Story Challenges

Story Challenges

A story challenge is a contest where authors can submit stories matching around a given predefined theme, which changes from challenge to challenge.

The challenge is running for a given amount of time, usually around 4 weeks.

After the deadline of the challenge has been reached, no additional stories can be added to the contest, and then the readers get two weeks of additional time to read all the submissions. They can use the usual ways to rate them and use the “Favourite” button on these stories, both will be taken into account for the stories’ final score.

Two weeks after the deadline of the challenge, the final results will be posted publicly.


A running challenge is announced on the main page like this:

You can click on the title (or the badge on the right, which also denotes the number of current entries) to see the details of the challenge:

The theme is described here. Read it carefully to get an idea what this challenge is about. If your story doesn’t fit the theme of the challenge, it’s possible that it can’t be accepted (then it can still be published as a normal story on the site of course).

Also, authors should adhere to the additional rules for the challenge, which can be displayed by clicking on “Rules for submission” (this is just an example!):

If you want to contribute a story, click on the “Contribute Story” button and the normal story submission dialog will appear.

Check if the challenge is correctly selected in the story submission dialog:

The theme and the rules are listed there again for your convenience.

Fill this form and submit your story as usual. Once you’ve clicked ‘Publish’ on your story and it’s been approved, it will appear on the main site as any other story. It will be marked as a contestant to the challenge and it will also be listed among all the other entries for the challenge.

3 Likes

Will there be a consolidated place for readers to make future story challenge suggestions? Thanks.

1 Like

Should a submitted story show on our profile if it hasn’t been approved yet? I sent one in for the current challenge but my profile shows I haven’t submitted any stories yet.

It shows up under “Your stories” in the user menu, but not under the list of stories on your profile. Because that list is public, and your story hasn’t been approved yet.

Once it’s approved, it will show up there, too.

Yeah it looks like that section is also blank. should I just re submit?

If there’s nothing there, it looks like your story never got saved into the system. You also should have received an email explaining the process.

Make sure that you get a confirmation when you click “Save and Preview”. After you click that, you should see the layout of your story as it would end up on the server with an additional “author panel” on top giving you several options, like editing your story or publishing it.

If you never saw that, your story didn’t get saved properly and you have to try again.

Check if there are any error messages when you press “Save and Preview”, like about missing or faulty inputs, fix them, and save again until it goes through.

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hi, i submitted a story to the Halloween 2023 group but it doesn’t appear in the group. i definitely checked the box the first time but i’ve made several edits and that option didn’t appear, as it does not appear now when i’m trying to edit again to enter into the Hallloween 2023 group. should I delete the entire story and resubmit once without any edits, or can you move it into the group?

Hi,

as I’ve written in my answer in the chat, I’ve fixed your issue!

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thank you :kissing_closed_eyes::heart: