Group-Sponsored New Year? Contest

Details

Happy New Year! Or is it? Third Drawer Down invites you to write a story to explore what the coming months might bring. Or take us back in history to repeat something that’s already happened through the eyes of your characters. Your story can be historical, present day, or the near future.

You’re invited to put your character(s) through their paces. Is their life in turmoil or in splendor as they look toward the new year?

Is their “want” for what is to come fulfilled, or not? Do they try desperately to puzzle out how to help their hopes for the new year come about? Do they take action? Or do they sit back and assume it’s out of their hands good or bad? Do they look to history and worry about repeating past mistakes or is your character in the past, braving what is to come in whatever part of history you choose? Your setting can be anywhere in the real world.

Take your character’s future into your hands and be the one who decides. But… the caveats are… no fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, horror, or any sub-genres of those. Let’s be real. We’ll accept contemporary fiction or creative non-fiction. Keep this about your character’s personal journey of what they are going through rather than the wider world though that journey can be affected by it.

You have up to 1,500 words to decide your characters fate. (If needed, we’ll accept fudging up to 2,000 but not a word more!) Try to keep between 500-1,500 because… well… the clock is ticking! We don’t want your character to have too much time, do we? Will they get what they hope for in the new year or won’t they?

Our Judge is Pamela Norsworthy. Her book War Bonds, which takes readers on a gut-wrenching journey through love and loss in World War II Europe, earned a 2025 Georgia Author of the Year nomination. Her next book, The Florentine Entanglement, a story of the Cold War, will be published in January 2026. Pamela produced, wrote, and anchored for CNN Headline News, anchored for the Airport Channel, and freelanced with the CNN Washington bureau. With her journalism background, her love of research, as well as tapping into her father’s vast experience with his military career, she continues to impress with her novels as she works on her next book, set in South America. We're delighted that she’s willing to take time out of her busy schedule for our contest.

Good luck!

Prize money for this contest is provided by the Scribophile Writing Contest Prize Fund.

Prizes

Rules

• Entires must be between 500-1,500 words (fudging to 2,000 but not a word more!)

• No novel chapters, poetry, or non-fiction. Creative non-fiction is okay.

• No fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, horror, etc. Keep it contemporary.

• Your story should not be overly violent or sexually explicit.

• Work submitted must not have previously won or placed in any other contest on or off Scribophile.

• No previously published stories.

• Only one entry per member.

• Entries must have Public visibility on Scribophile until winners are announced.

• You may post your work, receive critiques, and edit until the deadline.

Submission guidelines

• To post your work for this contest, check the box that says “Enter this work into the Group-Sponsored New Year? contest.” Your work will automatically be considered. The check box will be visible until the contest deadline, which is in UTC time.

• Entry is free, but you'll need karma points to post your work. You can earn karma points by writing critiques of work by other members.