Describe a visit to the dream factory** The Sandman’s Factory Tour Are you enjoying the tour of my factory? I’m the Sandman, most people think I bring them dreams by sprinkling sleep-inducing sand into their eyes as they yawn for the final time of that day. In reality, like any other product that needs to be manufactured, I need a
Read moreThe brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – April 2026 short story competition was as follows: Your story must take place UNDERGROUND. Your story’s first and last sentences had to be questions. Your story had to include the following words: FOUR, SHARP, TAIL, YAWN (longer variations were allowed) *** The Sandman’s Factory Tour Are you enjoying the tour of my
Read moreWrite a story in which people die in very strange ways.** An Important Service Some people view my job as a medical examiner as either boring or gory. I view it as an important service – I provide answers – answers to questions raised by families, doctors, medical boards, and sometimes, sadly, even the police. But what was supposed to
Read moreThe brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – February 2026 short story competition was as follows: Each story’s theme had to be ‘EIGHT’ Each story had to include two characters meeting for the first time. Each story had to include the following words: DISCOVER, NOTICE, SHEET *** An Important Service Some people view my job as a medical examiner as
Read moreDescribe a group of humans who have a lot of time on their hands.** The Front Desk I’m the gatekeeper of fun at the Sapphire Ocean Resort. I’m the first person people see when they check in and that’s when they’re at their nicest – they’re excited for their holiday, eager to see what their room will look like and
Read moreThe brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – January 2026 short story competition was as follows: Each story had to take place at a LUXURY RESORT. Each story had to include a character overhearing something. Each story had to include the words BOOK, PINK, PUZZLE. *** The Front Desk I’m the gatekeeper of fun at the Sapphire Ocean Resort. I’m
Read moreLast year, I entered the NYC Midnight Scary Story Challenge, an international creative writing competition that challenges participants to write original scary stories using three prompts: a scare, a character, and an action. Each participant has 48 hours to write a scary story under 400 words. The judges select the top 10 writers from each group in the first round
Read moreWrite a piece from the point of view of someone evil.** Purgatory (The Waiting Room) My favourite form of torture is the waiting room. Most people associate the torture that goes on in Hell as the constant presence of demons, the fire and brimstone, darkness and stench, as well as torment and punishments. That goes on here too, but the
Read moreThe brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – September 2024 short story competition was as follows: Writers had to use the image above in ANY way as inspiration to tell their story. What writers wrote was up to them – but participants were told to imagine that if their story were ever to be printed somewhere, THIS image would make
Read moreTake some words that sound interesting – slurp, muffin, avocado, gonorrhea, pooch – and use them in a story, but with new meanings that you’ve assigned to them.** For this prompt, I decided to apply it to the short story I wrote for Furious Fiction – June 2025, which was a story where I included all 26 words of the
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