My First Contest Submission in 2026

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

Today I submitted a story to Reedsy. They have weekly contests with prompts, which is quite motivating for me in this writing journey. I don’t have to particularly think about the topic, I can get inspired by a prompt and then the story flew almost automatically. I wrote it yesterday and revised it today. The fact that I have only one week creates this sense of urgency. Before I submitted it I doubted myself as usual…maybe it is not post-apocalyptic, maybe my sentences are too simple, maybe I should revise it, but I know if my week starts, writing will be pushed to the background and I had to submit it today. If you want to read it please head here: https://reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/timea-k/

And the layers of the onion revealed themselves. As soon as I submitted it, I saw another contest there and decided to give it a try also.

I am actually writing a piece for the Birdport prize, in parallel. Maybe I am crazy? The writing bug bit me again after a ten-year break. I saw on the submission page that I submitted some stories in 2013 and 2015. Then I just lost my faith in my writing.

Is it ironic that now in the age of AI I am getting back to it? No, because I feel like truly human narratives will always be what we are all craving for.