Quick, how fast can you tell a story?
Serving three sentences?
Can you do it in just three sentences?
Welcome to our End of Summer writing contest —
“Three Consecutive Sentences”
We’ll have cash and digital download prizes for winners.
FIRST PRIZE: $20 cash (minimum)
Bonus Prize: $10 cash
Other prizes: Digital books from our judges
Who can enter?
This writing contest is open to the general public. You’ll need a valid email for contest communication and access to a current PayPal account.
All contestants may submit up to two entries.
Site subscribers are eligible for one free entry. (more details, below)
What to enter:
A complete story told in just three sentences.
Your story should have a beginning, middle, and end. Proper punctuation matters.
There is no word limit. (Scary? Maybe!)
Entered stories should be your own original work, but prior publication is okay. Any fiction genre is fine. In fact, your “story” could be a true story, including a memoir or news story.
Other details:
ENTRY DEADLINE: Saturday, Sept 21 at 11:59 pm EDT. We are closed to new entries now.
Judging begins Sunday morning. Winners will be announced by Saturday, Sept 28.
SoWrite’s judges will use two simple criteria to compare the entries:
- Basic writing skill
- Originality and creativity
We now have three talented judges for the competition:
- Carolyn Varvel of Wormhole Electric publishing (a veteran SoWrite judge)
- Melinda Franklin Clayton, author of The Cedar Hollow Series
(affiliate link)
- Robin Tidwell, writer and publisher at Rocking Horse Publishing (just added)
How to enter:
Have you read the General Contest Rules? By entering, you agree to abide by those rules, as well as any special conditions listed on the entry page.
Site members have already received the link and password to the Contest Entry Page via email. You can always find that page by hovering your mouse over the Contest Rules link in the main site navigation bar.
Grab your password by doing one of two things:
- Use the blue site subscription form, below, to sign up as a member, OR
- Click the PayPal button, below, for your first entry. No site membership required.
- (bonus!) Read the first Comment, below the blue sign-up box. (recently added by JB)
Once you’ve reached the contest page and entered your password, you’ll see complete instructions for your submission. (It should take you less than 5 minutes to enter, not counting Writing time.)
I hope you’ll join us, and maybe win some cash!
CLICK HERE to see the entry page
Anyone can enter. Use this $2 entry fee button. (Your fee adds $1.50 to First Prize)
$2 for ONE CONTEST ENTRY via PayPal:
SECURE PAYMENT INFORMATION: When you click the Pay Now button, you will be directed to PayPal’s secure payments processing page for SoWrite.Us.com. Payments made in error will be cheerfully refunded upon request.
»“Jail” graphic by: GSofV
Special thanks to our site and contest sponsors, past and current:
Will you please help with contest promotion? Use the Social buttons below to help us continue running these writing competitions. Questions? Use the Comments section on this page.
Would you like to receive one FREE entry here?
As a reward for accidentally reading this far down the page, it will be my pleasure to make this offer to the first 3 writers (members or not, no worries!) who leave a comment here.
Just ask for your free entry right here. Even if you’ve already posted your first free entry. Go for it!
All gone!
More to come. Do you follow me on Twitter? (Top/right any page)
Dear Jim,
I would love a free entry. Thank you very much.
Pamela
I’ve sent you a reply via email, Pamela.
Welcome!
My dear Mr. Bessey,
I didn’t notice anywhere in the rules that cats weren’t allowed to enter.
May I please have a free entry? I look forward to entering the contest. I have had a every interesting summer.
All the best,
xo
Love Pooh
Who can turn away a request from a cat? 🙂
I’ve sent you a reply via email, Pooh.
Welcome!
Well heck. I saw this on FB, and I’m not one to snub her nose at a freebie 🙂
Figured I’d enter for the fun of it!
Great to see you here, Leah.
Haven’t talked with you in ages. Hope things are going very well for you.
I’ve sent you a reply via email.
Hey Jim, All is well! Got your response–thanks.
Now that I’ve figured out how things work here, I’ll only be able to submit one entry. And if I understand right, once you subscribe you get that free entry, right? So you could scratch me off the list here and let someone else have it.
Cool site, great ideas for getting people involved and encouraged to write!
Are you sure you wouldn’t want to submit two entries, Leah?
If not, I’ll be happy to free up your spot for another writer. Thanks for signing up!
I’m sure. Hardly had time for just one 🙂
And just like that, our three FREE entries are gone!
Thanks to Pamela, Pooh, and Leah for your speedy replies. Can’t wait to see your entries!
Stay tuned for more possible freebies. (Think “Twitter”…) 🙂
Check Twitter now for another free entry opportunity.
Find me here: twitter.com/jbdzyne_camping
Leah has kindly offered her free entry to the next commenter.
Just leave me a simple “I’ll take it” comment here, and it’s yours. This can be a second free entry for you, if you’ve already entered one.
Just a quick reminder that this contest ends today (Saturday) at midnight, EDT.
Thanks to everyone who’s entered so far. It’s almost time to put our three judges to work.
Ping me if you need help with your entry. I’ll be around most of the afternoon.
So, I got busy with tomorrow’s blog post and completely forgot to finish this. But every time I think of it, I can’t help but remember the following words. Probably the most succinct short story ever. Yet, also the most complete.
Veni, vidi, wici.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
I just couldn’t figure out how to compete with a story that goes from beginning to end in 6 words!!
That famous quote, in English, was my inspiration for this contest. Thanks for bringing it here, since I forgot to include it in the contest announcement.
Would you stop back and leave us a link to your new ebook, Rhonda?
Our first digital book award goes to “Wordstock” for her entry, #3 http://sowrite.us.com/contest-3-consecutive-sentences-entries/#comment-3638
“Wordstock – I found this to be entertaining and realistically written. I’m awarding you Wormhole Electric’s Fantasy Collection.
Thank you for participating in the contest!”
Carolyn Varvel
The Fantasy Collection is at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGUHN8U
Our next digital book award goes to Raymond Alexander Kukkee for his entry, #4
http://sowrite.us.com/contest-3-consecutive-sentences-entries/#comment-3647
“Love this – very “southern,” which is why I’m giving you your choice of any of my three Cedar Hollow Series novels (Appalachian Justice, Return to Crutcher Mountain, or Entangled Thorns).”
Melinda Clayton
You can find more about them here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/melindarclayton
Our third digital book prize goes to Olivia B for her entry, #11
http://sowrite.us.com/contest-3-consecutive-sentences-entries/#comment-3760
“Ooh, I like this! Very dark (I write dark ;-)). I’d love to give you a coupon for one of my three Cedar Hollow Series novels – Appalachian Justice, Return to Crutcher Mountain, or Entangled Thorns.”
Melinda Clayton
You can find more about them here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/melindarclayton
Melinda’s final book award goes to Mary Horner for her entry, #20
http://sowrite.us.com/contest-3-consecutive-sentences-entries/#comment-3937
“This has me dying to know what happened! I’d love to give you a coupon code for one of my three Cedar Hollow Series novels (Appalachian Justice, Return to Crutcher Mountain, or Entangled Thorns).”
Melinda Clayton
You can find more about them here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/melindarclayton
…don’t know about the rest of you, but now I really want to read Carolyn’s Fantasy Collection and Melinda’s Cedar Hollow Series! 🙂
Our third judge, Robin Tidwell, has arrived to offer her book prize from a wide variety of titles for Olivia B’s entry, #9
http://sowrite.us.com/contest-3-consecutive-sentences-entries/#comment-3689
“Congratulations, Olivia – loved your entry, very poignant, very succinct. You WON your choice of any of RHP’s books, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, or print! Just check our website, http://www.RockingHorsePublishing.com and let me know which you prefer!“
Publisher Carolyn Varvel has stopped back to offer another digital book prize (as is her right), to PJ Yusten for her entry, #15
http://sowrite.us.com/contest-3-consecutive-sentences-entries/#comment-3909
“PJ – I keep coming back to this entry – I’d like to offer you a copy of Wormhole Electric’s latest http://www.wormholeelectric.com.”
Carolyn
Although I did not win this contest, I think I still won in a personal way. I am working on making my entry into a short story. The family stories became more interesting as they went along. Thanks for the inspiration.
You’re so right, Eva,
That’s a win in my book, for sure! When you have your story ready for readers, please send me a link and I’ll share it with our members here.
“Inspiration” is always a good thing. 🙂
Your style is unique in comparison to other people I have read stuff from.
Thank you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I’ll just
book mark this site.