For the past six weeks, we’ve spent every spare moment judging the hundreds of entries submitted for WritersWeekly’s most recent 24-Hour Short Story Contest. In case you’re not familiar with our quarterly contest, this is how it works. On the date of the contest, at start-time, we send out the topic for that specific contest to all registered entrants, while also posting it on WritersWeekly.com.

Entrants must be registered before the contest begins and there is a limit of 500 participants per contest. Entrants then have 24 hours to write and submit their stories via email. The stories “must deal with the topic in some way to qualify” and they must not exceed the pre-assigned word count, which is announced with the topic.

After reading the entries for each contest, we can see how difficult it is to come up with a unique plot when working with an assigned topic. But, inevitably, a few writers do manage to successfully break away from the pack.

THE SPRING, 2026 TOPIC

There wouldn’t be a garden this year. There was no longer any water, and the only source of light now was from candles. The animals had all been set free to fend for themselves. She was sitting on the bench with her forehead on the rickety table when she heard footsteps on the porch…

(Stories needed to only touch on this topic in some way to qualify.)

Before you continue reading, take a moment to consider where you would take that story…

CRUCIAL HINT! Whenever a contest happens during a big news event or crisis, lots of entrants insert that into their stories. Before you think about including what is all over the news right now, please know that lots of entrants are thinking the same thing. So, you might want to avoid those topics.

**WHAT’S THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE WRITERS MAKE?
Giving us a bad and/or boring ending!

Please give us a great ending! **WE LOVE SURPRISE ENDINGS!!**

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Congrats to the top three winners!

1st PLACE – The Thirst That Quenched by Cheri Avery Black

(Cheri won $300 PLUS a free book publishing package from BookLocker.com valued at $975!)

2nd PLACE – The Inevitable by Kim L. Bruce

(Kim won $250!)

3rd PLACE – The Weight of Silence by Margaret Cowles

(Margaret won $200!)

100 other participants won Honorable Mentions and 10 of those received Special Recognition!

The top three winning stories, along with a list of the other winners, are posted RIGHT HERE.

COMMON THEMES SUBMITTED

Here are our notes about common themes that emerged with this topic:

• We received several Adam and Eve-themed stories.
• Lots of deaths from coughing and dust.
• There were countless spaceships (both alien and man-made),
  space pods, space communities living on ships, etc. Of those,
  there were escapes to other planets, aliens escaping to Earth, or
  trying to save Earth, etc. The space angle was, by far,
  the most common theme.
• There were lots of stories about healers (many of those Native American), medicine men and women, etc.
• It was interesting how many participants blamed “data centers”
  on the Earth’s woes. (And, in our opinion, that doesn’t seem so far fetched!)
• Numerous stories blamed solar flares, nuclear war, meteors,
  and other big natural and man-made events.
• Lots of stories feature colonies (both on Earth and in space).
• In many of stories, someone had been missing for a long time, and that was who showed up and knocked on the door.
• And, numerous stories mentioned one of these terms: “single blade” or “single stem” (when the plants started coming back).
• And, we received NUMEROUS historical fiction stories about the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

As with all contests, some common themes come back again and again, no matter what the topic is.

These include:

• The reader finds out at the very end that the main character is actually dead.
• The story is about a writer participating in a writing contest (groan).
• We always receive countless domestic abuse stories. We also always receive numerous stories about separation, divorce, and other relationship problems.
• We find out at the end that the entire story was just a movie/TV scene/play or we find out the first scene of the story (usually the topic itself) is from a movie or TV show/play, or even a book or article one of the characters is reading.
• The reader finds out at the very end that the main character is actually an animal.
• We always receive lots of stories featuring characters with dementia.
• We find out at the end that the main character is an unborn child, telling their story from the womb. You only find out it’s a baby at the end.
• The main character dies at the end, and is met by a loved one or an angel of some sort. We also see lots of dead friends/relatives telling the characters it’s their time to die, too, helping them to cross over, etc.
• The story is dramatic but you find out at the end the characters are really children playing make-believe.
• The main character of the story named Angela (the same name as the publisher of WritersWeekly). Some also use Angela’s family members’ names in their stories.
• Despite the warning about needing to use the topic “in some way to qualify,” we always receive several stories that have absolutely nothing at all to do with the topic.

IMPORTANT: We are seeing an increasing number of stories that incorporate current events (what’s ALL over the news right now) in them. These include protests, global warming, political upheaval, heated social issues, a hated president (or hated past president), etc., etc., etc. Any topic that has received saturated coverage in the news should be avoided at all costs. We’re all drowning in it all day, ever day. Nobody reading fiction for entertainment wants to read that stuff when they’re trying to relax so it’s wise to simply avoid it.

You can increase your chances of winning one of our 24-Hour Short Story Contests by avoiding all of the common themes mentioned above.  Step outside of the box and WOW us with something completely original!

Links to the winning stories of the current contest (and all past contests) appear RIGHT HERE.

PRIZES:
1st prize: $300 + a book publishing package from BookLocker valued at $975
2nd prize: $250
3rd prize: $200
Plus 100 honorable mentions!

103 prizes total!

You can see the complete list of prizes, and sign up for the next contest, here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com

RELATED

14 Tips To Give Yourself A Leg Up In Writing Contests!

Sign-up for the next contest!

List of ALL PAST TOPICS and WINNERS of the WritersWeekly Quarterly 24-Hour Short Story Contest!

From WritersWeekly Short Story Contest Winner to Simon and Schuster Contract!

HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?

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ASK ANGELA!

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