Congratulations to all who entered, judged, and otherwise participated in this year’s six-word story contest! Thanks to each one of you, it grew exponentially since the last one we hosted, and was such an enjoyable experience.
But enough of that and on to the winners!
{If you need a refresher, click here to see what this contest was about, and click here to see our last six-word story contest.}
1st Place Winner: Savannah Cooper
Her story:
Turning off the stars took forever.
Savannah is a writer and editor living in Indiana. (I can vouch for her editing services—she’s excellent!) You can contact her here.
As her prize, Savannah will receive the book Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller. I’m super excited to give this to her—it’s an incredible resource!
2nd Place Winner: Ethan Hill
His story:
The gunshot echoed 30 years later.
Ethan is a creative entrepreneur from Oregon. You can view his impressive portfolio here.
As his prize, Ethan will receive a $5.00 gift card to either Amazon or Starbucks. Knowing his thoughts on coffee, I’m guessing he’ll go with Amazon…
Honorable Mention: Rebecca Peterson
Her story:
Wheelchair sits. Husband cries. Temporary goodbye.
Honorable Mention: Kyra Rankin
Her story:
The dragonfly alighted with bad timing.
Honorable Mention: Krystin Widener
Her story:
Weeping, she closed her heart’s door.
Fun fact: I was originally going to feature two honorable mention entries, but due to a tie and given the volume of great entries we received, I decided to go with three.
{Don’t see your story among our winners? Don’t worry—we had so many incredible entries, I will be showcasing more of them on our Facebook page in the weeks to come! Go like it so you don’t miss any of them!}
The Process: How Did We Decide the Winners?
Because of the volume of submissions we received, I decided to have two rounds of judging to make sure each story had a fair chance of being selected. In Round 1, judges selected a generous number of stories to enter Round 2, where they narrowed down and ranked their selections from a smaller pool.
The judges had no information on the authors and made their selections blindly (they didn’t even know who each other were!). They were each prohibited from judging their own stories—an important fact, as you will see below!
After Round 2 selections were made, I used a point system to tally and weigh their responses to come up with our winners.
Meet the Judges
I could not have hosted this contest without the help of these five fantastic judges. Ironically, I only wanted three originally. When Ethan and Larissa volunteered after I had three, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to have more. I’m so glad they volunteered! We ended up with too many entries to have smoothly conducted this with three judges.
I want to give a huge thank you and shoutout to each of them!
Savannah Cooper is a talented writer and excellent editor from Indiana. Savannah not only added valuable stories herself, but also contributed her literary mind to our entries. Thank you, Savannah!
Ethan Hill is a creative entrepreneur from Oregon with an impressive portfolio you can view here. Ethan made creative contributions to this contest as well as careful winning selections. Thank you, Ethan!
Larissa Loeffler is a passionate actress and gifted headshot photographer from Atlanta. Larissa was a vital part of our judging process and made this contest both possible and fun. Thank you, Larissa!
Charity Rankin is an accomplished actress and talented singer from Indiana. Charity was the first to volunteer and was an irreplaceable contributor to this story contest. Thank you, Charity!
Krystin Widener is an adept transcriptionist and closed captionist as well as a creative label designer from Oklahoma. Krystin made careful selections and added a lot of fun to hosting this contest. Thank you, Krystin!
Thank you all again for volunteering your time and talents to make this event possible!
Additional Thanks
I would like to thank my dad (an extremely intelligent engineer), who helped me design a point system to keep everything fair and square in the final round.
I would also like to thank my brother Elijah and sister Lily, who stepped in at the last minute (almost literally) to help break a tie between several of our incredible entries.
Sorry you missed out?
Wish you’d entered this six-word story contest?
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