Can you believe we are already in the middle of the 2022 edition of the Fiction Marathon? Only three more rounds to go, and we will know who the winner is! Thankfully we are not stuck in a lift, so let’s get on with the results for the third round of the marathon!
Just to recap: once the third writing round closed, all stories were sent to the judges – anonymized – and the public voting round opened.
During the public voting round, feedback was left on the stories, which you can find at the bottom of the third voting round post.
A tip on reading the feedback: not all feedback will be good, and you might feel negative emotions when you read it. Don’t. It’s been given to help you, to give you tips to improve your writing. It’s up to you whether you do anything with the feedback, or just ignore it, but never feel discouraged when you read it. Turn it into something positive, and ace your next assignment!
Let’s get on to the official part of the 2022 third round results.
The authors
- Tell me a Story – Christopher Robin
- I Spy – The Barefoot Sub
- The Connoisseur – Elk Vilianni
- Love and Justice – Kristen Haveman
- One Elongated Ride Up – Eric J Stover
- Big Talker – Caitlin Mazur
- Breaking the Ice – Hardison Parker
- She Needed Closure – Alexander Gibbons
- Lessons Learned Between Floors – My Naughty Ideas
- Destination Tenth Floor – Alex Irvine
- PTSD? Maybe – Rose Shavelle
- P’s not for Parking – Bob Merckel
- Faith, Trope, and Clarity – Marsha Adams
- Miracle Between Floors – J. Sharland Day
- Excuse Me Ma’am – Kelly Cathy
- Charming People – August Wright
- Long Time Coming – Lyndsey Ellis-Holloway
- Elevator Cute Meet – David Mei
- Hold On – Stephanie Scissom
- Supplements for a Corpse – Marcello Spektor
- Running Late – Steeled Snake Charmer
- The Elevator Tale – Gerad Carrier
- Special Assignment – Valerie Kittell
- Help When Least Expected – Jessica Wilcox
Public vote
We kept track of all votes during the public voting round, and in total 54 legitimate votes have been received. We are amazed by and grateful for your support!
Winner of the public vote: Hold On by Stephanie Scissom
The result of the voting can be found below.
This is the full result of the public vote:

Jury vote
Each jury member sends in their votes individually. The lowest score is removed, and the average of the three remaining scores is the jury result.
Winner of the jury vote: Hold On by Stephanie Scissom
The jury’s votes are as follows:

Overall results for second round
The public votes and that of the jury are added up to get to the end result for the round.
The overall winner of the third round is Hold On by Stephanie Scissom
The overall results for round 3 are as follows:

Rankings after third round
We work with rankings from the first to the fourth round, where writers accumulate points from the jury and public votes. Those at the bottom of the rankings will be knocked out in the rounds where it’s applicable.
In the table below you find the rankings after three rounds.

Knocked out
As is stated in the marathon rules, only 20 writers go through to round 4 of the competition. This means we have to say goodbye to four writers. They are:
- Alex Irvine
- David Mei
- Gerad Carrier
- My Naughty Ideas
Many thank for your participation and entertaining us with your stories!
As said above, the accumulating of points only happens until round 4. In round 5 the slates are wiped clean, and all writers that remain in the competition, will be on equal footing.
Next round
Thank you to everyone who has written for this round and thank you to all the voters who have taken the time to read the entries, to vote and for those who have given feedback. A special thanks to the jury members for their hard work!
The writers will be sent the third assignment later today and have until midnight London time on 29 July 2022 to send in their stories. The next public voting round opens on 1 August 2022.