Not Quite There Challenge Winners

What was really cool about this challenge is that a surprising number of entries weren't held back by craft. They were held back by conscience. These writers weren't just trying to solve plot holes or tighten a structure. They were questioning whether they were being fair to their characters, their memories, or the people who inspired them.

That honesty led to a wonderfully varied shortlist. We read stories about abandoned novels, unfinished memoirs, lost creative voices, and ideas that grew bigger the longer their authors sat with them. Sometimes the reason a story remains unfinished turned out to be the most compelling part.

🏆 Winners

Disappointing by Hannah Moore

Hannah Moore never settles for the easy answer in this one. What begins as a fascinating gothic premise becomes a reckoning with the ethics of storytelling, as she realizes the dead woman has been pushed out of her own story and refuses to pretend that's anything but a problem.

I Do Not Know How To Finish by Cali Loria

There is no tidy explanation here, and that's the pull. Cali Loria lets the unfinished draft sit beside receipts, desire, messy memories and a borrowed line until it all feels uncomfortably alive.

Wild Rose (MY ONLY 'FRIENDS' FROM THE PSYCH WARD "soap opera") by ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR

What makes this draft compelling is that its scattered focus isn't a flaw so much as the point; every attempt to make Brent, Darla, psychiatry, or guilt the center leaves something essential behind.

Reena - the unborn story of the lesbian vampire warrior princess by Imola Tóth

This piece isn't really about an unfinished novel. It's more about the quiet ways a creative voice can be buried, and how difficult it is to find it again once you're taught to doubt it.

"Lab Rats" and the ethics of writing about children by Amelia

What makes this draft memorable is the compassion behind it. The lab, the dream, and the impossible escape all become secondary to a writer wrestling with the responsibility she feels toward her own characters.

🎖️ Runners-up

• The Red Boots by Sonia Heidi Unruh

• The Lab Coat Killer by Everyday Junglist

• Daoist Gymnastics by kp

• Rosamunde or "Write What You Know" by Sasha Desideri

• In the Archives by R.C. McLeod

• Oceanic Cleansing by Emily Adams

• Washed Out & Washed Up by Marie Wilson

• Brackets by Nicky Frankly

• Forever Undone by Penina Pohl

• Seamiakeo by Margy

• The Song That Never Was by Sara Wilson

• The Story Behind Ben Boa by Calvin London

• Just Another Monstrous Woman by Lane Burns

• Imposter Syndrome by Sian N. Clutton

• The Words I've Refused To Say by Annie

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• Cloudy with a Chance of Cupid by Alyssa Musso

• A Love That Sits Immovable as Stone by Megan Baker (thegothofsawpit)(shadowsitheghoststrikebwr)

• Camp VHS: The Story That Never Was by Edward Swafford

• “The Station” I Remember by Ophelia Keane Braeden

• Mirror Image by Natalie Wilkinson

• The Story that Knew Better by Adam Kolozetti

• Slumber by Raistlin Allen

• The Novel That Bit Me by Paul Stewart

• Men Are Like Buses by Jenifer Nim

• The River by Harper Lewis