The 2nd Round assignments have been posted here!  Good luck to the 125 writers remaining.  Click here to view the 1st Round assignments and results.

The 3rd Round Assignment is....

Genre: Open

Subject: The end of the world

Character: A Surgeon

Good luck to the 25 remaining writers!  Click here for submission instructions.

The 7th Annual Short Story Challenge is a creative writing competition open to writers around the world.  There are 3 rounds of competition.  In the 1st Round (February 22-March 2, 2013), writers are placed randomly in heats and are assigned a genre, subject, and character assignment (see examples of past assignments here).  Writers have 8 days to write an original story no longer than 2,500 words.  The judges choose a top 5 in each heat to advance to the 2nd Round (April 11-14) where writers receive new assignments, only this time they have just 3 days to write a 2,000 word (maximum) short story.  Judges choose a top 25 from the 2nd Round to advance to the 3rd and final round of the competition where writers are challenged to write a 1,500 word (maximum) story in just 24 hours (May 17-18).  A panel of judges review the final round stories and overall winners are selected!

Registration is now closed.  The first round assignments will be posted here tonight at 11:59PM EST.  Good luck to the writers participating!  Official Rules & Participation Agreement

If you wanted to register but didn't have a chance, make sure to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on facebook and twitter for updates and announcements.  There will be many more exciting writing competitions in 2013!

Not only does every writer receive feedback from the judges for every story submitted, but a special review forum is available for the participants to submit their stories for review from fellow writers throughout the competition.  During the Short Story Challenge 2012, there were over 1,700 comments made on the 140+ stories submitted on the forum.  Click here to visit the forums.