A creative writing challenge for young people aged 7 to 18
Genre Shorts: Adventure
Each month the free to enter Genre Shorts challenge - which runs alongside Creative Jelly's Young Writer's Club - sees a new genre named with young writers required to write a short story (500 to 2,500 words long) that fits that genre.
For January, the genre is: Adventure.
Deadline: March 3rd 2024.
GENRE SHORTS
More Details
Can you create a story that fits the Adventure genre?
It needs to be fast-paced, with action-packed plot lines and most probably will see your protagonist (main character) in a dangerous or risky situation.
We have 5 writing prompts that you can choose from, or you can write your own idea, as long as it fits into the genre.
- Start your story with someone taking a photograph.
- A gamer wakes up in their favourite game and must play for real to escape.
- Someone finds treasure in an unexpected place.
- A map is uncovered hidden behind an old picture whilst clearing the house of old relative.
- Start your story with someone getting on a train.
Categories
There are three age groups:
- Key Stage 2 (approx. 6 to 11 years old / Years 3 to 6)
- Key Stage 3 (approx. 12 to 14 years old / Years 7 to 9)
- Key stage 4 / Sixth Form (approx. 15 to 18 years old / Year 10 to 13).
The Prize
The winner's work will be published as part of our Genre Shorts Anthologies (published quarterly) which will be made available in print and eBook, as well as recorded as an audiobook.
This means that your work will be professionally published, meaning you will be able to hold a printed copy in your hands (or on your Kindle!), and proudly call yourself a published writer.
Who Can Enter?
Any UK based writer can enter, provided that at the deadline date of March 3rd 2024, they are 18 years old or younger.
The only stipulations are that the piece of work that you enter cannot have been previously published, either in print format or on a website / blog. Work that has won or been placed in another competition also cannot be entered.
You must have permission from a parent or guardian to enter, and they will need to upload the work.
Fee
The Genre Shorts Challenge is free to enter!
rules and how to enter
Please make sure that you read through all of the rules carefully before you submit your entry
Submitting an entry implies an acceptance of our completion rules, and if any of the rules are not adhered to you may be disqualified.
Style, Form and Subject Matter
The style and form of your story is completely up to you, but it must be Adventure themed in some way, either using one of our writing prompts or your own ideas.
Length
Stories should be between 500 and 2,500 words long, but it is possible to have some tolerance either side of this word count.
Number of Submissions
There is no limit to the number of submissions that you can make, although as this is a monthly challenge we encourage writers to work on one story and make it as good as they can rather than spreading themselves too thin across multiple stories.
Format
You should ensure that you follow all of the format criteria listed below:
- You should submit your work as one of the following files: a Word document, a Google doc., a PDF or either a .rtf or .txt file.
- You can use any readable font, but it should be size 11 or 12 and in black.
- You should make sure that the title of your file should be the name of the piece of writing only. Please do not add your name as we read pieces anonymously.
- Your pages should be numbered at the bottom of each page.
- You should use spacing of 1.5 or double spacing throughout your piece of writing.
- Add the word count to the end of your work after the conclusion of your piece.
Copyright
The author retains the copyright for their entry, but Junoberry Books has unrestricted rights to publish the shortlisted work and extracts from the work in their published collection of short-stories (print, eBook and audiobook) and any promotional material that is relevant to this.
Judging and Decisions
The decision of the judges is final. Unfortunately no individual correspondence can be entered into and Judges cannot comment on individual entries. All pieces of writing are read anonymously and therefore judging is unbiased.
Deadline
The deadline for entries is midnight on March 3rd 2024. No entries timestamped after this will be accepted.
Results
All shortlisted writers will be notified by the end of March 2024, and published on our website shortly afterwards.
Submit Your Entry
If you believe you are ready to submit your work then click below for the link to the online entry form.
Good Luck!