BFS Short Story Competition Opens For Entries!

Lead judge Steven Poore declares he’s ready for your stories, dear members!

It’s that time again!

What time is that?

The clocks have gone forward, spring has sprung, and the gates of the annual British Fantasy Society Short Story Competition are once more open for entries!

What does that mean?

We’re looking forward to running the rule over all the different worlds and people that you send our way, their dilemmas, decisions, deals and destinies, their hopes and fears and conflicts, quests and questions. The joy of judging this competition is in reading so many different tales, in discovering how other writers work with their craft. And you know, you don’t have to be a member of the BFS to join in (although members get a free entry every year!).

The rules?

Simple! Find these at here.

The prizes on offer?

The top three stories, to be announced at Fantasycon 2025 (held as part of World Fantasycon this year), will all be published in BFS Horizons, and those writers will receive cash awards and a year’s membership of the British Fantasy Society. It’s all up for grabs.

What do you want?

Ah, now that’s a good question. Subject to the entry guidelines of course, anything is fair game, but here’s a few tips gleaned from my experience as Lead Judge so far:

• Tell a complete story. Start, middle, end. It doesn’t necessarily matter what order they’re in, but all stories need a structure.
• Constant humour can be difficult to pull off. Remember that even comic fantasy needs some tonal variances.
• Make us invested in your characters. Unlikeable narrators or POV characters can hold a reader back.
• Secondary worlds are cool, but don’t spend half the story explaining the history – show us how characters navigate your world.
• Don’t self-reject! All shades of the fantastic are welcome!

How long do I have?

The Gates of Submission remain open until midnight on 30th June, when they will be hauled closed again by teams of skeletal squirrels who move to the rhythm of Ravel’s Bolero (it wasn’t my choice, but they didn’t like anything more modern, and I wasn’t willing to go with their preferred Brandenberg Concerto #3, so we compromised).