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Create the Most Horrible Wedding That's Out of This World
The theme of this contest is the wedding that goes horribly, horribly wrong. But as a twist, the story must be set in a science fiction or fantasy setting. Other than that, use your imagination and have fun.
We're looking for the most creative, most entertaining story. One that melds a disasterous wedding with a credible science fiction and fantasy setting. Key elements that we'll be looking for include:
- Well conceived characters
- Credible science fiction and fantasy settings
- A creative and original story
- A well written story.
The story should be a minimum of 1,000 words but under 3,500 words.
Prize: $100.
Contest submission deadline: August 31, 2009.
Submit Your Story
Writing contest rules and details |See all entries
Can You Write a Chaiku that Rocks?
Submit a Chaiku with a nature theme. Writer about plants, trees, weather, ocean, or anything else in the natural world that inspires your muse.
We will be judging the Chaikus on their ability to tell a story or paint a scene within the constraints of the Chaiku format.
So what is a Chaiku? Chaiku is a neologism derived from the first two letters of Chinese
and the last four of HAIKU. It refers to the notion that Chinese poetic
meter can play the same role as the meter of haiku in the composition
of verse in English.
Whereas a haiku consists of three lines, the first and third containing five syllables and the second seven, chaiku consists of four lines, each containing four syllables, that is to say either four words of one syllable, or four syllables regardless of number of words. Chaiku may consist of one or more quatrains. Rhyme is permitted but not required.
Examples
Four words of one syllable per line
Though clothes should suit
Men short or tall
Souls dress in love
One size fits all
Four syllables per line, regardless of number of words
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you
Prize: $50.
Contest submission deadline: August 15, 2009.
Submit Your Chaiku
Writing contest rules and details |See all entries
Previous Writing Competitions
A Short Story Contest with Cash, Publishing, and Feedback
Mezzo Magazine has asked TheNextBigWriter to help it find a special story to publish in their September 2009 debut issue. The challenge of this competition is to create a short story that has the right ingredients to be featured in Mezzo Magazine's September issue. So what is Mezzo Magazine looking for? In their words:
"The stories we publish are intelligent and creative but with no pretence of intellectual aspirations. We want to enjoy the read, not study the text. We appreciate edgy and irreverent writing that makes us see, hear and be in the story. Our editors use their judgment, and review the following elements to score your submission.
- Opening lines - Does the beginning make you want to read more?
- Plot - is there a continuous thread of suspense?
- Setting - Are the sensory details effective?
- Voice and Tone - Is the narrative voice consistent and unobtrusive?
- Conflict - Are the stakes and the conflicts surrounding them clear?
- Dialogue - Is the dialogue natural sounding? Is it easy to read?
- Resolutions - Does the story have a satisfying ending?"
The subject is your choice, but no stories with excessive gore, violence, profanity, hate or discrimination.
The story should be a minimum of 1,000 words but under 3,500 words.
Prize: $200 and publication in Mezzo Magazine's debut September 2009 issue.
Contest submission deadline: June 30, 2009.
Submit Your Short Story
Writing contest rules and details |See all entries | Visit Mezzo Magaine
1st Place Winner Receives $500 and a $2,400 Publishing Package from BookSurge.
June 18 , 2009: Contest winners announced.
Congratulations to this year's winners. They are:
First Place:
- Sensing Passion: Travels of a Fifty-Five Year Old Divorcee by Christy Cumberlander Walker
Second Place:
- Daughter in Exile by Ama Adjapon
Third Place:
- Far From Happy by Jeni Decker
As stated on the Strongest Start Novel Page, the winner will receive $500 cash and a full publishing package from CreateSpace valued at $2,400.
What is the Strongest Start Novel Competition?
It is the only live, online novel writing competition for unfinished books and novels. That means you can enter with a draft or unfinished manuscript and that you will receive feedback on your submission as the competition progresses. Feedback that you can use to improve you submission before the competition deaadline. The competition is meant to motivate writers to finish their books and to edit what they have written. And of course, to reward the writers who have done a fantastic job of honing their three starting chapters to page turning perfection
Stay in the Know.
The 2009 competition is over, but leave us your email and receive advanced news on the 2010 Strongest Start Novel Competition.
In 2009, the Strongest Start Novel Competition offered:
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Over $3,500 in Prizes and Awards.
- Feedback on your writing to help you prepare your novel for publication.
- The opportunity to get noticed and build a fan-base.
- The perfect environment to meet other writers, share tricks, and join the most advanced writing workshop on the planet.
Learn more
Writing Sprints Online Competition
To help everyone stay in shape and get ready for the upcoming Strongest Start Novel Competition, we've organized a writing sprint. Over the next three weeks, we're going to announce three, consecutive, one week writing contests. You'll have one week to pen your masterpiece and submit it. At the end of the week, we'll judge the entries and announce a winner the following Monday.
Here's the schedule:
Writing Sprint 1: Deadline - January 23, 2009 - CLOSED
Challenge: Write a flash fiction piece of up to 500 words that has to do with a current, past, or future US President. To enter, post your piece during the sprint period and include the tags Presidential Flash (entered as presidential_flash).
The entries will be judged on their originality and their ability to provide some insight into the thinking of a US President (past, present, or future).
Writing Sprint 2: Deadline - January 30, 2009 - CLOSED
Challenge: Sometime later this year, the broadcasters will make the switch from analog to digital television, marking the biggest change in our sets since color tv. To mark the occassion, the next challenge is to write a poem about your television.
To enter, post your piece during the sprint period and include the tags TV Poem (entered as tv_poem).
The entries will be judged on the feelings you are able to evoke in your poem about that box that sits in virtually every American home. Do you hate it, love it, miss it, ignore it? Let us know.
Writing Sprint 3: Deadline - February 6, 2009 - CLOSED
Challenge: Love is a theme which fuels many popular stories and novels. Writing about love can also be difficult. For this challenge, write a story about two long lost lovers who are suddenly reunited. The story should be between 500-2,000 words.
To enter, post your piece during the sprint period and include the tags Long Lost Love (entered as long_lost_love).
The entries will be judged on originality and poignancy. Make us experience what the reunited couple are feeling and do it in a way that is genuine and unforced.
Awards:
- The winner of each weekly competition will receive $30.
Submit Your Sprint
Deadline: Contest Closed on January 15, 2009 Time Are Tough Droubble/Drabble Writing Competition Take a look at the picture below: 
It is of a homeless man leaning against a storefront during the Great Depression. Write about this man and the picture. What is he doing there? Where is he? Who is he? Why is he there? Why is he homeless? These are some of the questions open to exploration. We'll be awarding two $100 prizes. One for the best Droubble and the other for the best Drabble. Per Wikipedia: "A drabble is an extremely short work of fiction exactly one hundred words in length, although the term is often misused to indicate a short story of less than 1000 words. The purpose of the drabble is brevity and to test the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in an extremely confined space. Richard N. Hill recently coined the phrase "dribble" to describe a story that is only 50 words. Michael Kent of The Next Big Writer added "droubble" for a double drabble, a story in exactly 200 words." To enter: Posting your writing story anytime during the Contest period. The Drabble submission must include the tags Tough Drabble (entered as tough_drabble) while the Droubble must include the tags Tough Droubble (entered as tough_droubble). Deadline: 11:59 PM ET on January 15, 2009 Awards: - $100 to the best Droubble.
- $100 to the best Drabble.
Submit Your Story 
Oct 24, 2008: The winners of the competition have been announced. They are: Congratulations to the winers and all entrants. Our next writing competition will be announced shortly. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Write a story about a celebrity who becomes a vampire, werewolf, zombie, or some other undead creature and win one of three $30 paid publishing contracts. Got a favorite or a least favorite celebrity that you've always imagined as a vampire, werewolf, or some other undead creature? In honor of Halloween, we're running a Celebrity Vampire Short Story Competition. Give us a story about them in 500-3000 words. Make it funny, scary, whatever you like - but make it a good read. We'll take our three favorite and give you a paid $30 publishing contract. Need some inspiration? Take a look at some of these pictures to get your mind moving and your fingers typing. Celebrity Vampires: Here are some good celeb vampires, especially the pic of Kate Hudson. Here's another site chock-full of celeb vampires. Celebrity Zombies: Thinking about Zombies. Here are some zombie pics to get you inspired. To enter: Posting your writing story anytime during the Contest period. The submission must include the tags Celebrity Vampire (entered as celebrity_vampire) in it. Deadline: 11:59 PM ET on October 15, 2008 Awards: - $30 publishing contracts to the 3 selected winners.
Submit Your Story 
Tell us why you started writing and you might get published in our upcoming book project. Update: This competition is now closed. 10 Winners were selected and publishing contracts have been sent. We will update the site with more news as we get closer to the publication date. Do you remember when you first realized you wanted, or even needed to write? When you realized it was an itch that wouldn't go away? We're looking for witers on TheNextBigWriter to tell us about their "gotcha" moment in a story between 1,500-5,000 words. The story must show the moment, or moments when you realized that you were destined to spend your life writing. We're going to select ten that tell the most insightful, thought provoking, and interesting stories and offer the authors a paid publishing contract to have their work included in our upcoming TheNextBigWriter book My Writing Life. To enter: Posting your writing story anytime during the Contest period. The submission must include the tags My Writing Life (entered as my_writing_life) in it. Deadline: 11:59 PM ET on August 13, 2008 Awards: - $50 publishing contracts to the 10 selected winners. Winning entries will be included in the My Writing Life book.
Submit Your Story 
May 15, 2008 - Post Apocalyptic Novel Static Mayhem Wins 2008 Strongest Start Novel Competition. Congratulations to the 2008 Strongest Start Novel Competition Winners First Place - Static Mayhem by Edward Aubry (Sherman_Bierce)
Second Place- The Adventures of Kate Darling by Kirk Ort (Kirk)
Third Place- Feed the Meter by William Murrow Read the official announcement. What is the Strongest Start Novel Competition? It is the only live, online novel writing competition for unfinished books and novels. That means you can enter with a draft or unfinished manuscript and that you will receive feedback on your submission as the competition progresses. Feedback that you can use to improve you submission before the competition deaadline. The competition is meant to motivate writers to finish their books and to edit what they have written. And of course, to reward the writers who have done a fantastic job of honing their three starting chapters to page turning perfection Stay in the Know. The 2008 competition is over, but leave us your email and receive advanced news on the 2009 Strongest Start Novel Competition. Enter a writing competition to see who can craft the most compelling start to a novel. Whether you write Romance, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction or some other genre, the only criteria is that you write a start that will keep us reading. -
Over $2,500 in Prizes and Awards. - Receive feedback on everything you post to help you prepare your novel for publication.
- Get noticed.
- Meet other writers, share tricks, and join the most advanced writing workshop on the planet.
Submit your entry by April 16, 2007. Submit Your Manuscript Learn more |See all entries  Posted novels that reach the Top 10 in TheNextBigWriter rankings will be officially recognized as Top 10 Novels. Once this designation is achieved, authors have official permission to refer to their book as a TheNextBigWriter Top 10 Novel and use the logo to promote the sale or publication of their book.
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