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28 days. 28 prompts.
Your chance to be published.
We want to SPARK your creative muscles.
The New Year has passed, and with it the motivation and drive that got you promising yourself twenty sit-ups before you brush your teeth and to spend more time with your crayon-eating hell-raiser toddler before the cock has even crowed.
You need a challenge. You want to build the writing habit. You want your words to mean something.
Welcome to Flash Fiction February! A place where writers come together to create, hold each other to account, and have some bloody good fun along the way.
Over the course of the month (February, in case that wasn’t too obvious) you will be given a daily writing prompt from which you’ll have the opportunity to create a fresh new story of no more than 1,000 words.
Once the prompt has been issued, you’ll have until midnight the following day (approx 36 hours) to create a sparkling piece of fiction that will be entered into our competition to be published in Activated Authors’ first ever charity anthology, “Bolts of Fiction.”
What’s the catch?
There is no catch!
None, we tell you!
The Flash Fiction February challenge is 100% FREE to enter for any and all writers. We’re after a diverse range of voices, stories, styles, and talents to feature in our inaugural anthology. No matter your genre, no matter your background, we are hungry to hear your stories.
Meet the Editors
Your stories will be judged and edited by Daniel Willcocks, Samantha Frost and members of our Activated Authors team. Find out more further down this page.
How Does It Work?
Step 1
Register your interest and jump into our online community.
Step 2
Keep an eye out for your daily prompts.
Step 3
Write your daily story in response to the prompts.
Step 4
Submit your responses within 36 hours of prompts being issued.
What you need to know
Rules, guidelines, and templates to help you with your submissions.
Word counts: Up to 1,000 words
Payment: 3x free contributor ebooks per accepted author.
Deadline: You’ll have until midnight of the follow day after each prompt has been issued (approx 36 hours) to submit your story for acceptance with that particular prompt.
Our Charity: All royalties made from this anthology will go toward supporting World Land Trust. Find out more about how we support WLT HERE
Multiple submissions: Multiple submissions are welcome. You can submit a story for every prompt, and even two or three for each prompt, should you wish.
Reprints: No reprints. We want all original stories not submitted to or published in other publications.
Submission Guidelines
A submission Word template is available for download HERE.
- Stories over the word count will not be considered
- Stories must be saved in an editable format (i.e. preferably as a Word document). PDFs will be ignored.
- Times New Roman
- Size 12 font
- 1.5 paragraph spacing
- Place your name, the number of the prompt (i.e. Prompt #3) and your preferred contact email address in the header of the document
- Sex, violence, and coarse language are accepted as long as they serve the story.
- No hate speech or fan fiction
- Accepted stories will be held in a 2-year non-exclusive agreement.
Failure to adhere to submission guidelines may result in immediate rejection from the anthology.
Editing Team
Daniel Willcocks
Founder of Activated Authors and author of over 60 published works, including several anthologies (The Omens Call, The Other Side, The Other Stories), Dan is passionate about story, creativity, and giving authors a chance to share their works with the world.
Samantha Frost
A.K.A. “Mastress of None,” Sam is a video-editor, poet, writer, painter, actor and creator. Based in the south of England (but not born there, that’s an important distinction) Sam is passionate about helping creatives while battling the will of a medium-sized human and the “affectionate” sneezes of a smaller sized pug.
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
No, you don’t have to do anything. You are autonomous creatures and we are not (yet) supreme overlords. If you find yourself drawn to more prompts than others, then write to your heart’s content.
Yes. It doesn’t matter what stage of the challenge you join, as long as you’re able to submit within our 36-hour window for each prompt. The sooner you enter, the more chances you’ll have to make our anthology.
You’ll still be able to write for the prompt, however you submission will not count towards entries for our anthology.
No. Your 1,000 word count limit (for most challenges), only includes the content of your story.
The “Bolts of Fiction” anthology will be published through our “Activated Authors Press” imprint, which is a publishing imprint branch of “Devil’s Rock Publishing, Ltd.”
We aim to have the final “Bolts of Fiction” book published in the summer of 2023.
No. Since this is a quick-write challenge, we will accept stories that haven’t been edited. Should your story make the final publication, it will be edited by a member of our Activated Authors team.
If your story is accepted into the “Bolts of Fiction” anthology, you will receive 3x ebook contributor copies for your inclusion. Since this is a charity anthology, our aim is to keep all costs as low as possible to maximise the amount that we can support our chosen charity for this publication.
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