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Contest based on Monday's Daily Creativity Prompt

Every weekday morning from March to late August 2020, we published a Daily Creativity prompt. We decided to get everyone focused by turning every Monday's prompt into a Flash Contest! For this rolling weekly contest, all you have to do is pick up the Daily Creativity prompt published on a Monday, and submit your response to it via Submittable by midnight PST on the Friday of the same week.

Contest Details

Genre:  The Daily Creativity prompt will specify exactly what we want you to do. Make absolutely sure that you are responding to the prompt that was posted on the Monday of the current week by checking the date on the post. Find the prompt here. Look for the words "Flash Contest" added to the title (especially if you are looking on a different day of the week).
Length:  It depends on the prompt. Some of them will have specific instructions (e.g. write a 10 line poem, or a three paragraph piece of prose, or compose a still life photograph). Other writing prompts might be more open, suggesting you write a story or rework one you already have, or make a piece of art on a theme. Where the prompt specifies, follow the guidance on length and/or medium. If it doesn't specify, it's up to you how long or short you make your writing (but remember, this is a flash contest, so we don't expect you to write a novel!).
Age Limit:  For the flash contests, we will accept work from those age 14 or under.
Deadline:  Fridays at 12:00 midnight (Pacific Time).
Entry fee:  Free!
How to Enter:  Via Submittable.
Results and Prizes:  We will select up to 5 of our favourites by the following Wednesday. 
Publication: We will announce the names of each week's winners and any Honorable Mentions in the following week's Saturday Newsletter; and publish the winners' work on the Stone Soup Blog on the same day.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hello. I’ve been submitting my daughter’s work and have a question. Do you notify us if she’s won the Daily Prompt and will be published?

    • Hello! Yes, all entrants are informed once we have finished judging. We will have a decision by Wednesday.

  2. Hi! I’ve been trying to click the link to submit my work but there is an error. Is anyone else having problems with submitting?

    • The links are all fine, and they take you away from the Stone Soup site to the submissions system, called Submittable. You will need to sign into Submittable in order to be able to send in your work.

    • Yes, I have been having problems with submitting. It has a whole page telling me how to submit, but it never has a box where I write my story…

      • You are on the right page, but there is another step: you need to push the button at the very top of that page, that says “Click here to submit”. That will take you away from Stonesoup.com and into our Submittable site (Submittable is the platform we use to manage all the work that is sent to us). When you get to that page, you will see a list of categories. Find the Flash Contest category, and you can fill in the form and attach your document right there. We are looking forward to reading your entry!

    • The entrants are all informed of the results on the Wednesday following the closing date (via a message from Submittable). Then, the winners are publicly announced and their work published on our website a couple of days later, on the Saturday.
      So, for this week’s Flash Contest, the timeline looks like this:
      – Monday 13th April – Daily Creativity prompt for the week’s contest published.
      – Friday 17th April – Closing date for entries via Submittable (midnight PST).
      – Wednesday 22nd April – Entrants informed of the judges’ decision.
      – Saturday 25th April – Winners’ names announced in the Saturday Newsletter; Winners’ work published in a special post at Stonesoup.com.
      I hope this helps! The same timing applies every week.

  3. Dear StoneSoup team,

    We submitted my daughter’s poem “Uzbekistan pupils against Coronavirus”, and on May 5 we received an email notifying that her poem was accepted to be posted on the website and newsletter. However, it has not been posted by today yet. Shall we wait for the next week?

    Sincerely,

    Durdona

    • The acceptance from our Submittable system should have notified you of the publication date – in this case 18th May!

    • Hi Simone, yes, we do have some art prompts and activities. You can scan through the whole collection of Daily Creativity Prompts on this page. Plus, you will also find some longer-form Art Activities on our Activities page, here. Third option: if you try typing “art activity” into the search box, you should also bring up a good collection of the art activities we have published on our site. Enjoy!

    • There is a specific submissions category for blog posts at our Submittable site. If you click on the Submit option on the home page top menu, you will find a page that tells you everything about submitting to Stone Soup, with a link to the Submittable site.

    • The information in the post is correct. We decided to extend the age limit to 14 and under for all our new programs started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes the weekly Flash Contest based on our Monday Daily Creativity prompt, submissions to our specific COVID-19 blog category, and participation (for subscribers and contributors) in our Writing Workshop and Book Club.
      We have always allowed submissions from ages 14 and under for our Annual Book Contest.
      The submission age for everything else – all categories for the Magazine, and our regular blog and book reviews – remains 13 and under.

    • Hello Vai, we will post the prompt for June 8th… on June 8th! It will go live on the website just after midnight Pacific time.

  4. I posted a story for the prompt on June 1st and I won, and the email I got said it would be posted in the blog. When will it be posted?

    • Hi there Lila! The flash contest winners are announced in the Saturday Newsletter, and the post with the names of the winners and their work is posted to the Stone Soup blog on the same day. So, your story will go live at Stonesoup.com first thing on Saturday morning (actually overnight on Friday, just after midnight PST). You’ll see the post appear on the Weekly Flash Contest Winners’ Roll page.

  5. Is the flash contest prompt for this week the text message story? Or is it posted somewhere else? Because I can’t find it in the usual spot.

    • Our head office is in California, so often emails sent or items that are posted on the website in local time on the west coast of the United States (PST) will appear later in your day if you are in a different timezone. That’s why we make sure to say in the contest deadlines that the day/time we are referring to is Pacific Standard Time (PST). I hope that helps!

    • If the prompt you are responding to doesn’t stipulate, then the length and form are entirely up to you – but remember the judges have to read a LOT of entries every single week, so maybe don’t make it super long unless that’s what your story demands!

    • Hello! No, you don’t have to add the song name to the poem if you don’t want to, but it’s helpful for us if you mention it in your cover letter.

  6. I was wondering where the first prompt of September was, and I looked around but the most recent prompt was from August. Where can I find the September monthly Flash Contest?

  7. On this page of the website, it says that they should be submitted by 12:00 AM (technically on Saturday). But on submittable, it says the deadline is Saturday Noon. I submitted my work a week or two ago and didn’t get in, but I did get an email back. Can you maybe clear it up on when exactly it needs to be submitted?

    • Hi Lina, up until the end of August the contest based on the daily prompt happened every week, based on the Monday prompt, and the deadline was midnight PST (or 23:59 if you want to be picky!) on Fridays. At the end of the summer, the schedule changed. Since September 2020, it has been a monthly contest (based on the first weekly prompt of the month), and the deadline is midday PST (or 11:59) on Sundays. The post you have left this comment on is one of the ones from last summer, so the details are correct for that past contest. All of the current contest pages have the correct details for that specific contest. You need to check that the prompt you are looking at is the current contest prompt, and the best way to be sure is to always double check the contest page, here, and to look at the Monthly Flash Contest & Honor Roll page for all the details. I hope this helps!

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