Competition Rules:

  • The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over at the time of entering. International entries are welcome.

  • All entries must be written in English.

  • Entries must be fiction.

  • You must register for the competition using your real name. You can only register once.

  • There is one secret theme for each challenge. All participants will receive the same theme. Participants will find out the theme in an email which will also include their randomly assigned genre and submission instructions. These emails will be scheduled to go out by automation when the challenge begins @ 9:00 am UK time.

  • Participants will be randomly assigned one of 12 possible genres.

  • If you want to submit your story and be in with a chance of winning the prize, You must write in the genre assigned to you.

  • You can interpret the theme however you like. We encourage participants to think outside the box when it comes to the theme. You can also interpret the assigned genre in your own way, but you must make sure the genre of your story is identifiable.

  • You can mix genres, but your assigned genre should not be overshadowed by the genre you decide to combine it with.

  • All entries must be written for adult or young adult readers. Stories aimed at children are not allowed.

  • Although these challenges are designed so that participants write a NEW story during the 7 days, everyone taking part must accept that some participants may choose to use elements from an existing (unpublished) story they have written. This is inevitable and NOT against the rules.

  • Entries must be no more than 2,000 words in length (excluding the title). There is no minimum word requirement.

  • To be in with a chance of winning, all stories submitted for judging MUST be complete and have a beginning, a middle and an end. Unfinished stories can still be exchanged during the FEEDBACK EXCHANGE in the LOVE-TO-WRITE GROUP.

  • Entries must be the participants own, original work.

  • Entries must not include photographs or illustrations.

  • All entries are judged anonymously. The participant's name must not appear anywhere on the submission piece.

  • YOU MUST INCLUDE THE GENRE AT THE TOP OF THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUR STORY. Any entry received without the assigned genre clearly displayed on their story, will NOT get sent to the judges.

  • If you have joined our LOVE-TO-WRITE GROUP, you must not post any identifying details about your story publicly in the group. Globe Soup MUST judge the stories anonymously.

  • No one associated with Globe Soup can enter this competition.

  • Entries can be resubmitted until the closing time. The last version we receive will be the one sent to the judges.

  • Only one submission per person. If you write more than one story during the challenge, you must choose only one to submit for judging.

  • Clear instructions on how to submit will be sent to participants, along with the theme and their randomly assigned genre when the challenge starts @ 9:00 am UK time. Globe Soup reserves the right to disqualify entries if the submission instructions are not followed. Disqualification on this account is at Globe Soup’s discretion.

  • There will be a countdown clock on our homepage. You must submit your story before the deadline. Do not wait until a few minutes before the deadline to submit, emails can take a few minutes to be delivered.

  • Globe Soup will not enter into any correspondence with participants about the winner. The decision of the judges is final.

  • At this time Globe Soup cannot provide feedback on entries to the competition. Participants looking for feedback can join our LOVE-TO-WRITE GROUP and take part in our FEEDBACK EXCHANGE to get extensive feedback from group members.

  • Participants must use the SAME email address for both registering and submitting. This is how we validate your entry. If you need to change your registered email address, please get in touch with Globe Soup to arrange this.

  • We will be announcing the winner of this competition about 2 months after the competition closes. You will be informed of the announcement date when the competition closes.

  • Globe Soup will choose their favourite story from each genre, these stories will not be published. The overall winner of the challenge will receive £500 and have their story published on the Globe Soup website.

  • The winner will be required to provide a short bio and a photograph of themselves to appear alongside the winning piece. A pen name or alias is permitted, but you must still register using your real name.

  • We will notify the winner by email. The winner will have 1 week to respond to this email, if we do not receive a response within this time, we reserve the right to pick another winner.

  • All Participants own the rights to their work. After the competition closes, they are free to publish elsewhere. Ownership of the winning entry remains with the participant. By winning, they give permission to Globe Soup to publish the story on the winners page of the Globe Soup website. Globe Soup will only publish the winning entry. 

  • Globe Soup cannot, for any reason, choose NOT to award the prize.

  • If you have received no email correspondence from us between registering for the competition and the start of the next challenge, you should get in touch with us at info@globesoup.net so we can find out why, you may have incorrectly entered your email address or there may be another issue with your registration.

  • Questions about the competition in general should be sent to info@globesoup.net or you can direct any queries to our Facebook Page. We are always very good at getting back to queries quickly, but during the week of the challenge we’ll be aiming to respond to any problems or concerns immediately.