48 hours, 500 words, and a random prompt: what story is waiting for you?

Jerboa Lit is a 48-hour, 500-word flash fiction competition. Just before midnight on January 17, 2025, participants will receive a prompt consisting of a genre, an item, and a five-word phrase, and they will have two days to write an original piece of flash fiction based around those elements while being under the 500-word limit. All parts of the prompt are randomly selected out of a hat.

Registration opens October 1st, 2024. A total of $2,200 will be paid out across first through fifth place.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.