Comments that leave you shaking your head

[BryanRichardson]

Can a contest only be entered during the actual writing process of a story? I'd never considered the contests before.

I don’t understand the question, but the story contests and challenges often occur every year. There is a good list of the 2026 challenges and contests here.

If you have a story idea that fits any of those categories write the story and hold it until the submission date opens up. It is worth it for the extra views even if you have to tweak the concept a bit to fit.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Thank you so much. I am honored to read that you think so highly of that story. It means a lot that you think I'm underrated and you liked it despite it being outside of your usual genre.

Can a contest only be entered during the actual writing process of a story? I'd never considered the contests before.

The contests are meant for standalone stories written for that contest. So you wouldn't be able to enter something you've already written. They can't be part of a series, either. There are certain criteria that need to be met. They have winners and prize money attached for the top 3 stories. You need 25 votes to qualify, and the 3 highest vote-scorers win prizes and a snazzy W.
List of contests: https://forum.literotica.com/threads/the-lit-2026-special-contest-schedule.1647210/

There are also challenges, which don't have any prize money or winners, but they operate on a similar principle of writing about a theme. All the stories are published together in a single list of stories that were written for that challenge. It's more for fun than anything.
List of challenges: https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ized-challenge-schedule-updated-5-26.1642737/

Both contests and challenges are good ways to get your stories in front of more eyes. Although contests tend to come with more malicious voting, but most of them get swept prior to determining the winner.

 

[Actingup]

The contests are meant for standalone stories written for that contest. So you wouldn't be able to enter something you've already written. They can't be part of a series, either. There are certain criteria that need to be met. They have winners and prize money attached for the top 3 stories. You need 25 votes to qualify, and the 3 highest vote-scorers win prizes and a snazzy W.
List of contests: https://forum.literotica.com/threads/the-lit-2026-special-contest-schedule.1647210/

There are also challenges, which don't have any prize money or winners, but they operate on a similar principle of writing about a theme. All the stories are published together in a single list of stories that were written for that challenge. It's more for fun than anything.
List of challenges: https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ized-challenge-schedule-updated-5-26.1642737/

Both contests and challenges are good ways to get your stories in front of more eyes. Although contests tend to come with more malicious voting, but most of them get swept prior to determining the winner.

Minor clarification - you can't enter something you've already published. You can repurpose a draft story. However, I wouldn't recommend that as I think it works much better to take the contest theme and really use it to challenge you. Winning a prize is tough (the chances are about 1-2%, there is malicious competitive voting, and long stories tend to be favoured), but improving your writing for a wide audience is almost a given as an outcome, and the process is also a lot of fun if you don't take things too seriously (ahem, says the guy who created playlists on multiple channels for his story and listened to the music obsessively for hours and hours while writing it).

 

[lovecraft68]

Minor clarification - you can't enter something you've already published. You can repurpose a draft story. However, I wouldn't recommend that as I think it works much better to take the contest theme and really use it to challenge you. Winning a prize is tough (the chances are about 1-2%, there is malicious competitive voting, and long stories tend to be favoured), but improving your writing for a wide audience is almost a given as an outcome, and the process is also a lot of fun if you don't take things too seriously (ahem, says the guy who created playlists on multiple channels for his story and listened to the music obsessively for hours and hours while writing it).

One more bit of clarification for those who may not know. To qualify for a contest the story cannot have been previously published ON LIT in the past but could be published elsewhere and then posted as a contest entry here. Example, if you had something in the market or on another site like SOL, you can still enter it in a contest here.