A Fairy Tale Writing Contest for New Tales and Honest Retellings
Quick answer: A fairy tale writing contest with a published rubric: Writory accepts original tales and retellings of public domain stories such as Grimm, Perrault, Andersen and the Panchatantra, 100 to 3,000 words in any language, judged blind. 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.
Writory's short story contest accepts original fairy tales and retellings built on public domain sources, 100 to 3,000 words in any language. 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.
What counts as original here
Two kinds of tale are eligible. The first is a fairy tale you invent from nothing: your own kingdom, your own rule, your own price. The second is a retelling, and the source has to be public domain. The Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen (first edition 1812), Charles Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé (1697), Hans Christian Andersen's tales (from 1835), the Panchatantra, the Jataka tales and the Thousand and One Nights are all open to you. A retelling of a tale still under copyright, or of a film studio's version of one, is not your original work and cannot be entered.
The line matters because the rubric's Originality & Voice mark, worth 20 points, is scored on what you changed. A retelling that follows Perrault beat for beat with new adjectives has changed nothing and scores accordingly. Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber (1979) is the standard: "The Company of Wolves" keeps Red Riding Hood's road and grandmother and alters who is afraid of whom. Anne Sexton's Transformations (1971) did the same to a set of Grimm tales in verse. Change the rule, the teller or the price, and the tale becomes yours.
How the rubric reads a fairy tale
Fairy tales are told in a voice that most modern fiction avoids: a flat, exterior voice with no interest in psychology, in which a girl is simply "good" and a forest is simply "dark". The rubric does not penalise that voice, and Language & Craft, 20 points, rewards a writer who holds it without a wobble. What it does insist on is Character & Emotional Impact, 25 points. Even a tale told from the outside needs a person who wants one thing, and the reader has to feel the cost when the want meets the rule.
Storytelling & Structure, another 25, is where the old tales are strongest and where retellings most often fail. The Grimm tales run on cause: a promise made, a promise broken, a consequence that fits. A retelling that keeps the images and drops the causation reads like a costume. Keep the logic tight, so the ending is the only place the tale could have arrived. Impact & Resonance, the final 10, is the unease or the rightness that a good tale leaves, the reason children ask for the same one again.
Craft notes for a tale in 100 to 3,000 words
Set the rule early and never explain it. Fairy tales do not justify why the third door is forbidden; they state it and move. Use the rule of three deliberately, two failures and a success, or two successes and a failure, because a reader raised on the form feels the third beat coming and you can use that expectation. Give the tale a price: something is always paid, a voice, a name, a year of life. A tale in which nothing costs anything scores low on Impact & Resonance.
Decide where you stand on interiority. The classical tale never enters a head; the modern retelling lives there. Both are legitimate, but mixing them without control produces a tale that keeps stopping to feel. Read Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" (1845), around 1,000 words, for how much grief a wholly exterior telling can carry. The free Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft covers structure and ending in a way that maps directly onto the form, and /short-story-prompts has starting points if you want one.
Entering a tale
Entry is $8 for one story, $14 for two and $25 for five, each judged separately by a blind panel against the published rubric. Stories in any language are read in that language, in one pool; a Marathi retelling of a Panchatantra fable stands beside an English one from Grimm. Writers must be 13 or over and the work must be theirs. 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.
Every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100 on 30 November 2026, with all five marks shown. The top story takes $100 and free entry to the next round; free entry is earned that way, not open to all. Writers keep all rights. Optional written feedback is available at entry for anyone who wants the reasoning behind the marks, and the criteria are published in full at /short-story-judging-criteria.
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
Are fairy tale retellings eligible for the Writory short story contest?
Yes, when the source is in the public domain: Grimm, Perrault, Andersen, the Panchatantra, the Jataka tales, the Thousand and One Nights and their kin. A retelling of a tale still under copyright, or of a studio's animated version, is not your original work and cannot be entered.
What is the entry fee?
$8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five, each judged and scored separately. The winner of a round takes $100 and free entry to the next; free entry is earned that way and is not open to everyone.
Do I get a score even if my tale does not win?
Yes. Every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100, broken into the five rubric marks, on 30 November 2026. For a retelling, the Originality & Voice mark will tell you plainly whether the changes you made registered as your own or read as the source with new clothes.
How long should a fairy tale be?
Anything from 100 to 3,000 words is eligible. Most classical tales fall between 800 and 2,500 words, which suits the contest well. A very short tale of a few hundred words is also complete if its rule, its test and its price all land; structure is scored as shape, not as length.
Can I write a fairy tale for adults?
Yes. Fairy tales were adult literature for most of their history; Perrault wrote for a court, and the Grimms' first edition was not softened for children until later printings. Dark material is eligible. The judged question is whether the tale earns its cost, not whether it is suitable for a nursery.
Can I retell a tale from my own region's folklore?
Yes, and it is one of the stronger moves available. Folk tales that have never been fixed in a copyrighted text, or that appear in public domain collections, are open sources, and a retelling in the language of the region is read in that language. Change something, and say what it costs.
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.