THIS CONTEST HAS NOW ENDED
Basics
What: Fast and Furious Writing Contest.
Categories: One Flash-Fiction Category, One Devotional Category (Entries will either be flash-fiction, which is a self-contained story in brief form, or a devotional).
Max Wordcount: Maximum total word count for both options is 300 words (as determined by Microsoft Word’s Review>Word Count feature).
Entry Fee: FREE to Inspire Members, $15 for Non-Members per entry.
Max Entries: We will accept a maximum of THREE submissions per person. If you submit more than three, we will only accept the first three submitted.
Criteria: 75% of the score will be based on how compelling your story or devotional is. 25% of the score will be based on mechanics (structure, spelling, formatting, grammar, punctuation, etc.).
Note: All entries will be blind judged, and must be consistent with Inspire’s Statement of Faith.
Submissions: Word docs ONLY (PDFs will not be accepted), submitted through the official submission form on inspirewriters.com (which will be available from this page.). Open for submissions from October 1 – October 31. Winners will be announced on November 16th.
Summary
We want to see either a piece of original flash-fiction or a complete devotional from both new and seasoned authors.
Flash Fiction
For the flash-fiction, you must tell us a whole, compelling story as creatively as you can. It should have a clear beginning, middle, and ending, within 300 words. It can be humorous, dramatic, suspenseful, or full of adventure. You choose! Just make every word count, and make the judges wish the piece were longer!
Devotionals
For devotionals, your 300 words must include:
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- a title;
- a Scripture;
- the devotional;
- and a short prayer.
Seriously. All of that in 300 words. Whether your devotional is comforting, encouraging, uplifting, or teaching, we want to finish reading your work just a little bit closer to God.
Tip
Writing tight is crucial in micro-genres, so use every word wisely.
Note: All submissions must be compatible with Inspire’s statement of faith. No nudity, foul language, sexual content, racism, graphic or unnecessary violence, etc.
Formatting
As with most magazines and publishing houses, there is always a standard set of submission guidelines you must adhere to. This contest is no exception. Your Word doc or PDF must be formatted with the following specifications:
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- Do not put the author name in either the document itself or the filename
- Standard letter-size pages
- Filename should be your title, or the first several words
- Times New Roman font
- 12 point
- One inch margins
- Double-spaced
- 0.5″ indentation for paragraphs
- No extra space between paragraphs beyond double spacing. (Extra spacing is permitted between sections in a devotional and scene changes, etc. in flash fiction.)
- And 300-word maximum. No exceptions. As determined by MS Word’s word count feature.
Scoring
Entries will be blind judge by three individuals whose scores will be averaged by the contest administrator. 75% of those scores will rate how compelling and well-written your flash-fiction or devotional is. 25% of the final score will be based on your adherence to the formatting guidelines, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and proper use of sentence structure and vocabulary, etc. Tip: edit, edit, ask someone to edit, and then edit again. A GREAT piece content-wise will not win if it’s full of spelling errors, poor punctuation, and missing words.
Submission Window
We will accept submissions via our website from October 1, 2020-October 31, 2020.
Results
Winners will be announced on November 16th, 2020.
Prizes
First Place: Flash Fiction
- Choice of $50 Amazon Gift Card OR free annual membership to Inspire Christian Writers
- Announcement across all Inspire social media and in our newsletter
- And … Publication of winning entry on our award-winning blog
First Place: Devotional
- Choice of $50 Amazon Gift Card OR free annual membership to Inspire Christian Writers
- Announcement across all Inspire social media and in our newsletter
- And … Publication of winning entry on our award-winning blog
The runner up in each category will also be published on our award-winning blog.