SHORT STORY WRITERS CONTEST -- Oct 2023 -- BRING YOUR OWN -- BYO2023 --Winners Announced

This is an Official ATS Short Story Writers Contest!

It is open to ALL members of ATS.

This area is a safe place for our 'mighty fine creative minds' to gather. If you'd like to participate, know that the Terms and Conditions of your membership are strongly enforced. Profanity, Political baiting, Personal attacks, are not allowed or welcomed at all. Want to talk about something else? Then go to the other forums here at ATS. We only discuss the stories in here written by YOU, the membership.

By submitting a Short Story in an Official ATS Contest, you agree to the following;

Your Entry Has to be Original Fiction & posted in it's own thread HERE in the Short Stories forum,. Then in this contest thread, create a post with a link to your story. If you need any help with Spelling or Grammar-checking, Word-Counting, and more please visit; Writer Tools; Spell Check and More

Your Story Should be written and edited with paragraphs. We have noticed that stories copy & pasted from 'mobile devices' might lose their formatting. Please review how it looks on the ATS Thread and add the proper editing (as you have only about 20 minutes to make edits/corrections). This is a contest, no one wants to read a solid block of words.

A.I. Technology can not be used in the stories creation. Only ATS members are allowed to participate in the Contest.

You may enter more than once, but you can only win one prize.

"The END" needs to be at the bottom of your story, it wont add to the word-count.

You will be awarded "Writer" Status if you win 1st or 2nd in the non-writer category, please add in your stories title 'non-writer'.

The contest will run from NOW to Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Any submissions after that date will be disqualified. A period of ONE WEEK after the closing of the contest will be provided for reading & voting.

Contest Winners get to choose the next Contest Theme. This contest theme is courtesy of our last winner Encia22, and is entitled: BRING YOUR OWN - BYO2023 --
Animal says “There is no theme”, or better, you decide and bring to the party the theme for your story. Your thoughts and ideas are unchained; pick any genre you like, the only limit is your wild and untamed imagination… Animal awaits your stories in slavering suspense!

RULES OF ENTRY (are simple)

* Entries must be original fiction. ATS members cannot be characters.
* The Contest is for Humans only: No AI submissions.
* Entries MUST include -BYO2023- in your Stories title. ( e.g. Halloween Party - BYO2023 - non-writer )
* This is a 'SHORT STORY' Contest. Stories that run past the OP are accepted but no points given for additional posts.
* You need to post a link to your story here in this contest thread so others know that you made up an entry.
* You must stay within the Terms and Conditions (please read)

WINNERS and SCORING

ATS "Writer" status, prizes as follows:
1st -- 5 Applause, and gets to choose the next contest theme (Repeat winners can choose to pass to another for the theme of a future contest).
2nd -- 3 Applause
3rd -- 1 Applause

non-writer will receive the following:
1st Place -- 3 Applause & Writer Status
2nd Place -- 2 Applause & Writer Status
3rd Place -- 1 Applause

How the Contestants get points to win all depends on you! You can give FLAGS to your favorite story and add STARS to your favorite stories opening post.

We then tally up the scores of 'Flags' (worth 2 points each). And 'Stars' in the opening post (worth 1 point each)

And that's it! Got a question? We're happy to try and answer anything about the
contests/rules etc. But ENJOY this new contest, GOOD LUCK, HAPPY READING and HAVE FUN!

Note: New OP contest format, thanks to JohnnyAnonymous. Artwork for this contest courtesy of Encia22





WINNERS ANNOUNCED HERE

She went and brought her own car.
Ode to a Car - BYO2023

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Immense appreciation to DTOM for raising the curtain on another Short Story Contest…

Kermit, Animal and I welcome all established writers, novices and first-timers who participate… Break a leg to everyone treading these boards.

Yay, new contest!

I made this one up as I went along. A weird for the sake of weird one to get started.

The Chimeric Offspring of Wes Anderson and The Wizard of Oz

Just yesterday before going to sleep, I thought about how I missed participating in the contests this year so far... and woke up to this.

I hope some new members are not too shy to join

Going for a walk to look for Muse, she has to be somewhere.

Friends with tents - BYO2023 - writer

A big "thank you" to the mods once again for the work, care and passion they put into these contests. ♥

Enjoy the stories and good luck all.

Bring the inspiration you need.


Next week we'll be making poetry BYO2023 non-writer

Here’s my labour of love, and format-wise, probably the most exasperating submission to date.

Hopefully, I can finally put to rest the Land of Nod tales with an onomatopoeic and visual experience…

The Train of Dreams

I like my short stories short.

The final kingdom BYO2023 - non-writer

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Home… BYO2023 writer…here is my entry…

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here's my little dittie. Enjoy!


Drifter - BYO2023 - writer - staff just for fun

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Talking to a dummy #2 BYO2023 writer.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Road Rage -BYO2023 - Writer

I'm actually outlining a novella on this topic and wrote a short story of one of the thousands of antagonist from their perspective. The novella will be told from the other side of this perspective with much more details on what actually goes on in the different bubbles and how they get there.

I'm open to creative criticism if anyone would like to share in a PM.

TY for running this contest

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This one has an actual code and riddle... so it's interactive if anyone cares enough.

The Minister's Code

"Scorpions of Autumn" BYO2023

www.abovetopsecret.com...

First story I've written in years. Had so much fun and eagerly anticipating more. Thanks DTOM and all writers.

My story is called "Nothing But Net". Hope I'm posting it correctly:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: QRST4

Thanks for joining in,QRST4. You just need to add "non writer" after the title. Hopefully, you won't have to in future contests.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Duck Shoes BYO2023 writer
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: Encia22

Thanks for the heads up, just did that.

Aaaand it's gone - BYO2023 - Writer