above) eat naughty children??!?  Kinda puts the old lump o' coal to shame....

The theme in a roasting chestnut shell:  Reinterpret a seasonal song/story/trope, in a good or bad way as you see fit.  In a footnote after your story please include a 1-2 sentence indication of what you were trolling, as not all seasonal songs/stories/tropes are universally well-known.  The seasonal element that you remix could be as short as a line from a song or a poem, in which case just citing the lyric/line would suffice.  Tangents, expanded universes, and collateral damage are of course all welcomed and encouraged so long as they keep their hands to themselves under that infernal mistletoe.

Deadline:  I'm thinking we can try to have our stories in by Thursday December 30 to avoid any conflicts with the Gregorian calendar.  So, let nothing you dismay and may the rude wind's wild lament not refer to any of the works submitted herein.    Good luck!

[Something Punchy!]

Well, as promised I've come up with something punchy for this fortnight's theme.  But it's not official until it's in a big, bold font, right?  So our next theme is....

Something Punchy!



Allow me to digress into English semantics for a moment.  Something punchy usually refers to a short, impactful piece of writing.  While this can be as short as a headline, I'd prefer to get more bang for my buck by having even punchier submissions of up to 600 words.  Remember, punchy writing often uses short, direct sentences, but I'm not against you beating up a bit of purple language for literary effect.  But wait, there's more!   Something punchy can literally refer to something with lots of punches, so feel free to knock yourself out in that regard.  In fact, there's no reason that it couldn't refer to actual fruit punch, in which case some sort of soirée or juice factory might be à propo.  Indeed, punchy can refer to someone who has imbibed too much alcohol and is therefore punch drunk in the sense that they are completely inebriated.  Of course there are mean drunks and happy drunks, but it is possible to be pleased as punch about something, so I leave you to draw your own conclusions on that one.  Confusingly, punchy in cowboy slang can refer to a perfectly sober tough guy, so you could always take the broody loner approach over the Pecos and up the dusty trail.  And finally, I'm not altogether against something pun-chy, in that your work makes perfectly horrible use of intra-word puns for comedic effect. 

So, in a nutshell, write a short punchy piece that somehow includes a figurative or literal interpretation of something punchy.

The deadline for this contest is set at midnight Hawaiian time on Sunday November 14, with voting to commence the following day.

Good luck to all participants!

[Magic!]

Welcome to the Fortnightly Writing Competition (FWC for short), where writers match words and wits in a quasi-bi-weekly battle of phrases and fancy.  The cycle works like this: last fortnight's winner sets the theme, anyone is welcome to submit a previously unpublished story based on that theme, we all vote, and then the winner sets the theme for next time.  It's a whole lot of fun, and you learn from feedback: basically it makes you a better person by participating.   

The theme this time around is....

Magic!



Isn't it crazy, but we've never really had a topic specifically devoted to magic.  So here's your chance to go nuts with the fantasy, and the carnival, and the hogwarts, and the mushroom-dwelling blue people, and the witchcraft, and the Pokemon, and the mummies, and the elves, and the sorcery, and the laser-mists, and the illusionists, and the smoke and the mirrors, and the unicorns, and the dragons, and the wands, and the staffs, and the impractical pointy hats with the wide-brims, and the transformative kisses, and the crystal balls, and the brooms, and the voodoo, and the curses, and the towers, and the cauldrons, and the bird intestines, and the weird living druid trees that strangle you with their tentacle roots - yes, those too!  There are two rules:

1) The element of magic must feature prominently in your story.
2) Your story must not exceed one post in length.

Voting will be by the new standard 10 Vote Dispersal-Allotment System  (XVDAS for short).  I'll explain that further at voting time. 

Deadline is Monday July 12, 2021.

Good luck to all participants!

[Allegory]

Welcome to the FWC, a writing competition that theoretically takes a fortnight to complete (although, as writers, our ability to keep to strict deadlines keeps the length of the competition constantly in flux  ).  It plays out like this: you have about two weeks to write a submission on this fortnight's topic, there's a voting period of between 3 and (2 * m) days (where "m" is the Mandle factor), and then the winner sets the theme for the next competition.  All submissions must be on topic and previously unpublished, and technically this is a short story competition, so try to keep your work shorter than a chapter.  It is considered classy to vote if you are a participant, but participation is not a requisite for voting.  Come on in, get drawn in to some amazing stories, and enjoy the word play as we explore this fortnight's exciting theme....

Allegory



An allegory is a story that contains a hidden moral or political meaning - hidden in the sense that it isn't an overt lesson.  The very best allegories become bywords for the lessons they represent.  Think Animal Farm (power corrupts ideals) or Newton's Apple (what is gravity, anyway?).  To be perfectly frank most allegories go swooshing over my head like bats in the night, but I like the idea of some hidden truth somewhere in the stories I read.  So, as a courtesy, please indicate the lesson in hide tags at the bottom of the story, so those of us who are a little slower on the uptake can have half a chance of cottoning on. 

Requirements: A hidden lesson or meaning in a short story, disclosed in [ hide] tags [ /hide] (without the spaces) around your explanation at the end of your work.

Deadline: Tuesday April 27 at midnight Hawaii time, unless otherwise extended

Voting:  It is considered sporting to tell the participants how they will be judged.  Voters will be allotted 10 votes each, and may distribute them as whole numbers however they see fit (split 5 and 5, say, or 1 each to all ten participants).  Voters can determine their own criteria for who has earned their votes, but are encouraged to write a brief note giving feedback in order to help us all improve as writers.  Any votes not designated will be pooled and given to the needy (i.e. those who didn't receive votes), so try not to be lazy.  An example: "I vote for story A" gives one of your ten votes to story A, but leaves 9 unassigned votes to be divided evenly (as whole numbers) between story A's competitors.  Thus, if there were three stories, story A would have 1 vote, and story B and story C would have 4 votes each.  You can think of this little yarn as an allegory for reading instructions properly before blundering forward in life.   

Good luck to all participants!

[IN FROM THE COLD]

Seasonally apt or metaphorically rich?  You be the judge when you come...

IN FROM THE COLD



Huh.  Well, it was more dramatic with the picture, but apparently the forums don't like my server anymore.  Here's the link if you're a visual kind of person: http://www.vanwijst.com/games/Published/writing_comp_2020_in_from_the_cold.png

Anyway, the theme spans everything from Christmas grinches coming around to spies reconciling with HQ to literally finding shelter in a frigid environment.  Basically if there is any physical or emotional coldness that is resolved in some way then the work will suit the theme.

Deadline: Monday December 14th at Hawaiian midnight, although this deadline may well extend like a brooding icicle drooping from an under-insulated eave..... 

Voting: Aw heck, I can see the collective mood is swinging back towards simplicity.  So we'll just vote 1st, 2nd, & 3rd (yes Mandle, 3rd) with feedback as a much appreciated bonus for the authors.  I will calculate each vote as representing points for tabulation purposes (1st = 5 pts, 2nd = 3 points, 3rd = 2 points).  If there are more than 5 entries you can double up your votes with ties at your discretion (e.g. one first, two seconds, and a third place vote).

Good luck to all participants and stay warm out there! 

[ABSURDITY!]

Hi.  I'm Baron.  I like to write, so I usually compete in AGS's monthly writing competition.  Its official title is the "Fortnightly Writing Competition" (FWC for short).  The contest administrator (i.e. the person who won the last competition) sets a theme and then everyone has two weeks plus the odd extension to write a short story on that topic.  Then there's a reading and voting period that usually lasts from 3-7 days, maybe a bit of administrative downtime in between competitions, and then BAM!  We're back to writing again next month!  Celebrity endorsements include "It is very fun!" (Reiter) and "What competition?" (Ponch).  Basically it is a fun forum in which to explore your creativity, practice writing, and discuss writing challenges with friendly people. 

As a writer I will admit that I've fallen into a bit of a rut.  I usually write these really weird absurd little stories that often don't go anywhere and end abruptly.  I think it gets on Sinitrena's nerves, to be honest, but she's too gracious to mention it (much).    So last competition I tried to play it straight and WOW, I actually won!  Which got me thinking... NUTS TO THAT!!!1!  Writing zany silliness is just too much fun!  So this fortnight I give you the theme of....

ABSURDITY!



According to Dr. Google the proper definition of absurdity is: "the quality or state of being ridiculous or wildly unreasonable."  Your challenge is to write a story that is at least 63% absurd 39% of the time.  Maybe you have a quirky character that makes the most unexpected choices; maybe a hugely improbable event throws a mundane scene into utter disarray; maybe the plot twists YOU?  I would give you more direction than that, but you would be compelled to ignore it due to your state of being wildly unreasonable.    Just make your story fun and silly and I'm sure it will pass muster.

Deadline for your submission is midnight at the International Date Line on Tuesday JULY 7, 2020.

Possible voting categories, for those of you striving to win by following the rules (which is the opposite of the absurd mentality you need to win this competition, by the way):

Oddest character: Which character stood out the most for their qualities of being really, really different?
Weirdest plot: The winning story must have a plot that is both discernible and yet wildly outlandish.
Purplest Writing: If we're being honest with ourselves, the most absurd writing is over-the-top flowery.  Who used words in the most absurdly poetic way?
Funniest Larks: Which story had you giggling the most?
Best Absurd Story: Which story was overall the best in your opinion?

Good lick to all the participants! 

Edit: Fixed somewhat unreasonable typo.  

Hi!  Strange issue with this post in the Fortnightly Writing Competition Thread.

All the quotation marks have been changed to “ or some iteration thereof.  I didn't think anything of it when it was first reported, thinking it must have happened when I copied and pasted the story over from my word processor.  I was pretty sure I had proofread in the forums, but maybe I was tired and didn't follow my regular habit.  But then another competitor posted that the story was fine when it was first posted and then got corrupted later.  This reminds me that I have in fact noticed similar corruptions of some of Sinitrena's writing competition submissions (but I can't remember how far back in the past that was).  I am therefore pretty sure this is a glitch in the forums, albeit a rare one.

Honestly, I'm not sure this is important enough to pursue, but I'm reporting it in case it's related to broader issues.   

[Christmas Crossover]

Greetings writing competition compatriots!  This festive season calls for a jolly theme of epic proportions.  This fortnight's writing theme is:

Christmas Crossover


Your challenge is to write a Christmas story (involving characters from familiar Christmas tales, or familiar Christmas locations, or familiar Christmas themes) and meld them with a completely un-Christmas-like story (involving non-Christmas characters, or non-Christmas locations, or distinctly un-Christmas-ish themes).  So for example you could have a familiar Christmas cast of Santa, elves, and reindeer but set in bloody ancient Rome (pictured above).  Or you could have Smurf village populated by a hundred different personalities of Grinch.  Or you could have Mark Zuckerberg visited by the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future.  Basically the sky's the limit here.  I'll even allow Hanukkah, Diwali, and Kwanzaa characters and themes, just to keep this festive gathering open to all revellers.  You could even cross them over with traditional Christmas characters for some real fun: imagine Ganesha as Santa Clause, using those extra limbs and trunk to good effect! 

Deadline for this unholy endeavour competition is midnight of Monday December 30, 2019.

Potential voting categories might include: Best Character Interpretation, Best Plot, Best Crossover, Best Writing, and a secret voting category that you'll have to wait to unwrap. 

Good luck to all competitors.  I look forward to a magic sack full of submissions in two week's time. 

[The End]

Years ago we had a fun little competition where we only had to write the first chapter or even the first paragraph of a novel.  Oh, how our imaginations titillated at the promise and possibility of those unfinished works!  Now the challenge is to do the same thing, but in reverse.  Ladies and gentlemen, I am interested in reading...

The End

Requirements: Write the last chapter or last paragraph of an epic novel.  You also need to write a back-cover blurb about the story in general. 

From these two fragments the reader should be able to infer to some degree what just happened, but you need not answer every question or explain every detail.  Ambiguity is fine, but readers will likely find nonsense exasperating.  Subtle clues about what has transpired over the course of the story would be apt.  There are no restrictions in terms of genre. 

Submissions are due by the close of business on Tuesday August 27, with voting to commence the following day.

Should you be tempted to write strategically, potential voting categories might include:

Best Character: the most believable/captivating/magnetic/unique character
Best Atmosphere: which piece creates an unforgettable mood for THE END?.
Best Writing: the technical category for polish, word-choice, conciseness, etc.
Best Ending: which ending will stick with you forever?

S'all right?  S'all right.  Go, be creative!