Writing Competitions

Here’s June’s challenge: You’ve got to the end of a journey – literal or metaphorical – and what you discover there is very different from what you anticipated. Write a scene of no more [...]

For March and April’s writing challenge, Tracy Todd has kindly donated a copy of Brave Lotus Flower Rides the Dragon as a prize. In honour of her brave personal story, we’ve decided to [...]

Our February writing competition was: And the winner is… Penny Castle, for her poignant love story: “For the briefest of moments the street light restored you to exuberant good [...]

Write a love story in 140 characters – perfect for tweeting love in a time of global division.  Tweet your entry to @allabtwriting or, if you’d prefer, email your entry to [...]

And the winner is… Last month we asked you to write a scene which consists of a real or imagined altercation between two people in a public space. Congratulations to: Colleen Saunders for the [...]

Writing is an adventure. This means that we confront any given writing project (any given morning, any given page) with a mixture of steely resolve – and abject fear. To set out to write a book [...]

A story doesn’t consist of a series of unrelated events. Everything that happens is linked causally or psychologically to what came before and what follows. People often forget this, particularly [...]

Imagine you are in your twilight years and you want to tell a grandchild a story to inspire them to overcome some difficulty they are dealing with. Don’t allow your narrator to launch into a [...]

The August Competition celebrates both our brand-new Scriptwriting Course and the upcoming Venetian retreat: Write a scene of no more than 250 words in which two people meet for the first time in [...]

Unusual sunsets, dramatic landscapes, dreamy seascapes have all inspired us to want to capture their essence in words. But I’d hazard that what writers find the most inspiring are not vistas and [...]

This is the last competition from the current series using prompts from David Krut Projects, our partner in Cape Town, who kindly allow us to use their inspiring venue. Even if you don’t join us [...]

Here is a writing challenge for you. It’s inspired by an artwork showcased by, David Krut Projects in Newlands, the inspiring space where we used to host our Creative Writing Course. Write [...]