The Bartleby Snopes Dialogue Only Writing Contest is back. Last year we awarded $450 to our winners.

Dialogue Only

Prizes: A minimum of $290 will be awarded, with $250 going to first place and $10 to our four honorable mentions. Our five finalists will also appear in Issue 5 of the magazine due out in January 2011. Last year we awarded $450 in prize money. For every entry over 25, an additional $5 will be awarded to the first place story.

The Rules: Compose a short story entirely of dialogue. You may use as many characters as you want. Your entry must be under 2000 words. Your entry does not have to follow standard rules for writing dialogue. Your entry cannot use any narration (this includes tag lines such as he said, she said, etc.). These are the only rules. Manipulate them however you see fit.

The Winner: The winning entry will be the story that most effectively uses dialogue to deliver a powerful and engaging story.

Entry Fee: $10 for unlimited entries (only one entry allowed at a time; see Response/Notification section for more details). Entry fee is due at time of submission and will be collected through Submishmash (you may pay using a credit card or with Paypal). Note: We must have at least 25 entries or the contest will be cancelled and all entry fees will be returned.

Deadline: All initial submissions must be received by September 12th. Winners will be announced by October 12th.

Response/Notification: Our contest runs with a rolling rejection process. We will always keep our five favorite stories. You will be notified immediately if your story falls out of the top 5, and you will have the opportunity to resubmit. There is no extra cost for subsequent submissions, but you may only submit one story at a time. September 26th is the final day for resubmissions.

Submission Guidelines: All entries should be submitted using our Submishmash page: http://bartlebysnopes.submishmash.com/submit. Your name, contact information, bio and word count should appear in a brief cover letter and at the end of your story. The title of your document should be the same as the title of your story.

No simultaneous submissions or previously published stories are allowed. If your story is discovered to be simultaneous or previously published, you will become ineligible from competition in the contest and your entry fee will be forfeited.

By submitting, you are stating that you are the sole author of the work and that it has not been published before. Work posted on blogs, message boards, personal websites, etc. all counts as previously published material.

For regular submissions, please see our Submission Guidelines page.

Full contest details here:
http://www.bartlebysnopes.com/contests.htm