WriterWriter’s mission is spreading stories by promoting and inspiring authors using resources and exposure via its website, writer-writer.com.

Founded by talented writers in their own right, David Collins and Morgan Wright, WriterWriter provides a wealth of published fiction in the fantasy/SF and horror genres plus interviews, articles on writing, and contests for writers.

I discovered WriterWriter on Twitter when someone retweeted the website’s International Halloween Themed Competition: All Hallows’ Prose. Interesting, I thought.

When I write short stories to submit to anthologies, I use the theme as my writing prompt like a journalist getting his assignment from the editor. For example, if the anthology is about haunted houses, I know what to write about. It gives me focus.

The WriterWriter competition left me to think up an idea from scratch.

I’d recently read “Halloween Spirit,” a creepy short story about a haunted store by Jessica Donegan. It’s posted and free to read on the North Alabama Writer’s Group website here. I was also in the middle of reading The Haunted Forest Tour by Jeff Strand and James A. Moore. And I’d recently submitted a short story about a haunted church.

Haunted places were on my mind. So I thought up a story about a haunted corn maze. Its title would become “Scarecrow Road.”

Even when I had my final draft complete, I hesitated to submit the story because it was a competition, and if you’re a writer like me, confidence is a fickle friend.

But like the perfect October breeze — not too cool, not too warm — that hits your face just right so you can actually smell the essence of autumn, “Scarecrow Road” felt good to me. As writers, we know those breezes are few and far between.

So I thought what the hell.

Long story short, “Scarecrow Road” won the short story competition.

The other short story winners are “The Halfway House of Horrors” by Lucy Spooner and “The Ghost Next Door” by Michele Sheldon with honorable mentions for “His First Halloween” by Jodi Grochal and “Bogeyman” by Michelle Douglas.

Rowan Rook won the Flash Fiction Competition with the story “Childhood Friend.” Alessandra Danior was first runner-up with “Childhood of a Serial Killer” and David McAllister was second runner-up with “A Mother’s Love.”

WriterWriter will be posting the top three short story and flash fiction winners over the next three days leading up to Halloween. Check out the contest page here. You’ll find an International Fantasy Competition there with a deadline of November 7th.

So thanks to Twitter I found another favorite new website to add to my list.

And thanks to Mr. Collins and Ms. Wright at WriterWriter for all they do to inspire other authors.

Because win or not, “Scarecrow Road” would’ve never been written without WriterWriter’s willingness to step up and hold a Halloween competition in the first place.

And that’s the very definition of inspiration.

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