This festive season we'll be counting down to Christmas again with the online publication of 10 seasonal stories.

The winning stories will be published in December - one a day starting 12th December - and in true advent calendar style the prizes will be revealed when the story is published.

   Entry fee: £8

   Deadline for entries: 26th October 2025

   Max word count: 1000

Stories can have been previously published as long as you retain the publication rights and the publication date was before October 2024.


 Competition T&Cs

 

• Submit stories written in English through Submittable by 23.59 GMT on the deadline date (sorry late entries will not be included).
• Please include a word count on the story document
• Maximum word count is 1500 (excluding title) but there is no minimum. Please do not submit stories above this word count as they will be automatically disqualified. Sorry!
• Stories must be your own original work and they can have been previously published as long as you retain the publication rights and the publication date was before October 2024.
• By entering the competition you agree to your story being published on the WestWord website.
• If you enter the story elsewhere and it is accepted for publication before judging takes place then you will have to withdraw it and no entry fees will be refundable.
• Stories can be in any genre apart from children’s fiction.
• You can enter multiple stories but the £8 entry fee is payable each time and each story must be submitted separately.
• The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.