Short Story Competition (SFF Style!)

It’s the start of Autumn and so it must also be the launch of our third competition of the year. Regular followers will know that we always have a Poetry and Flash Fiction competition and that our third challenge is always a bit more random (we’ve had letter writing, travel writing as well as ‘normal’ fiction). This year we’re going to explore that most inventive of genres, Science-Fiction / Fantasy (or SFF for short).

Now, remember that SFF is not all about space-ships or dragons (but if that’s what floats your TARDIS, go for it). Let’s consider all of the classics that could fall into this genre: Frankenstein, 1984, Alice In Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, a LOT of Margaret Atwood…

This genre also absolutely dominates our cinema, from Disney princesses (Frozen, Beauty and the Beast), to dinosaur theme parks, and from superheroes to wizards (Gandalf & the Potter kid). And I haven’t even mentioned Star Wars yet. Honestly, I’ve just looked at the top 50 worldwide highest grossing films and the only ones not falling into SFF (and I’m including Finding Dory and Toy Story in here because they are clearly fantastical) are Titanic, Skyfall and a couple of Fast & Furious movies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films).

So 46 of the 50 highest grossing movies of all time are variations on SFF – that’s how broad your canvas is.

To judge this foray into the unknown is Andrew Bannister, author of the acclaimed science-fiction Trilogy about “The Spin“, a vast system of stars where machines construct planets and people live in virtual reality.

The theme for your SFF quest is “Eye“. Send us your stories with a word count of between 1500-2500 words before midnight on Saturday 16th October. First prize is £50.

Send your entries to our competitions email address or by post to a physical address – see our Competitions Page for full details.

And it’s not yet too late to enter our Flash Fiction competition – the deadline was extended to 18th September – see here for more information.