A 100 Word Story Competition Where the Drabble Is a Full Entry
Quick answer: A 100 word story competition is what Writory's short story contest becomes at its floor: the rules accept original stories of 100 to 3,000 words, so a drabble of exactly 100 words is eligible and judged blind against the published rubric. Entry is $8, the deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
A story of exactly 100 words is a complete entry in Writory's short story contest: $8 to enter, deadline 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every writer receives a certificate and a five-part score out of 100.
Why 100 words is the floor, and what that means for you
The contest's word range is 100 to 3,000, and the lower number is not a minimum you are expected to clear by a comfortable margin. A story that lands at exactly 100 words is eligible, entered through the same form at /submit-story as a 3,000-word piece, and read by the same blind panel against the same five-part rubric. Nothing about the form is penalised for being small. Under 100 words is out, and the counter on the entry form will tell you before you pay.
The 100-word story has a name, the drabble, which came out of British science fiction fandom in the 1980s and means exactly 100 words, title excluded. Writory does not require the count to be exact. Anything from 100 up qualifies, so a 104-word piece is fine, and so is 140. What you cannot do is pad. Language & Craft carries 20 points, and a judge reading a story this short notices the one sentence that exists only to reach the floor.
How the rubric reads a story this short
Storytelling & Structure is worth 25 of the 100 points, and at 100 words it is scored as shape: does the piece set up one situation, turn it once, and end on the turn. Judges are not counting scenes. A drabble that opens on a woman at a bus stop and closes on the bus not stopping has a structure, and it is marked on whether the ending was earned by the opening, not on how much happened in between.
Character & Emotional Impact is the other 25, and it is the mark short entries most often drop. One hundred words is room for exactly one person we want something for, established in a detail rather than a description. Originality & Voice (20) and Impact & Resonance (10) reward the drabble that takes a familiar premise and leaves a line behind. Compressed work has no place to hide, which works in favour of the writer who cut properly.
Craft notes for entering at 100 words
Start in the last possible moment; a drabble has no room for an approach. Choose one concrete noun the story can turn on, a key, a receipt, a second plate, and let it carry the meaning a longer story would explain. Write to 130 and cut to 100 rather than writing to 100, because the cuts are where the prose tightens. Read the final line aloud. In a piece this short it is a third of the impact, and a flat last sentence costs marks in two rubric dimensions at once.
The models are worth an evening. Augusto Monterroso's "El dinosaurio" runs to seven words in Spanish and is still taught as a complete story. Franz Kafka's "A Little Fable" is a paragraph. Lydia Davis has built a career on stories of a few lines, and Yasunari Kawabata's "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories" show what a single page can hold. The free Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft has a flash fiction lesson at /academy/story-craft/flash-fiction that applies directly at this length.
Deadline, fee, and what comes back
The first contest runs from 1 September to 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, with results and certificates on 30 November 2026. From December the contest is monthly: entries close on the 25th, results on the 30th, and the next round opens the moment they land. Entry is $8 for one story, $14 for two and $25 for five, and a batch of drabbles is one of the better uses of the five-story option because each is scored on its own. The top story of the round takes $100 and free entry to the next round. Every entrant receives a certificate and the five marks out of 100, and writers keep all rights to what they enter.
The published rubric, 100 points
- Storytelling & Structure (25 points): Does every scene cause the next, and does the ending pay off the opening?
- Character & Emotional Impact (25 points): Do we want something with your character, and does the story make us feel it?
- Language & Craft (20 points): Clean, deliberate prose: rhythm, precision, and nothing wasted.
- Originality & Voice (20 points): The angle only you could write, told in a voice that sounds like nobody else.
- Impact & Resonance (10 points): What the story leaves behind after the last line.
How it works
Submit an original story of 100 to 3,000 words by 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Every story is judged blind against the rubric above, and results arrive on 30 November 2026: every entrant receives a certificate with their name and a score out of 100. Writers keep all rights. Monthly winners earn free entry to the next round. Enter at https://writoryofficial.com/submit-story.
Common questions
Is a story of exactly 100 words really eligible?
Yes. The published range is 100 to 3,000 words and the floor is inclusive, so a 100-word drabble is a complete entry. It is read blind by the same panel, against the same five-part rubric, as every other story in the round. There is no separate short category and no reduced status for short work.
What happens if my story comes in at 98 words?
It cannot be entered; the form checks the count before payment. Add the two words if they belong, but a story two words short is often missing something more useful than words, and the quickest fix is to look at the ending rather than the middle. Under 100, the entry does not go through.
What does it cost to enter a 100-word story?
The same as any length: $8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five. Fees are not scaled to word count. Writers who work in drabbles often enter a set of five, since each is judged and scored separately and the scorecards read together like a diagnosis.
Do I get a certificate and a score for a drabble?
Yes. Every entrant, at every length, receives a certificate and all five rubric marks out of 100 on 30 November 2026. The certificate records a blind-judged result, not participation, and the five marks show which of structure, character, language, originality and resonance carried the piece and which did not.
Can a 100-word story win against a 3,000-word one?
The rubric gives it a fair run. Judging is blind, structure is scored as shape rather than plot volume, and Language & Craft rewards a piece with no wasted sentence. Length is not a criterion. The first results land on 30 November 2026, so there is no history yet to point to, only the rules.
Can I enter a 100-word story in a language other than English?
Yes. The contest accepts stories in any language and each is read in its own language, in one pool. A drabble in Hindi, Tagalog or Spanish is judged on the same five dimensions as one in English. Monterroso's seven-word story was written in Spanish; the form has never belonged to one language.
Is a drabble judged as flash fiction or as a short story?
As the piece it is. The rubric asks whether the story's structure does what it sets out to do, so a drabble is marked on its single turn and its ending, not on scene count. Pieces under 1,000 words are read on flash's own terms, and 100 words is the sharpest end of that.
More story contest pages
About Writory
Writory (writoryofficial.com) is an international monthly poetry contest founded in 2025 by Shivay Mehra. Poets from 31 countries have entered, readers come from over 150 countries, and every submitted poem is judged and scored out of 100 across five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and impact and resonance. Every entrant receives a certificate; winners receive cash prizes and are published by name. Entries close on the 25th of each month and results are announced on the 30th. Writory is listed by Duotrope, Poetry Kit, Christopher Fielden's competition list and Creative Writing NZ, among other organisations. Past results are public at past winners and the leaderboard.