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Wed, Oct 1, 2025

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The Lodestar Contest

by Satuawany

Rated: 13+ · Message Forum · Contest · #2130938

Looking for a guiding light. Monthly short story rounds from July through December.

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A part of "The Contest Challenge"
June, 2018
February, 2021
February, 2023
May, 2024
February, 2025
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Click me to visit the contest, unless you're at the contest; then click me to reload. *Wink*

We need guidance out here in these rolling waters. This contest is about making an example of yourself—in a good way.

Previous Rounds:
"2018 Round: Master of the Elements"

"2019 Round: Commander of the Form"

"2020 Round: Captain of the Ship"

"2021 Round: All Hands on Deck"

"2022 Round: Leader of the Sea Shanty"

"2023 Round: Classifier of Ships"

"2024 (Feb) Round: Boatswain on Duty"

"2024 (May) Round: Chief Mate on Duty"

"2025 (Feb) Round: Shipwright"

This Round:
Lighthouse

The lodestar directs vessels while they're at sea. A lighthouse directs vessels coming into harbor. You are the guiding light and you are the lighthouse—you direct the brand new story toward completion and then you maneuver it safely to where it needs to be.

This round will run as six independent rounds from July to December, culminating in a final head-to-head between those six winners in 2026.

This will be the final run of the Lodestar Contest.

---- Instructions and Guidelines ----

If you want to see all the ways you can earn a Lodestar Merit Badge before it's gone forever, click this dropnote. ▼

If you're here to win the big prizes (including a Lodestar Merit Badge), here we go:

Starting July 2025 and continuing through December 2025, there will be a separate round of the contest, with a monthly winner for each. In the first week of January, 2026, the winning stories of those six rounds will receive a review from the judge. Those writers will have the rest of the month to work on their stories by implementing (or not implementing) that review (plus any others they've received along the way.)

The writers will need to figure out whether or not to follow the judge's suggestions (along with the suggestions of any other reviewers.) The judge will give her honest opinion, but she has seen many writers not follow her suggestions and thought, "Ah, yes; good call." In the end, you have to be the one who knows what's best for the story, and it will be the final result that is judged—not whether or not you followed the judge's advice.

On February 1st of 2026, final judging of the six finalists will begin.

Note: One writer can win more than one monthly round leading up to the grand finale. The more months you enter, the more stories you might have in the final round.

Deadline for current round: October 31

Follow the prompt below to write a short story.

Word count between 1,500 and 5,000 words. If you go over and the story and characters dictate that it was necessary, you might be okay, but the minimum word count requirement is completely nonnegotiable. Nothing against flash fiction, but this is a short story contest.

That this doesn't go without saying is one of the saddest things in the arts today: No AI.

Proofread, edit, and revise.

One story per contestant per month.

* Linking ▼ Choose what kind of link to use based on what you like plus your content ratings versus this contest's content rating.

A note about the judge: I'm a character person; if your characters don't engage me in one way or another it doesn't matter how great your plot is.

---- October Prompt ----

You may be literal or metaphorical in the usage of the prompt, but it must be clear that you used it.

Lighthouse: What was always thought to be beckoning people toward it was actually warning people away.

---- Prizes ----

For each month:

Winner: The Merit Badge you see above, a 25K awardicon, and 25k Gift Points.

Runner-Up: 10K awardicon and 10K Gift Points.

For the Grand Prize in February 2026:

Grand Prize: The Merit Badge you see above, a 125k awardicon for your story, plus 125,000 Gift points.

Runner-Up: A Merit Badge I like for you, a 50K awardicon for your story, plus 50k Gift Points.

---- Donations ----
This contest does not accept donations.
Thank you to those who have donated in the past!