Step up for the Florida Weekly Writing Challenge

For Round 1 of the 2024 Writing Challenge, writers are to choose one of the two photographs provided as a starting point for a short story of no more than 750 words. Deadline for Round 1 submissions is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, May 21. BOB MASSEY / FLORIDA WEEKLY

The 14th annual Florida Weekly Writing Challenge continues its first round this week, offering photo prompts selected by our editors to inspire readers to write short stories. For Round 1, you have until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, to email us your original story using only one of the two photographs shown here as your starting point. You may submit only one story per each two-week round.

Here are the rules for submitting entries to the 2024 Writing Challenge:

Type your first and last name, email address, phone number and city/state of residence at the top of your story.

Next, type a title at the top of your masterpiece.

The maximum is 750 words, including your contact information and title (no minimum word count). And no poetry, please.

Run your story through Spellcheck!

Important: When you type the subject line of your email, you must start the subject line with the code WC24 (with no space between the letters and numbers) so that the challenge moderator spots that this is an entry for the 2024 Writing Challenge; then add the round you are entering (such as “Round 1”) and type a simple description of the photo prompt you are responding to (such as “man with dog,” etc.). This simple photo description will probably differ from the title you give your story. Here is an example of what a subject line following this format would look like: WC24 Round 1 man with dog.

ERIC STRACHAN / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Copy and paste the full text of your entry into the body of your email, and double check that the full text was indeed copied over before you hit send. (You must send your story as plain text in the body of the email; do not send any document attachments.) Also, do not embed any images in your entry.

The Writing Challenge email address is laura.tichy-smith@floridaweekly.com (and yes, be sure to include the hyphen between tichy and smith in the email address).

The challenge moderator will send you a personal acknowledgment email that your entry has been received; please allow up to one week to receive this acknowledgment. Remember to check your junk or spam box if you don’t see the acknowledgment email after one week.

Once you have sent an entry for a round, you cannot submit a revised version, so follow all instructions carefully.

Snail mail submissions cannot be considered.

Questions? Email laura.tichy-smith@floridaweekly.com with “WC24 question” in the subject line.

Round 2 and beyond

We’ll print new photo prompts for Round 2 in our May 22-23 issues, and you’ll have until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, to send us another story — just one. And so on, with new prompts every two weeks, for a total of five rounds this year. The deadline for entering Round 5 will be Tuesday, July 16. Enter as many rounds as your creativity, time, and discipline allow, but only email one story per round.

The 2024 Writing Challenge winner and three honorable mentions will be notified by the end of July, with the first-place winner receiving tuition to an online Gotham Writers Workshop. Honorable mentions will receive Amazon gift cards.

We’ll publish the top four stories sometime in August (winning writers will be interviewed for an article to accompany the publication of their stories). Runners-up, usually the fifth- through 10th-place picks, will be published as space permits in the following weeks.

So, carefully reread the rules, study the photo prompts for Round 1, and tap into your creative juices. Remember: The deadline for this first round is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, May 21. ¦

The post Step up for the Florida Weekly Writing Challenge first appeared on Bonita Springs Florida Weekly .