Many of you will know the Smut Marathon had to prematurely close in 2020, and once we started this resource website, the Blogable Babes — May, Missy and Marie — kept the idea to reignite the marathon for Blogable. We played around with the thought many times, and then parked it to look at again at a later stage. Towards the end of 2020 we knew for sure: 2021 will be the first year we’ll run the Blogable Fiction Marathon.
What is the Blogable Fiction Marathon?
The Blogable Fiction Marathon is a writing competition which is open to anyone who writes, no matter your level of experience. Being an experienced writer is no guarantee that you will win this competition. During the marathon you will get several assignments to which you have to write a story, adhering to a deadline, staying within a limited number of words, and following the given prompt. Stories can be in any genre.
Once the writing round is over, the voting round starts, where a jury and the public cast votes and the combined score from that decides who are knocked out of the marathon, and who will receive the next assignment. The voting is done blindly, in other words, all stories are anonymized before the jury and the public see them. This also means that the writers may never reveal which story they have written, as that will lead to them being disqualified from the marathon.
How is it different from the Smut Marathon?
A big difference already lies in the name. The Smut Marathon was for… well, smut. Erotic stories. The Blogable Fiction Marathon is for any genre. Your story doesn’t have to be remotely erotic, or even have any erotic elements in it. All stories are welcome.
Other significant differences are:
- This marathon will only have six rounds, starting in April and ending in October.
- A maximum of 50 writers can enter.
- There will be only three judges.
- The jury will judge the stories first, and a certain percentage of the stories they have chosen will go on to the public round.
- No longer will Marie be the only one doing the administration for the marathon, as May and Missy will be involved too.
- The Blogable Babes reserve the right to decide not to post a specific story.
- Where the Smut Marathon had prizes for the winner and the runners up, but with this marathon only the winner will receive a prize.
We will publish the full set of rules no later than the day the entries open.
When will it start?
Are you excited yet? Ready to flex those writing muscles?
Of course you are!
The entries for the Blogable Fiction Marathon will open on Valentine’s Day and close roughly a month later. We will take about three weeks to do the behind-the-scene administration and then, on 3 April 2021, the writers will receive their first assignment.
We are excited to bring the marathon to a new home, and to provide a platform where writers can hone their writing skills. As many of the previous marathon participants will tell you — Marie took part in the original Smut Marathon, and May took part in the one Marie organized — the marathon helps you to improve your writing skills, because of the diversity of the assignments.
We are ready to get started. Are you?
Image from Pixabay
Indeed I did take part in the marathon in 2018. In fact I was very new to fiction writing – had only written one story on my blog – everything else was thoughts and musings. But I entered and ended up in the final. It was a great experience and I would recommend it to any writer – no matter how experienced they are in fiction writing. Why not make it a 2021 challenge?
May x
I do love this idea – I have been enjoying writing so much – I am scared of the judging/competition aspect. But I do love responding to writing prompts.
would be thrilled if u entered Jenna
I totally understand that you’re scared of the judging/competition part, but I promise you, you learn SO much from that and it only improves your writing. Would love to see you enter the marathon 🙂
I’m happy to see that some version of this coming back. I really enjoyed participating and *fingers crossed* would like to join in again. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for the details.
oh so hope u will Jae
xx
It will make me really happy to see you entering again, Jae <3
I love the sound of this! I hope I can take part
Elk x
Oh that will be absolutely brilliant, Elk. Would love to see you enter 🙂 xox
I would really love to join you for this. Perhaps I will learn lots along the way? Or just embarrass myself!
I’m sure you won’t embarrass yourself. Entries have just opened, minutes ago. Please do sign up 🙂
Looking forward to the new marathon 😀
So happy to see you’ve signed up 🙂
I did two smut marathons and I got experience about writing exotic stories.
And I remember your work – indeed I voted for them at times