A Tip from our guest judge, Will Kelly:

I’m looking for plot driven narratives with strong characters. I enjoy reading slice-of-life pieces, where the characters feel three-dimensional and relatable. I want personality to take center stage, but that can come in a variety of ways: siblings banding together great, sibling rivalries awesome, siblings coming-of-age and learning about their true-selves amazing, siblings looking back on mistakes they’ve made works for me. Whatever genre you write best is what I want to read.

Prizes!

This quarter is officially sponsored by Duotrope; the first place winner of this quarter’s challenge receives Duotrope service for free for two years (valued at $100)!

The Basics

Fiction Potluck is free to enter and open to fiction writers of all ages around the world. One entry per person per challenge.

Submissions are accepted through Dropbox, Duosuma, and email (submissions [at] writersworkout.net).

Submissions are accepted six weeks at a time, starting in January, April, July, and October. The challenge and guest judge will change each open period. The guest judge picks the challenge—we never know what we’ll get!

The selection team reads all entries that follow the submissions guidelines as explained below. Entries are read blind. The team chooses the finalists and contacts everyone. 

Finalist author names and bios are posted on this page and announced in our monthly mailer. 

The guest judge reads the finalist pieces and chooses three winners. Each of the three winning pieces is published on our blog and linked through this page. Winning entries will be published as received.

General Rules

• All entries must be in English and original works of fiction. 

• One entry per person per challenge.

• The competition runs on UTC time, beginning and ending at midnight.

• You must keep your entry private until after we post the top three winning stories.

• The judges’ decisions are final.

• The judges will contact everyone who includes the Title Information listed below. 

• The judges cannot provide feedback for every piece submitted.

• Winning entries will be published as received.

The following are not accepted:​

• Simultaneous submissions (sorry, it’s for anonymity. You’ll know within 15 days of closure if you can sub somewhere else!)

• Previously published works (see above)

• AI-generated content

• Fanfiction, erotica, religious, or political content

• Pieces longer than the word count limit

• Pieces submitted outside the competition month

• Pieces submitted in .pdf or pasted into the body of the email

• Pieces without the correct Title Information (below) will be rejected unread. 

​

Submissions

July: up to 5,000 words

Keep formatting professional. You can find recommended settings on the submissions page.

Entries must include this Title Information in this order at the top of the document body, aligned left: 

Name or Pseudonym, email

Entry Title

Fiction Potluck

Word Count 

Accepted file types: .doc, .docx, .odt

Live, unlocked Google Docs or Microsoft Word links are accepted via email (submissions [at] writersworkout.net). We must be able to download your file. We will not request access and we are not responsible for locked docs.