Competitions

55-Word Fiction Competition | 10-Word Story Sentence

55-Word Fiction Competition

The Book Council is holding a 55-word fiction competition, which is exactly what it sounds like: you write a story that is exactly 55 words. Post it to our wall, get all your friends to like it, and win prizes!

Stories can be about anything under the sun, so long as they fall within our guidelines. Scroll further down to read them!

2015 Winning Entries

Guidelines

  1. Stories must be EXACTLY 55 words. No more. No less. Flouting this rule disqualifies your story!
  2. All entries need to be posted on the official All In! Facebook page.
  3. You can submit up to three entries!
  4. Your title should not be part of your word count.
  5. Contractions count as one word. Hyphenated words are one word.
  6. Inappropriate posts or comments will be deleted (vulgarity, swearing and all that sort).
  7. Your post should end with “By [Name as listed in the registration for the All In! Festival]” and the number of words in your post (excluding your name).
  8. No (explicit) sexual content is allowed.
  9. Open to anyone 13 – 25 years of age. The closing date for submission is 31 January 2015, 5:00pm.

Categories

The competition consists of the following categories:

  1. Judges’ Choice, where a panel of judges will decide on winning entries.
  2. Popular Choice, where the entries with the most Facebook Likes win.

Prizes

A goody bag worth $200, and a complimentary ticket to the first day of the All In! Festival will be awarded to each of the Judges’ Choice and Popular Choice categories.

The winners will be informed by 20 February 2015.

2015 Winning Entries

10-Word Story Sentence

We’re stretching the boundaries of your imagination and creativity with the launch of the All In! One-Sentence Story this year! Aptly called 10WORDS, the piece will consist of only 10 words, but express a full story. The theme for 10WORDS is “Door”.

2015 Winning Entries

Guidelines

  1. The competition is open only to delegates. Stories must be written as one sentence with EXACTLY 10 words.
  2. The 10 words should include the word “door”. This means there are 9 words you can add to form the one-sentence story!
  3. This competition will only be open for one week!
  4. You can submit up to three entries!
  5. You do not need a title.
  6. Contractions count as one word. Hyphenated words are one word.
  7. Inappropriate content, posts or comments will be deleted.
  8. No (explicit) sexual content is allowed.
  9. The competition starts from 12 February 2015 and ends at 18 February 2015, 5pm.
  10. Your post should end with “By [Name as listed in the registration for the All In! Festival]” and the number of words in your post (excluding your name).
  11. Individuals who submitted an entry for the All In 55-word Fiction Competition are allowed to submit entries for this competition.

Criteria

The one-sentence stories will be judged according to the following criteria:

  1. Word-Play. The author justifies himself being called a guile wordsmith by his choice of words to convey the story in just 10 words.
  2. Imagery. The story stirs the imagination, so much that it evokes an emotional reaction from readers: a giggle, a snort, goose pimples!
  3. Storyline. The sentence is a full story in itself, with most story elements present, using only 10 words!

Prizes

The 50 best one-sentence stories will be collated into an online flipbook that will be posted on the All In! Facebook account. The winners will be informed during the day of the All In Workshops. The top winners will receive the following prize:

1st Prize: A goody bag worth $100 and a prominent placement in the e-flipbook.
2nd Prize: A goody bag worth $80 and a prominent placement in the e-flipbook.