A Thousand Words Challenge Winners

Hi everyone! Sorry this took so long for me to get to, it has been quite a crazy couple months around here. It also took a long time for me to read all the submissions (there were 58 participants 😱)!

Before we get to the winners, a really big thank you to everyone who joined, and I hope that you all had fun writing, even if it was only 1,000 words! I started this challenge knowing that there was a lot that a writer could do with only a thousand words, and you’ve all proven me right! Your submissions were all so well-written and beautifully crafted, and it was honestly incredibly difficult for me to rank them, let alone choose a winner! Since there are so many participants, I would not be able to properly shout you all out, but I’ve already commented on a lot of your stories as I read them!

That being said, here are some of my favorites!

Please note, while this is a prized challenge, my opinion is not reflective of the quality of your work, and since this is about emotions, it’s even more subjective. Once again, these are the stories that made me feel the most of these four emotions, it is not a ranking of the best writing or any other criteria other than purely how I felt when I read them!

☺️ Winner: Anniversary by xndr

This was one of the fluffiest things I’ve read in a long time! There is a bit of steaminess to it, but overall I felt really happy reading it. It was incredibly immersive, fun, and the dialogue was so natural and casual, yet really romantic and reflective of what a 3 year relationship feels like from my experience.

Honorable Mentions:

Breaks by Valentine Drifter, Under the Moonlight by peach, Precipice by prael

😭 Winner: Their Garden by J Muns

This category was insanely popular for this challenge, but the only fic that actually made me cry was this one. To make it more impressive, it was fantasy, so J Muns was somehow able to take me out of the real world, drop me into an interesting little world called Askar, and still managed to make me cry in just a thousand words!

Honorable Mentions:

TURISTA by miggy, The Words I Never Said by RedFox, It Girl by Okay

😂 Winner: SECRET by gray

Not only was this fic really entertaining, the way it was written is so clever and it makes you palm your face. The story itself is not funny—in fact, it’s quite serious to the point where it would’ve been angst if not for the last sentence. Well played, gray.

Honorable Mentions:

spooky scary by starconstruction, Appointment for Office Hour by d1mplez, Sana Potter and the Elusive 8th Photocard by DJNayeon

😳 Winner: LO FOR HELLO barnacles34

I promise there’s not an Anna bias here, considering the previous winner was also an Anna fic! But I was nervous about this category, because I’ve very selective with smut, and my taste in what’s hot is not exactly conventional—but Barney did such a great job here! The fic itself is not entirely smut, there’s a bit of fluff, a bit of angst, but the way it’s written and the dialogue during the steamy scene really made me blush!

Honorable Mentions:

Every Step of the Way by seorreality, Kissing Lesson by Eros Pandemos, if these walls could talk by orenji

Popular Vote: TURiSTA by miggy

I honestly had a really hard time picking between miggy and J Muns for the 😭 category, so I’m glad he won the popular vote. This story was incredibly heart-wrenching and there was a strong touch of real human sorrow in it that I didn’t feel anywhere else. It was honestly just so, so good.

Congratulations to all winners and runner-ups! <3 Thank you again to everyone who participated, and I hope to see you all again in another challenge one day~