A Short Story Competition for Australian High School Students
Quick answer: A short story competition for high school students in Australia that scores every entry: Writory's monthly contest is open from age 13, costs $8 for a story of 100 to 3,000 words in any genre, and is judged blind against a published five-part rubric. Every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100; results on 30 November 2026.
Open from age 13, Year 7 or 8 through Year 12, at $8 a story of 100 to 3,000 words. Entries close on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100 with all five marks on 30 November 2026, win or not.
Who can enter from an Australian school, the fee, and the deadline in your time zone
The floor is 13 with no ceiling, so Year 8 upward qualifies everywhere, and Year 7 once you have turned 13. There is no schools division and no junior prize; a Year 10 student in Geelong and a retired teacher in Leeds are read in the same blind pool. Stories of 100 to 3,000 words qualify in any genre and any language, and entry is online at /submit-story. Judges receive no name, age, school or state.
Payment is in US dollars through PayPal: $8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five. There is no Australian dollar price, so a card is charged at the day's rate, and most students under 18 have a parent pay at the point of submission. A $100 prize can be paid to a parent's or guardian's account. Schools cannot pay for a class in one transaction; each entry is paid as it is submitted.
The deadline is 11:59 PM Indian Standard Time, which lands in the small hours of the next morning here: 4:29 AM in Brisbane, 5:29 AM in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart during daylight saving, 4:59 AM in Adelaide during daylight saving, 2:29 AM in Perth. In practice, treat the closing date as your last full day. The first round closes on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, with results and certificates on 30 November 2026.
What the certificate and score mean beside the HSC, VCE and QCE
The certificate carries your name and the contest month, and it arrives whether you win or not. It does not count toward an ATAR, it is not a school assessment, and it is not recognised by any state board; call it an award only if you won the round. It is a dated record that your writing was judged blind against a published standard by readers who did not know you, which belongs in a portfolio, a scholarship application or a teacher's reference.
The score is what school marking rarely gives you. Five marks add to 100: Storytelling and Structure 25, Character and Emotional Impact 25, Language and Craft 20, Originality and Voice 20, Impact and Resonance 10. HSC English Module C, VCE English's Crafting Texts and the QCE imaginative written response all ask you to write fiction to a brief and a clock; this asks for a story you had weeks to build, and it tells you which of the five parts held and which gave.
Non-winners' scores are never published, the certificate does not display marks, and entries are not published. Winners take $100 and a free entry to the next round; three rounds in a row earn the Seasoned Quill badge and a free entry with it. You keep all rights, so a story entered here can still go to a school anthology, a state competition or a journal afterwards.
Craft notes for an Australian high school writer
Module C and its equivalents train you to respond to a stimulus in under an hour. Drop the stimulus; there is no set theme here unless the month announces one, and the ending should be planned, not reached at the bell. Start on the day something changes. Retire the twist that undoes the story and the character who wakes up; both cost you on the 25-mark structure criterion the rubric weighs most heavily.
Write the country you actually live in, with its speech. A story set in a Cairns wet season or a Perth train carriage, told the way people there talk, is read on its own terms, and the 20 marks for Originality and Voice go to the angle nobody else brought. Give one character a concrete want on the first page. Then read the free Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft; its module on the shape of a short story is the one most exam-trained writers need.
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
What time does the deadline fall in Australia?
Entries close at 11:59 PM Indian Standard Time, UTC+5:30. That is 4:29 AM the next morning in Brisbane, 5:29 AM in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart during daylight saving and 4:29 AM outside it, 4:59 AM in Adelaide during daylight saving, and 2:29 AM in Perth. Treat the closing date as your last day. The first round closes on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST.
Can I pay in Australian dollars?
No. Entry is priced in US dollars, $8 a story, and paid through PayPal, so an Australian card is charged at that day's exchange rate. There is no junior discount because there is no junior category. Two stories are $14 and five are $25, each judged and scored separately.
Does the certificate count toward my ATAR or HSC?
No. It is not a school assessment and no state board recognises it. It records that you entered a blind-judged international short story contest and were scored against a published rubric, with your name and the month on it. Portfolios, scholarship forms and teacher references can carry that plainly; call it an award only if you won.
Can I enter a story I wrote for English class?
Yes, if it is your own original work and runs 100 to 3,000 words. Writory has no previously-unpublished rule. A piece written to a class stimulus usually needs a stronger ending before it meets a rubric that weighs structure at 25 marks, so give it one more draft before you submit.
Can my teacher enter our class as a group?
Each student enters individually at /submit-story with their own account, paying $8 per entry at submission. There is no class batch and no school ranking for the story contest. Teachers can run it as a term project all the same; every student comes back with a certificate and five marks of their own.
Who sees my score?
You, and nobody else unless you choose to share it. Non-winners' scores are never published, the certificate does not show marks, and entries are not published. If you win, your name appears on the dated results page for that month, and any wider use of the story happens only with your permission.
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.