Fall 2023 Writing Contest

Posted bySusan K. MarlowPosted inContests and Giveaways

The time is drawing nearer! I am hoping to launch the Fall “Seasonal” writing contest on September 8. However, a lot depends on what I come up with for the theme/topic/ideas. I would love ideas on what you would like the theme to be for this contest.

  1. a photo writing prompt? (write a story based on a photograph)
  2. a video writing prompt? (write a story based on a 1-minute video)
  3. a “writing” prompt? (write a story based on a writing prompt to “springboard” an idea)
  4. a “free for all,” like the annual contest?
  5. other ideas?

Before you spill your ideas in the comments, however, please scroll through the past seasonal contests to see what I’ve done in the past.

SEASONAL WRITING CONTESTS >>

After I look over your ideas, I will pick out three or four that sound “doable” for me to create, and “doable” for my judge(s) to read/judge. Then you can vote on the idea you all like best, and that will be the official topic/theme for the 2023 fall story-writing contest. Remember these things:

  1. These are short contests. Not more than a month’s writing time is given, so the deadline is shorter.
  2. The stories are shorter, with a (strict) maximum word count of 2,500.
  3. Two age groups: (ages 9-12) and (ages 13-18).
  4. Prizes are not as expansive. You can read about the various prize options I’ve offered in the past, when you click the button above.

Also, let me know if you prefer . . .

  1. a “reader’s choice” of favorite/best story (judges narrow it down to four stories in each age category) or . . .
  2. a judges only judging?

I’m excited to read your comments/ideas/etc.!

Published by Susan K. Marlow

I'm the author of the Circle C and Goldtown Adventures series. I blog as "Andi Carter," the main character in the Circle C series. She lives on a huge cattle ranch in 1880s California. These are her adventures.

78 thoughts on “Fall 2023 Writing Contest”

  3. I’ve got an idea for a writing prompt:
    Andi had heard of the black cloaked rider who stalked the deserts on their blood-red horse in the moonlight.
    She just never expected to have the rider show up unconscious in her front yard.

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  4. This’ll be so much fun!!!! 😀
    I personally like the photo prompts best! Its super fun to make a story off a photo!
    And for the judging… maybe a reader’s choice!! 😀

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  5. Word prompts are my personal favorite… especially dramatic sentences.
    *
    It was a normal summer day until the man on the green-eyed horse showed up.
    *
    Andi thought that ghosts didn’t exist… until she met the white stallion on that wild, windy night.
    *
    It’s all fun and games until the bandits show up.
    *
    What if Taffy didn’t die?
    *
    The stallions, one black, one gold, reared up to spar each other, screaming challenges into the skies.
    And Andi was right in the middle of them.
    *
    Rainy days are boring… until you find something interesting in the attic.
    *
    The wanted criminal is only a child… and needs Andi’s help.
    *
    I could come up with more but then we’d be here all day.

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      1. I agree with Allie! I love Word prompts the best! 😉
        Picture prompts definitely are second best. I struggle with free-for-all because I then 1) completely blank 2) Have an overload of ideas and pick the wrong one
        I like the reader’s choice, but also judges judging, so whatever happens will be fine by me 😉

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  7. I would chose either a ‘photo prompt’ or a ‘free for all’. And for the judging I would have to go ‘A readers choice’.
    Can’t wait for the new contest Mrs. M. These are always so much fun!!

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  9. Maybe you could do it so that you offer a variety of photos to choose for a prompt but also they have to choose from a variety of writing prompts to either put into their story or to make it known which they choose.
    And I think judges only would be best.

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    1. Last year in 2022, I did that photo prompt contest (see this link: https://ranchfanfiction.blogspot.com/p/contest-winners-fan-fiction.html) but I like the idea of a dramatic writing prompt too. Perhaps . . . I could do the dramatic writing prompt and include a photo with each writing prompt? If I have too many photos and too many mix-and-match writing prompts, it’s a nightmare for me to figure out which photo and which prompt is being used. But I like the idea!

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  10. A “writing prompt” or a “free for all” sound fun, and I think judges only would be nice 🙂 Thanks!

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  13. A photo prompt is always super fun!! I like the free for all idea too though…

    I’m so excited for this contest!! My younger sister just recently finished the Circle C Adventures books and will be entering too!

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    1. Oops I forgot to add this. Photo prompt or free for all is also my sister’s choice. We both LOVED reading all the entries last year and the different takes on the photos!!

      I can’t even begin to express how excited I am!!!!

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  14. Personally for me, the “free for all” writing choice just leaves me staring at a blank document on my screen. Lol. So i think a dramatic writing prompt would be the best for me. Also, i like the reader’s choice option for the judging.🙂

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  15. I think photo or witing promt with judges judging.
    I like creative, ‘free for all’ writing, but with Circle C, it just leaves me with an almost empty notebook and a full trashcan.
    Video promt seems like it could have too many boundaries. I like having enough ideas to get me started but not too much that it becomes a chore to create somthing beautiful that fits in all the boxes.
    I like judges judging because if the participants/readers judge, it may be based more off of opinions than writing style, plot, and characters.

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    1. I prefer word promts, however, and a dramtic one would be great! I love Allie Lynn’s ideas! They’re so creative, dramatic, and have just enough room to create something amazing.

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  16. I also like ‘Allyson’s’ Comment, and agree, that could be fun. (Haha, I couldn’t like it bc I would have to sign in)

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  18. I think a prompt would be good, because that gives the writers a specific idea to write about. I don’t care what kind of prompt– word, picture, or video– and I think that a reader’s choice voting would be nice. Some ideas for prompts could be:
    -Andi is out on a ride when she sees smoke in the distance. Upon investigating, she runs smack into a group of cattle rustlers/bandits!
    -A mysterious cowboy shows up at the Circle C/Memory Creek. Then cattle begin to go missing out on the range. (Writers can decide whether or not the cowboy is involved with the rustling).
    -The circus comes to town, and Andi Prescott is shocked to see Toledo (Heartbreak Trail) preforming with his horse, Sultan!
    -Andi is out on a ride and caught in a storm. Seeking shelter in a line shack, she discovers several bank robbers hiding out there!
    -Andi and Riley (plus their babies) go to the Circle C for Sunday evening supper to find everyone gone without a trace!
    -Riley goes out onto the range to check on some cattle and mysteriously disappears.
    -A circle c mare dies while giving birth, and Andi offers to raise the foal. What could go wrong?
    -During a storm, Andi becomes lost and is forced to accept help from a well-known bandit.
    -Shasta goes missing, and a secretly-delivered cryptic message seems to point to where he is.
    -Shasta (or Dakota) goes missing, and a horse looking like him is found scraggly and thin at a cattle auction. It’s Shasta/Dakota! . . . Or is it?
    -A Memory Creek horse goes missing, and then an identical horse is found. Upon taking it back to Memory Creek, Andi and Riley are accused of horse thieving.
    Just a few! Thanks for wanting to put a contest on!

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  19. Some of my other ideas:
    A howl shook the cold night air and Andi shivered. How exactly had she gotten here again?…
    ***
    “You must be mistaken.” Andi said, staring at the palomino mare he was holding. “She can’t be Taffy’s sister!”
    ***
    Prince Loco returns… and he needs Andi’s help.
    ***
    When the herd of milk-white cattle came to town, it started turning heads. But the real attraction was the piebald mare the trail boss was riding… and even the trail boss himself.
    ***
    What if Melinda had come along on Andi’s first cattle drive?
    ***
    A wild herd of horses has taken residence in the valley, and Andi has fallen in love with the pinto stallion who leads it. Then the ranchers begin to blame him for the loss of their mares… but Andi knows the real culprit.
    ***
    When a new hand with a shifty past comes to the ranch at the same time that things begin to go missing, everyone blames the hand. Andi is determined to clear their name.
    ***
    “Her name is Golden Light.” He said. “And… she’s the daughter of Sunny.”
    ***
    The chestnut looked like she had seen cruelty her whole life. Her sides were scarred and bleeding and her head hung low, the only sign of life in her thin frame found in her deep, firey eyes.
    The blond-haired girl looked from the mare to Andi. “You have to help me save her.”
    ***
    An unconscious girl is found in the ranch yard, guarded fiercely by a single horse.
    ***
    “They called her Storm Chaser.” Chad said, staring at the fifteen-year-old girl on the purple roan. “And they say she’s got no parents but the wind and the God she serves.”
    ***
    Taming a mustang is harder than it looks.
    ***
    When Dakota ran into the ranch yard with no saddle and sweating like his hide was on fire, she knew something was wrong.

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      2. “An unconscious girl is found in the ranch yard, guarded fiercely by a single horse.”
        This one was actually inspired by the “mysterious horse” contest you did a while back…

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  20. Here’s some more ideas . . .
    -During a storm, Andi takes shelter in a cave . . . only to find out it is the den of a mountain lion!
    -Macy Walker finds herself in a desperate situation—and she must decide whether or not she could put her life in her brothers’ untrustworthy hands.
    -A while before Andi’s capture by Procopio the Red-Handed, she is proposed to by . . . Johnny Wilson!
    -A mean school prank of Johnny Wilson’s plunges Andi’s life into jeopardy (writers can choose what prank and how it endangers Andi).
    -Whatever she does, Andi can’t seem to stay away from trouble. But when she makes a valiant effort to keep from getting into trouble, terrible things happen.
    -A young Andi Carter visits her Yokut friend, Choo-nook. The girls work together to solve a perplexing mystery involving the disappearance of Yokut provisions.
    -Andi goes fishing at her special spot, and she finds something that could change her life.
    -Young Riley invites Andi to go with him to visit the fort in Arizona at which his father worked. The same day, Chad invites Andi on a camping trip in the mountains. Which does she choose and why?
    -Andi’s life is endangered by a rattlesnake—and only a wild, crazy horse can save her.
    -Jared Prescott requests to be able to race at the 4th of July. Andi reluctantly agrees, and then everything goes wrong.
    -While Riley and Chad are away on a cattle drive, cattle and horse rustling plagues Memory Creek ranch, and Shasta disappears. Then a scruffy, suspicious man appears on Andi’s doorstep, injured and weary—and claiming he knows the whereabouts of Shasta. Can Andi trust this stranger?
    -A white Memory Creek mare foals a striking palomino filly who looks just like Taffy. The old anger at her brothers (The Last Ride) rises up in Andi and she is faced once more with a horrible division in her family—because of her.
    Thanks again!

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  21. I like photo prompts best!! But it would be so cool to do another like the one in Fall 2021- Wanted, homes for children- where we could write about anyone. I love writing about Andi and her family but it’s also cool to write a completely original story!

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    1. Yes, that was a very unique situation because of the orphan issue was true life! Feel free to send along an idea that I could use to bounce another similar for one of the seasonal contests. I am totally open but my brain has brain-drain. But young, fresh minds could think of real-life things like that in an historical context.

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  23. Sorry for all the commenting, but I have one more prompt suggested by my mom and older brother:
    Andi goes into town and sees a wanted poster . . . with her face on it! How did it get there? Who put it there? And WHY? Andi is sure this is a dream– but is it?

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  25. Maybe for an original story prompt without Ando or her family, something like how a passenger survived the Titanic (or any boat sinking), a forest fire, or a flood? Just sayin’😁😀

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  26. Mmmm. Here are some of my ideas:
    ~Wild horses on the range
    ~Andi finds a lone baby chick
    ~A lost Kitten
    ~Andi is lost and a strange stallion finds her (or a mare etc.)
    ~American Indian lore that “comes true”
    ~Lord of the rings kind of drama? lol.
    Thanks for this awesome blog, Mrs. Marlow!

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    1. Oh, i forgot some:
      ~The silver buckskin stallion and the albino stallion reared and began to fight…
      ~” ‘Gone with the Wind’, that is your name”, She told the foal.
      ~The black stallion was one to be feared, he was free and he would never be conquered!

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  29. I’d love either a writing prompt or a free for all! Or maybe you have to focus on a specific character or a specific age, for example, Andi has to be 10?

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  35. So many good — no – awesome ideas!!!!!!
    My…… this is just too tempting!!!!! Haha I want to write!! 😀
    Am I allowed to write some of these ideas now for the fun of it or I better not as you might want to use them?? 😀 😀

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    1. Hey, Sara, you can always write whatever you want. I don’t own any of these ideas, my friend! Write, write, write. I am beginning to put together my list of prompts and if it happens to be one you started working on, well, head start for you!

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  36. I prefer the prompts, either photo or word prompts are good in my opinion. I have a few ideas of what the story inspiration could be.
    -Writing a story that has been mentioned in the circle c series. For example, Justin mentions he went to look for Kate after father’s death, but his efforts were in vain. Or Riley tells Andi what happened to his Midnight, but what if we actually wrote that whole scene?
    -Incorporating a bigger real life event, such as the Chicago fire, which could take place when Andi and her family are traveling east to see family or something. Also, including another book. The little house on the prairie, Caddie Woodlawn, ect., could somehow meet the Carters.
    -I liked the orphan contest, so something along the lines of that, completely unrelated to the Carters, would be neat. A few ideas of historic events to include would be: The children’s blizzard of 1888, something about the Civil War (the battle of Gettysburg is intriguing), the story of an American immigrant
    -A funny, silly prompt
    Thank you!!!

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  37. maybe the contest should be about writing a story from an outlaw’s point of veiw, and turning him/her into a good guy.

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    1. I hear you, but then you get into “anything goes” and that gets really hard on the judges. What would be the parameters? Modern day? Fantasy? Science fiction? See the problem? I keep it with Circle C so the stories all do have something in common for the judges. How would a judge choose between just an “anything” character having problems with her family in 2023 and a science fiction story about somebody who went to Mars?

      A “write about anything” story contest really gets too complicated. Now, if somebody comes up with another idea like the Homes for Children writing contest, I’ll consider it. Like a couple of the ideas Maddy (see her comment above) suggested. But I don’t have time to research and investigate all the historical stuff out there and tweak it for what would work.

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  41. I think I write better when its a free for all, that’s why I chose it. Plus, I have several ideas for either this, or the annual contest. 🙂

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  42. What if you do a writing prompt, but we have to write Andi set in a different genre. So its all Andi, but it will be set in a different genre outside old CA. That would be smt different! And I rly like the judges only option

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