Writing Challenge. -STOCK PHOTO
Provide a photo, and they will write – and write copiously. This simple principle has buoyed the Florida Weekly’s Writing Challenge for years. This year marks the 16th year of the contest in which readers craft short fiction stories based on photo prompts. The photos have inspired readers to write and submit hundreds of stories over the years.
Here are the basics: Every two weeks, the paper publishes photos to inspire readers to write short stories and submit them via email. Each two-week period constitutes one round of the contest. Enter as many – or as few – rounds as your creativity, time and discipline allow, but only one story per writer per round is permitted. At the end of the contest, the newspaper prints the best stories, and the winners receive prizes.
The deadline for Round 1 submissions is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, May 26. The contest rules are listed below.
Choose one of these two photographs provided as a starting point for a short story of no more than 750 words. Deadline for Round 1 submissions is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, May 26. -LAURA TICHY / FLORIDA WEEKLY
Choose one of these two photographs provided as a starting point for a short story of no more than 750 words. Deadline for Round 1 submissions is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, May 26. -LAURA TICHY / FLORIDA WEEKLY
Writing Challenge Rules
Here are the rules you must follow for your entry to qualify as a submission to the 2026 Writing Challenge:
For each round, you have until 11:59 p.m. of the listed deadline date to email us your original story using one of the two photographs shown for the round as your starting point. That’s right — you must choose only one of the two photos and submit only one story.
Type your first and last name, email address, phone number and city/state of residence above your story.
Next, type a title at the top of your masterpiece. Then, type up the short fiction story that the photo prompt you chose inspires you to write. Please, do not use language that cannot be printed in a newspaper (i.e. four-letter expletives) as we print the stories unedited, so this issue has disqualified otherwise great stories in the past.
Keep your entry to a maximum of 750 words, please, which includes your contact information and title; there is no minimum word count.
A must: Run your story through your word processor’s spellchecker!
And a new rule, since we now find ourselves living in the sci-fi future of intelligent machines: This is a contest for your original writing, not ChatGPT’s or Grammarly AI’s writing. Do not use any AI (artificial intelligence) programs to help you write your story.
Extremely important: When you type the subject line of your email, start with the code WC26 (with no space between the letters and numbers) to signal that this is an entry for the 2026 Writing Challenge; then add the round you are entering (such as “Round 1”) and type a simple description of the photo prompt you are responding to (such as “man with dog”). This description can, and probably will, be different from the title you gave your story. Here is an example of a properly formatted subject line: WC26 Round 1 Man with dog photo.
Copy and paste the full text of your entry into the body of your email, and double-check that the full text is there before sending. (Do not attach your story as a file as these frequently will not open.) Also, do not embed any images in your entry.
The Writing Challenge moderator’s email address is laura.tichy-smith@floridaweekly.com (be sure to include the hyphen between tichy and smith in the email address). Email your entry by no later than the deadline listed for the particular round you are entering.
Once you have sent an entry for a round, you cannot submit a revised version of the story, so make certain you completed your story; checked the word count; used spellchecker; double-checked that the entire entry pasted into the body of the email; and properly formatted the subject line.
Helpful Info
The challenge moderator will send you a personal email acknowledging that your entry has been seen by a human; please allow up to one week to receive this acknowledgment. Remember to check your junk or spam box if you don’t see the acknowledgment email after one week.
Submissions sent by U.S. Mail cannot be considered for the contest. All entries must be typed and emailed. Here’s why: All prizes will be awarded via email. The entries must be typed, because Florida Weekly prints the winner’s entry exactly as it was received (unedited).
Round 2 and beyond
We’ll print new photo prompts for Round 2 in our May 27-28 issues, and you’ll have until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, June 9, to send us another story for Round 2 — just one. And so on, with new prompts every two weeks, for a total of five rounds this year. The deadline to enter Round 5 is Tuesday, July 21.
The 2026 Writing Challenge winner and three honorable mentions will be notified by no later than the end of July, with the first-place winner receiving tuition to an online Gotham Writers Workshop. Three honorable mentions will also receive a prize.
We’ll publish the top four stories along with an interview with each winning writer.
Runners-up, usually 5th through 10th-place (but could be more, depending upon the quality of the stories submitted this year), will be published as space permits in the weeks following the winners’ article. Runners-up simply win the bragging rights of seeing their stories in print.
So, carefully read the rules again, study the photo prompts for Round 1, and then tap into your creative juices. Just remember: The deadline for this first round is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, May 26. We look forward to hearing from you.
Questions? Email laura.tichy-smith@floridaweekly.com with “WC26 question” in the subject line.