StoryCubes Short Story Writing Competition 2018

The Competition

1. Write a short story using the nine story cubes in the graphic (see HOW TO ENTER below).

2. The cubes must be used in the way they are laid out, ie. the opening 3 must be in the opening scene of the story, the middle 3 in the middle, and the last 3 in the ending of the story. The order of the use of the three cubes in every part of the story, is left up to the author.

3. Each story must have a single author.

4. No changes are allowed to stories already submitted.

5. By entering this monthly competition you declare that the stories you submit are your own work, and that you have not committed plagiarism in any form. If any story is found to be the work of another author, copied from any source on the internet, or other published work, the entrant will be banned from any future entries and any work already published will be removed with a public announcement to that effect.

6. By entering this competition you grant permission that your story may be published on Butterfly on a Broomstick and promoted on social media

7. The entry fee is not refundable, so make sure you submit your story on time.

8. South Africa is located in the GMT+2 time zone. Late submissions due to miscalculations on the time zone, will not be accepted as an excuse.

9. Three winners will be picked every month and their stories will be promoted on my blog, Butterfly on a Broomstick. Promotions will take the form of shares on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and Twitter.

10. Linzé Brandon is the administrator/judge of this competition, and will not take part as an author.

11. Judges for the month are not allowed to enter, but are welcome to do so for other months.

12. The judges' decision is final.

13. The submissions remain the intellectual property of each author.

14. The top three authors (with the most votes) at the end of the year will be awarded Amazon gift cards to the value of - $25, $15 and $8. In case of a tie, the prizes will be combined and divided equally.

15. The cubes will send out the 1st of the following months: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November.

The stories will be judged based on the following criteria:

1. Word count, excluding the title, must not exceed 750 words.

2. All nine (9) of the Storycubes must feature in the story.

3. All family friendly genres are welcome - that means no explicit sex, no violence, and no offensive language.

4. Stories that thrill the judges or make them laugh, cry, horrified or touched by your characters are what we are looking for.

5. The story is the most important, but take the time to edit your story before submission. Where stories are tied for a winning place, the better edited story will be chosen.

6. The top three authors for each month will be contacted by email.

How to enter?

1. Subscribe to my blog to get the nine Storycubes sent to your inbox, every month. No spam, I promise.

2. Submit your story in the BODY of an email message. Emails with attachments will be automatically disqualified.

3. Put the title of your story in the SUBJECT line of the email as follows: STORYCUBES {The Month you are taking part} - The Title of Your Story. The email addresses for submission and payment will be sent with the cubes every month.

4. Stories received after the deadline are not eligible. Since the cubes are different for every month, late stories will not be carried over to the next month.

5. Deadline for each story will be in your inbox.

6. Entry fee: $2. The Paypal reference number must accompany the entry to be valid.

How to get to the top spot?

1. Promote your story to all your friends on the internet.

2. Ask them to vote for your story.

3. Take part in the next month's competition.

NOTE: The details of this post will be relocated to a TAB on my blog, so you don't have to search for the rules next time.