I Made It Worse Challenge Winners

I Made It Worse invited writers to explore a familiar impulse: the belief that one more action, one more fix, one more attempt will set things right. The strongest entries understood that making things worse rarely comes from malice. More often, it grows from confidence, guilt, misunderstanding, stubbornness, or the belief that the next fix will work.

The strongest entries stayed close to the logic behind the mistake, showing how easily a solution can become part of the problem.

🏆 Winners

The Money You Save With DIY by Sasha Desideri

Sasha Desideri embraces the challenge's central idea with a remarkably Rube Goldberg-esque chain of disasters. Every repair creates a new problem, and every solution arrives with just enough confidence to make the next disaster feel surprising and completely inevitable.

Your Bisexuality Is About To Expire by Aubrey Rebecca

Aubrey Rebecca captures a particular kind of mistake that's easy to make and difficult to unwind. Steve spends the story trying to solve the wrong problem, and every well-intentioned effort only leaves him with a much bigger mess to explain.

At What Cost? by Sara Wilson

Sara Wilson's At What Cost? understands that making things worse isn't always about taking the wrong action. Sometimes it's about refusing to take one. The story's steady escalation grows out of the narrator's determination to keep accommodating a situation that has long since stopped being manageable.

Dear Margaret by Raistlin Allen

Raistlin Allen gets at the heart of this challenge by treating every setback as an opportunity for another fix. What makes the piece so much fun is that Cassian never loses faith in his own reasoning, even as the consequences become impossible to ignore.

A Second Helping by Annie

Annie plays with the notion that overcorrection can be just as dangerous as inaction. Gretel returns determined to make up for running away, but her need to prove herself blinds her to the simple escape that was right in front of her.

🎖️ Runners-up

• Optimal Catastrophe Deliverance by Hannah Moore
• Each Time I Said No by Paul Stewart
• The Fragile Snap of My Internal Law by Caitlin Charlton
• DARLEEN'S PHONE by Isidora Luna
• The Good Wife by K.H. Obergfoll
• Tracked Changes by Nicky Frankly
• The Hidden Meaning of Red Stilettos by Imola Tóth
• Aye Coo by Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred
• Did I Really Make it Worse? by Lana V Lynx
• Outbreak by Matthew Batham
• It's Not the End of the World by Meredith Harmon
• The Road to Hell by Alicia Anspaugh
• Cleaning Up for Vanessa by Andrea Corwin
• University Attendance Officer circa 2017, I Can Explain by Matty Long
• I Don't Want Your Confession by John R. Godwin

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• The Opera by John Scipio
• Roadkill by Bride of Sound
• I Just Want to Wash My Jeans and T-shirt by Canute Limarider
• I’m Sorry Your Husband Abuses You… But, To Be Fair, You Kinda Suck. by Jesse Lee
• The Fall of Uncle Gary by Julie Lacksonen
• People Don't Want to Be Fixed by Raine Neal
• Poor Judgement Leads to Turkey Mishap by Leslie Writes
• Growing Up at Menards by Scott Christenson🌴
• Not Just Wrong, To Tell the Truth I was Dead Wrong by 96-Zest Doe
• In Tattered Tights by Cristal S.

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