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WRITER'S GAMES ARCHIVE
Not your ordinary writing competition
In our ten-year history of running this competition, we've met a lot of amazing people—competitors and judges. The Writer's Games has inspired thousands of stories (and some poems and screenplays!) and millions of words. Writers are encouraged to use this competition to try new genres, spark ideas, and create the basis for short story collections and longer works. Winning is hard because there's so much talent here; judgement is based on expression of the Event's Core Concepts. Overall winners show consistent quality each week.
Each portion of The Writer's Games requires thousands of hours of volunteer labor. Donate here to help keep us running!
Please note information about Teams portions is not listed below. Past Teams portions (2014-18) will be detailed on the Teams Challenge page as soon as I find a moment to add it.
Hey, writer!
Just a quick head's up: I'm currently working on reformatting every publication (all 30+ titles). If you were featured in anything we've published, you'll receive a digital contributor copy as soon as I'm finished. Keep in mind I'm also reformatting every feedback document we've ever created (several thousand), reorganizing, and repackaging them into folders to distribute via email... while adding past winner interviews to our blog, refreshing our internship program, planning 2025 Writer's Games, and keeping everything else here (WayWords, Tales, Potluck, Conference, etc) afloat. It's taking longer than expected. You can reach out with questions here.
Winner Interviews:
Writer's Games 2024
After a much-needed and greatly appreciated break in 2023, Writer's Games returned in 2024 with the 18th portion and the reminder that your writing is magical. I could wax poetic about the love of and excitement for writing this competition inspires but... if you're here, you likely already know. Hundreds of writers around the world pushed themselves to new heights, wrote incredible tales, and discovered things about their own personal styles they never knew before. Several million words came together this portion and we're already planning 2025.
Writer's Games 2022
Our ninth consecutive year brought the 17th portion in 2022. Our steady growth is a constant source of inspiration and this year, we tried a few new things with Writer's Games. Hundreds of writers around the world created new tales, submitting several million words to five brand new Events. While we love this competition so much, we were exhausted by the end of the internship program and needed a break in 2023 to come back stronger in 2024.
Writer's Games 2021
In 2021, we decided to focus on offering more publication opportunities to writers around the world. This left us little time to produce multiple portions of this intense competition. Instead, we opted for one big extravaganza... and we were not disappointed. Hundreds of writers around the world joined our community for the summer portion, resulting in millions of words and so many amazing new worlds, we were in awe.
Writer's Games 2020
Our seventh year was bigger and better than ever. While the world around us socially distanced in quarantine, we pushed for inventive, new ways to inspire. Writers around the world submitted more than 2.5 million words in Games entries this year. We made new friends, judged wild new style combinations, and produced two amazing anthologies as a result. We also saw two winners land publishing contracts as a result.
WOW.
72 Hours of Insanity:
Anthology of The Games, vols. 8 & 9
eBook and Print
Writer's Games 2019
With lots of schedule changes at play, Portion 1 took place over March and April in 2019. We worried this deviation from our traditional portion schedule would limit the number of writers who could participate; we were pleasantly surprised to find more overwhelming support for this writing competition. Just like in 2018, more than four hundred writers competed and gathered to accept the challenge of six stories in six weeks.
Prizes for both portions were graciously supplied by Games sponsors Out of Print and Litographs.
72 Hours of Insanity:
Anthology of The Games, vols. 6 & 7
eBook and Print
Writer's Games 2018
After much inter-team conflict and entitlement, 2018 saw the last Teams portion for the foreseeable future. The Writer's Workout community focused on more positive things: TWO Individual portions in 2018! More than four hundred writers competed in the Individual Writer's Games in April and August. The Writer's Workout was thrilled for the support of For Reading Addicts and OmmWriter, who also provided outstanding prizes for our winners. Stacked with exciting new challenges, 72-hour weekly deadlines, and the introduction of the Extended Critique option, this year's Writer's Games was the most challenging to date.
72 Hours of Insanity:
Anthology of The Games, vols. 4 & 5
eBook and Print
Writer's Games 2017
2017 saw many positive changes to the Writer's Games: a separate Games Twitter account, site and Twitter Event announcements (in addition to the Facebook releases), definitions of Events, and Core Concepts to help writers understand what judges wanted to see. The writing community exploded with anticipation and excitement over our little competition. Within the first six days of open registration, 2017's total exceeded 2016. We blew past our stretch goal in the first two weeks and within three weeks of opening, we had to switch to a waiting list to ensure a consistent level of quality care for our participants. To accommodate as many writers as possible, we reopened our internship to new applicants—doubling our program and allowing us to accept the first one hundred of the 268 additional names on the waitlist. Three hundred writers competed in the Individual portion of Writer's Games 2017; our most successful event to date. With a second internship for the Teams portion, eight teams competed for victory. Writer's Games 2017 maintained the People's Choice Event, feedback for every entry, seven guest judges, and a break in the middle for Camp NaNoWriMo. The Writer's Games anthology published the top five weekly winners of the Individual portion and top three Teams portion weekly placements. Winning entries are available in vol. 3.
