Short Story Competition Topics: There Is No Set Theme
Quick answer: Short story competition topics are open at Writory: the contest sets no theme, so any subject in any genre qualifies, from 100 to 3,000 words. Choose a topic that fits the word limit and gives a character something to want. Entry is $8, judging is blind, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
Write about anything, in any genre, from 100 to 3,000 words. Entry is $8, the deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026.
Why the contest sets no theme
A set theme produces a stack of stories about the same thing, and judges reading the fortieth take on 'the sea' start rewarding the least tired one rather than the best written. Writory does not set one. The rubric judges storytelling, character, language, originality and resonance, and none of those depends on subject. A story about a parking dispute can outscore a story about a war if the parking dispute is built better. Genre is equally open: literary, crime, fantasy, romance, horror and everything between compete in one pool.
The only fixed constraints are the ones on the entry form: 100 to 3,000 words, original work, any genre, any language, and an entrant aged 13 or over. Entries close on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. IST is Indian Standard Time, five and a half hours ahead of UTC, so writers in the Americas have most of the 25th and writers in Australia lose the evening of it. Within those limits, the subject is yours.
How to choose a topic that scores
Start from the rubric's heaviest lines. Storytelling & Structure and Character & Emotional Impact carry 25 points each, half the total, so a topic needs a person who wants something and a sequence in which scenes cause one another. 'A woman remembers her childhood' is a subject; 'a woman has one afternoon to decide whether to sell her mother's house' is a story. The second has a clock, a choice and a cost, and those are what the top half of the rubric pays for.
Pick a topic you can finish inside 3,000 words. Wars, dynasties and decades resist the form; a single decision, a single meeting or a single day fits it. Originality & Voice carries 20 points and rewards the angle only you could take, so the topic closest to your own knowledge usually beats the one that sounds most impressive. A veterinary nurse writing about a night shift has details no one else in the field has.
Avoid the topics that arrive pre-written: the twist that the narrator was dead, the dream ending, the villain's monologue, the last two people on earth. The judging criteria page at /short-story-judging-criteria lists the patterns that pull scores down, and a dead premise played straight is the first of them. If you must use one, know that the execution has to carry the whole score.
If you want a prompt
Writers who work better from a starting line can use the prompt bank at /short-story-prompts. Prompts there are optional and carry no bonus: a story written from one is judged exactly like a story written from nothing, blind and on the same five dimensions. Treat a prompt as a door rather than a brief. Walk through it, then go where the character needs to go. A good prompt names a situation, not a moral; the story finds the moral, if there is one, by the last line.
The free Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft has a module on shape, covering hook, momentum and landing, which is the place to test a topic before drafting. If you cannot say in one sentence what your character wants and what it will cost them, the topic is not ready, however striking it sounds. Fees are $8 for one story, $14 for two and $25 for five, so a writer with two live ideas can enter both and let the scorecards settle the argument on 30 November 2026.
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 there a theme for the current round?
No. The contest sets no theme, and any subject in any genre qualifies. If a particular month ever announces one, it will be stated on the entry page at /submit-story before that round opens, never introduced after entries have started. Until then, write about whatever the story needs.
Which topics score best in a short story competition?
Topics with a person who wants something, a decision to make and a cost to pay, small enough to finish inside 3,000 words. Half the rubric, 50 of 100 points, sits in structure and character, so a modest subject built around a real choice beats a grand subject with nothing at stake.
Can I write about a real person or a real event?
Yes. Fiction shaped by memoir, stories in historical settings and stories drawn from the news all qualify, provided the words are your own. The rubric does not reward fact over invention or the reverse; it rewards a story that moves, a character we care about and prose under control.
Does using a prompt from /short-story-prompts count against originality?
No. Originality & Voice, 20 points, measures the angle you take and the voice you take it in, not whether the first line was yours. Two writers can start from the same prompt and produce stories that share nothing. Judges never know a prompt was used; they read the story blind.
Can I enter two stories on the same topic?
Yes. Each story is a separate entry, judged and scored on its own, and two stories cost $14. Writers sometimes enter two treatments of one idea to see which the scorecards favour; both receive a certificate and a five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026.
Does my topic need to suit an international readership?
No. Stories are accepted in any language and read in that language, and a local subject with specific detail often scores higher on Originality & Voice than a deliberately universal one. A street in your own town, rendered exactly, travels further than a generic city.
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.