Short Story Challenge 2022 Final Round

Remember to follow these rules and scroll down to begin the upload process:

OFFICIAL COUNTDOWN CLOCK - The official countdown to the submission deadline is in the assignment email and listed on the official competition website.  The time shown on this page is set one hour later than the official countdown to allow for last-minute submissions, but anything submitted after the official clock may be marked late by NYC Midnight.  Late entries will still be provided feedback by the judges, but will not be eligible to move to the next round.  MAKE SURE YOU ARE SUBMITTING YOUR STORY BY THE OFFICIAL COUNTDOWN CLOCK!

ELECTRONIC FILE – In every challenge, the Story must be sent as a .doc (Word document 97-2003), .docx (Word document), .txt (Text File) or .rtf (Rich Text Format). The name of the file must be the title of your story. For example, if the title of your Story was “Tennis”, then the name of your Short Story must be saved as “Tennis.doc” or “Tennis.txt”.

FONT - Each individual Story must be typed in 12 point and in Courier, New Courier or Times New Roman typeface – ONLY.

TITLE PAGE - The Title Page of the Story must only contain the TITLE of the Short Story and the BRIEF SYNOPSIS.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS - The brief synopsis must be a maximum of 2 sentences and a minimum of 1 sentence. The brief synopsis serves as a description of the Story.

ANONYMITY - The author’s name must NOT appear anywhere in the Story, including the title page.

LENGTH - The maximum length of each individual story in the final round is 1,250 words, not including the title page. The title page is not included in the word count and there is no minimum number of words.

SPACING - There are no rules regarding spacing your stories, so you are free to space them however you like.   But, keep in mind that anything more than double-spaced may not make for the best reading experience for the judges.