Our inaugeral short story competition was Inspired from the Sydney Writer's Festival workshop by Cate Kennedy on Writing Short Stories but this one is inspired by you, all the inspiring writers who sent in their crafted stories.

This time we're making it an open theme, shorter length and cheaper entry and all with a longer entry period.

So get those ideas happening and give it a go! Let those creative spirits run free with this short story writing competition.

SheInspires.com.au Short Story Competition Details

Submission: Either online or via post

Theme: Open

Words: Maximum word count 1000 (can be less but not more)

Prize: 1st Place $100

Top 3 stories will be published on SheInspires.com.au

Entry cost: $10 for 1 short story. Australian Money order or cheques are made payable to "She Inspires". Online payment is via PayPal.

Story Submission:

Stories must be received online or by post Wednesday 29th September 2010 (or at least postmarked 28th September 2010) and are accompanied by a completed entry form.

Post stories to:

She Inspires Short Story Competition

PO Box 1653

Bondi Junction

NSW 2022

Story Layout:

Typed on A4 paper, single spacing, one sided, 12 font only, with no names or identifying marks. Stories need to be written in English.

Manuscripts will not be returned after the competition and will be destroyed in an environmentally responsible manner.

Judging

Judging will be completed by She Inspires by 21st November with winners announced 24th November. The judge's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Copyright

The author retains copyright to all work submitted, although prize-winning entries must be available for publication online with sheinspires.com.au indefinitely.

Originality

All stories must be original by the author and not previously published.

Eligibility

This competition is open to anyone over the age of 18 with the exception of She Inspires team or judges.

She Inspires Story Story Competition Entry Forms

Complete an entry form below or print out and post your entry for each story you enter. Click here to access the entry form pdf.

Want to enter the short story online?  Click to Submit your Short Story online here.

Learn More About Writing Short Stories

As I found the workshop on Writing Short Stories so enlightening I thought a piece bringing together the best blog articles on writing short stories would be really useful for other enthusiastic writers. So click here to learn more about writing short stories.

We'll judge entries based on:

• the originality of the idea - it needs to be your idea for the story, Plagiarism is boring and unnecessary. You're ideas are far more interesting.
• character depiction - make the characters believable and real.
• interesting plot to capture the imagination of the reader - the story's suspense, action and character development.
• remember to show rather than tell - show us the story rather than telling everything.
• a balance between dialogue and narrative.
• variation in the pace of the story.
• staying under the 3001 word count.
• enjoyment of reading the story.

First Draft

It's perfectly normal for the first draft of a story to be very rough. The real story will start coming through by the third review, draft. So give your thoughts a chance to come out with the first draft and then let yourself refine the story with subsequent drafts.

Remember to be kind to yourself with writing. We all write dreadful first drafts, that's part of the craft of writing. Keep going and you'll be much happier with the results.

Entering Creative Writing Competitions

What matters most is the act of doing, the act of writing so you can practice the craft of writing. Entering writing competitions is a great way to get yourself writing - you have a deadline, the chance to win prizes and be published.

She Inspires Story Story Competition Entry Form

You can post in your entry - Click here to access the entry form pdf.

Want to enter the short story online?  Click to Submit your Short Story online here.