⏳ Weekly Writing Contest | October 19: The Doorway
This week's guest judge is author, podcaster, and writing coach Caroline Donahue. Submit your entry by Friday, October 24th at 12pm ET/5pm BST.
Welcome to the Weekly Writers’ Hour Contest!
This week’s challenge invites you to begin with an entrance and explore what it means to cross a threshold.
*PLUS* Our friends at Scrivener are adding their writing software to the first-place winning prize bundle. Read more below.
📝 PROMPT
Begin with an entrance. Someone walks into a room or crosses a threshold that changes everything. Open the door, and let the story open wider than the reader expects.
Unpublished pieces of 500 words or less in any genre are eligible.
Submissions are due by Friday, October 24th, at 5pm BST / 12pm ET.
Keep reading for more information on prizes and FAQs – plus an introduction to this week’s guest judge, author, podcaster and writing coach Caroline Donahue.
Happy writing!
The Writers’ Hour Magazine Team
Meet Our Guest Judge: Caroline Donahue
Caroline Donahue is a writer, writing coach, and host of The Secret Library podcast. For the past twenty years, she has combined her Masters in Psychology and Expressive Arts with her experience in writing, books, and publishing and the tarot to make an ongoing study of the writing process.
She has used her methods to support private clients, students in courses, and herself as she’s written novels. She is also the author of the Story Arcana guides: The Author’s Journey and, most recently, Writing through Fear. She writes on Substack at Book (& Craft) Alchemy.
A Note from Our Editorial Team
This week’s prompt invites you to begin with an entrance. Someone steps across a threshold—into a room, a memory, or a moment—and the world tilts.
As you write, linger at the doorway. What does the character see first? What is revealed or concealed in that instant of crossing?
Whether you’re writing fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, let this entrance be more than a way in. Let it open something larger than the room itself.
How to Submit:
Submissions should be made through our online submission platform, Submittable, and formatted as a Word Doc.
For more details, please read the full Contest Guidelines.
The winning entries will receive:
First Prize:
$65 USD (£50 GBP)
Publication in Writers’ Hour Magazine
3-months of London Writers’ Salon Silver Membership (£79 value)
*NEW* Scrivener Writing Software (£55 value)
Commemorative Writers’ Hour trophy mug
Second Prize:
Publication in Writers’ Hour Magazine
1-month of London Writers’ Salon Silver Membership (£29 value)
Third Prize:
Publication in Writers’ Hour Magazine
FAQs:
What genres can I write in?
All genres - fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc - are welcome.Is there a word limit?
Your piece must be 500 words or less. Pieces that exceed this will not be considered. There is no minimum word limit.Do I need to submit in a specific format?
Please follow the instructions outlined in the Contest Guidelines.When is the deadline to submit?
Submissions are due by Friday, October 24th at 5pm BST / 12pm ET / 9am PT. Submissions received outside this window will not be considered.When will the winner be announced?
The winner will be contacted via Submittable, and the winning entries will be published in Writers’ Hour Magazine by Saturday, November 15th.Can I submit a piece I’ve already published?
Only previously unpublished pieces are eligible for this contest. (Published means anything that has already been made publicly available in print or online.)Can I use AI tools (like ChatGPT) to help write my contest submission?
No. We do not accept any AI-assisted writing for contest entries. All submissions must be the author’s original work and human-generated. Use of AI will disqualify you from this and any future contests.
Congratulations to the winners of Here and Elsewhere!
We are thrilled to share the contest results for the week of September 21. Writers were invited to explore the multiplicities of home, identity, and belonging. Special thanks once again to our guest judges Lauren Razavi and Eman Zabi of Borderless.
First Place: Selves by Paulina Jarantewicz
Second Place: All The Women in My Family Live in My Head by
Salena CashaThird Place: The Return of Spring by Nicole Fitton
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated. It’s a pleasure to share these pieces with you, and we can’t wait to see what you create in the next contest!
PS: ✍️ Write with us daily at Writers’ Hour
Come work on your submission at Writers’ Hour—our daily silent writing sprints—where writers around the world gather together to write. It’s the perfect environment to focus, share space with other writers, and make progress on your contest entry.
🔒 Paid Subscriber Perk: Editorial Feedback Lottery
This week, three paid subscribers will be chosen at random to receive personalized feedback from our editorial team on their contest submission.
How to enter the feedback lottery:
 | A guest post by
|