Barny

Welcome all.

September Song, music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, is a bittersweet evocation of life and love as one grows older. September, we hear, is when we look back at what seemed like a plentiful supply of time, and recognise how precious is the time to come. A time of contemplation and transition.

I don’t intend you to w…[Read more]

I am not going to explain what these choices mean – not now anyway. They will have an influence on your story, but I have every confidence that you will cope. You have all the skill and application necessary. I will explain them later, but that won’t be until the group becomes private.

And please don’t take these choices too seriously. Yes, there…[Read more]

Ask questions here. Also, if you have any great ideas that might be answers, feel free to post them.

Some Basic Story Rules and Guidelines

The challenge is to produce a short story. In the way that the term is usually understood, what is needed is a work of fiction. By all means stretch this definition as you like, to include, for example, an imaginative account of true events, but please avoid essays, reportage, political polemic,…[Read more]

On the face of it, what you have to do is quite simple. However, those of you have been through this before in previous challenges will know that in fact it is extraordinarily tough.

When the writing stage of the challenge closes on 8 February 2026 at 22:00 UK time, the voting stage begins. No doubt most of you will have read many of the entries…[Read more]