A Story Contest That Answers Back
Quick answer: Every entrant in Writory's debut short story contest receives a five-part score out of 100 and a certificate, win or lose. An optional paid report goes further: a verdict on the story, your strongest lines quoted, improvements ordered by impact, and a beat-by-beat read of opening, middle and ending, prepared by the editorial team.
The oldest complaint about story contests is paying a fee for silence. Here every entrant receives a certificate and five judged marks out of 100, and a written report on your exact story is available with any entry.
The fee-for-silence problem
The standard contest arrangement is simple: you pay the fee, you wait, and you hear nothing. Not why, not how close, not a single mark. The fee buys a reading by someone who will never speak to you, and writers put up with it because the sector offers little else.
Writory is built against that arrangement. The entry fee, $8 a story or Rs 199 in India, buys a reading that leaves a record.
What every entrant receives, no exceptions
A certificate with your name on it, and the judges' five marks against the published rubric, totalled out of 100, delivered on 30 November 2026. Win, place, or neither: the scorecard arrives. And because the rubric never changes, the numbers are comparable month to month, so a returning writer can watch a score move as the craft does.
That is the floor, included with every entry. The written report below is the optional layer on top of it.
What the written report adds
A score tells you where you stand; the report tells you why. It opens with a verdict on the story as a whole, then quotes your strongest lines and says why they work. It is prepared by the editorial team against your specific story, and it scales with the piece: longer stories get longer reads.
Three things separate it from generic critique. The improvements are ordered by impact, the biggest single gain first, so you know what to fix before anything else. There is a note on each of the five judged dimensions. And it walks the story beat by beat: what the opening promises, whether the middle escalates, whether the ending pays.
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. Winners earn free entry to the next round. Enter at https://writoryofficial.com/submit-story.
Common questions
What does the paid report add that the free scorecard does not?
The scorecard gives you five marks; the report gives you the reasons. It opens with a verdict, quotes your strongest lines with why they work, orders the improvements by impact, adds a note on each of the five dimensions, and reads your opening, middle and ending beat by beat. The scorecard says where you stand; the report says what to do next.
Is the feedback a template with my title pasted in?
No. Every report is prepared by the editorial team against your specific story, which is why it can quote your sentences back to you. Two writers entering the same month get reports that share a rubric and nothing else.
Do I still get the score if I skip the feedback?
Yes. The five-part score out of 100 and the certificate go to every entrant with results on 30 November 2026, no add-on required. The written report is for writers who want the reasons behind their numbers.
Is the report worth it for a first story?
First stories arguably get the most from it. Judging is blind, so your story is read exactly like a veteran's, and an early report names habits before they harden across ten more drafts. If the budget only stretches to entry, the free scorecard still shows which dimension to work on next.
When does the feedback arrive?
With your results, on 30 November 2026, alongside the certificate and scorecard. Entries close on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Your wait depends on when you enter; all entries in the round receive results on the same scheduled date.
More story contest pages
About Writory
Writory (writoryofficial.com) is an international monthly poetry contest founded in 2025 by Shivay Mehra. Poets from 40 countries have entered, readers come from more than 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.