Enter Yahoo's 2020 short story writing contest, STOR14S

UPDATE: Voting is now closed, and the top 14 stories have been chosen. The podcast will launch on June 18, and you can listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And we’ll be using this show to help raise money for the wonderful work of GEANCO. Join us in supporting their COVID-19 prevention efforts in Nigeria.

If you’ve always fancied yourself a frustrated Enid Blyton, a J.K. Rowling just waiting to happen, or a C.S. Lewis in the wings, then there has never been a better time to put your fiction-writing skills to the test.

Use this lockdown time to put creative thought to keyboard, and enter the inaugural Yahoo short story writing contest.

Launching on April 1st and closing on April 14th, the competition will accept 1,500-word stories (no more, no less) that are suitable for children aged 7 and up.

The best 20 stories, chosen by a jury of Yahoo editors, will be summarised and put to the public for vote on Yahoo UK’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages from April 22 onwards.

The best 14 story ideas, as voted for by the public, will be recorded as radio plays (with help from a few famous friends) and released as a free podcast series, STOR14S, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Just think: you’ll have used your lockdown time creatively and productively. What’s more, when the podcast airs, you can say you helped entertain the children during isolation. Now that’s what we call Stay-Home Heroism.

Remember: you have until April 14 to submit your entry here. You can submit it as a Word document (that’s a .doc file), a Text file (that’s .txt file), or a Google document (just go File/Download/Rich Text for a .rtf file).

There aren’t many rules: you should be older than 18, your work should be original and unpublished, and you should agree to the terms and conditions. We’ve published some FAQs here, too.

If you get really stuck, you can drop us a line on [email protected], but we may be slow to respond.

And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where we’ll be dropping daily inspiration posts to help get your imagination going.

Go on: turn off the telly and get writing.