November 2009
Short Story: Once Bitten Twice Shy
Each year we have a short story competition with a well known proverb as the theme. This year's proverb is usually taken to mean that a bad experience makes you wary of the same thing happening again. Who has a bad experience, what happened and how it affects their behaviour are for you to tell us.

December 2009
Short Story: Flying
A frequent flyer is the main character in this story. He or she could be a pilot, an air hostess or some member of the cabin crew. Or they could be a business executive whose work requires them to fly to meetings and conferences.
Poetry: Winter poetry
The December poetry competition has the theme Winter, and we will be looking for poems that celebrate the season in any of its moods.

January 2010
Short Story: Getting lost
Kicking off the year, our first competition asks for your stories in which your hero or heroine manages to get lost. The where, when and how are all up to you, but your story will need to cover the reasons, and perhaps, how he or she is found.

February 2010
Short Story: Sea Story
This competition is for stories that have some connection with the sea or with characters for whom the sea is an important part of their life. As long as there is a sea connection, you have an open brief.
Poetry: Sunday Morning
What does Sunday morning mean for you? A lazy morning, perhaps, with a leisurely breakfast and a read of the Sunday papers? Or maybe an active morning spent out walking or working hard in the garden. Whatever the theme means to you, tell us in 32 lines or less.

March 2010
Short Story: Window Cleaner
28-year-old window cleaner Len is the main character in your short story for this month’s competition. Perhaps he sees something suspicious going on through a window; possibly he rescues a cat stranded on a roof; or maybe he just finds that cleaning windows all day gives him a new outlook on life.

April 2010
Short Story: Forgetfulness
The theme for this month’s short story is forgetfulness. Whether it’s a simple slip of the mind, a symptom of a troubled marriage, or a sign of memory failing with old age, how you handle the topic is up to you.
Poetry: First Line
You’ll have an easy start with this month’s poetry competition: we give you the first line and ask you to develop it into a fully-rounded poem however you choose. This year’s line is: The silver birch, the oak, the lime.

May 2010
Short Story: Holiday Story
With summer season drawing near, it’s time for our Holiday Story competition, with a straightforward brief that your main character goes on holiday. What happens while he or she is away is up to you.

June 2010
Short Story: 1,000 words
A restricted word count is the only challenge you will have to overcome in June’s short story competition. The theme is open, but you will have to tell the whole story in only 1,000 words.

July 2010
Short Story: Friendship
Friendship is the theme of this month’s short story competition, whether it’s friends forever, or something less than good friends, you will probably want to convey something of that special bond that sees people through the good and bad times.

August 2010
Short Story & Poetry: Generation Gap
It seems today that young people grow up more quickly, and older people lead active lives much longer, than ever before. So is the generation gap widening? Or are we seeing a much greater level of understanding between generations in today’s society? These are themes you might choose to explore for our Generation Gap competitions, which, unusually, share the theme across both poetry and short stories.

September 2010
Short Story: Last Line
September sees our annual (and very popular) last line short story competition. We give you the last line of a story, and invite you to write the story that leads up to that closing line. This year, your last line is: At least, thought Sandra, there will be no more silent telephone calls.

October 2010
Short Story: Impatience
At sometime or other we all get impatient with someone or something. So impatience provides the theme for this month’s short story competition. It’s up to you to tell us who is getting impatient and why.

November 2010
Short story: Musician
The short story you write for this competition has to be about a musician. And that gives you a wide brief: your musician might play the piano, or the bugle, or the clarinet, or the guitar; and your musician may play in a symphony orchestra or in a rock group, or may simply go busking on the streets.
Poetry: Last Line
For this poetry competition, we suggest a closing line and ask you to write the poem that leads up to that final line. Your last line is: And so she wore her little black dress.

December 2010
Short Story: Homecoming
The theme for this month’s short story competition is: Homecoming. It is perhaps a topical subject as we approach Christmas, the season when everyone likes to be at home with their family. But the homecoming in your story does not need to have any connection with the season at all, just find an unusual story to tell.

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