Deadline: August 5, 2022
Entry fee: $15
About the competition
‘Writing Battle’ is a creative writing competition for writers, by writers. Light on battle. Heavy on fun and friendship (but still somewhat battle-like). Receive prompts, write a short story, then judge each other’s stories. Win cash and get feedback from your peers. Join the battle!
Competition guideline
- How do I submit my story or script? Entry submissions are done on our website, https://www.writingbattle.com/battle through a custom easy-to-use online form.
- How are the entries distributed to readers? Everything is done on writingbattle.com — During a Duel, a Judge will click a button to read your entry, the button opens a temporary link to your writing. There is no way for the Judge to know whose entry they were reading, and there is no way for the writer to know who wrote the feedback.
- Is everything done on the website? Yes. Everything. No data ever goes to another service. You never have to leave the website. This means we have full control of security and the privacy of everyone’s script and public data. Not to name names, but this was a weak spot we found in similar short screenwriting contests.
- How do you ensure anonymity? Most commonly, people will accidentally put their name and address information on the title page. It happens. We all are so used to putting our information on the title page. In the Screenwriting competition, we autogenerate a title page for you. The metadata is also stripped from the pdf. If a title page already exists on the pdf you submitted, our software replaces the title page with the autogenerated one. We always keep your original pdf on record, but the pdf that Arbitrators read is the auto-generated version. Don’t worry… the title page we generate is pretty. You will get to preview it when you submit your PDF. For our Prose competitions, the documents are vetted beforehand and the participants are disqualified if their name or address appears anywhere in the document.
- What if someone puts their contact information somewhere else in the document? Judges are encouraged not to award these entries with any points. If we find a script or story that reveals the writer’s identity, then that entrant will be disqualified.
- One of the entries I read does not follow the Official Rules. What should I do? Email [email protected] with the title of the script or story in question, and which rule you think it broke. Do not email about someone not using a prompt. Let the judging process filter those out.
- Who are the judges? You are. All participants are also judges. It is designed so that participants should be fair since you are only judging stories or scripts in different genres than your own — so you are not ever competing with the entries that you read. The Professional Judges will be announced before the battle starts.
- Will the submissions be 100% anonymous to those judges?
Yes! We are in full control of the data on the website, which means people will never know who wrote the story or script they are judging, or who wrote the feedback. - What is the judging criteria?
There is no ‘scoring’ in a Duel, so judges only choose which entry “wins” over another entry. How do they choose which entry wins? That’s up to the Judge, but it should be in the vein of which entry is “stronger.” - The entry I’m reading is great, but I don’t think the writer used the prompts. Should I still choose it as the “winner?” We can’t tell you how to choose a winner. It is possible that the prompt is super abstract and went over your head (which in that case it was a poor decision by the writer to do that). Up to you.
- I still have time. Can I re-submit a new draft of my story or script? Yes! The last document you upload will be used in the battle.
- What if I change the title or logline in a Screenwriting competition? Will the auto-generated title page change? Definitely. In the Screenwriting competition, every time you change your title or logline, the title page also changes.
- Does the writing have to be in English? Assuming most of the judges will be English writers/speakers, then this is probably a good idea. If a Judge cannot read your story or script, then that is not their fault, and they are likely going to vote for the other entry in the Duel.
- This seems like TOO MUCH fun. What do you recommend I do? Join all of the battles and share the site with your friends and family on social media to get the word out!
- Read the whole guideline here.
