The Lodestar Contest

Starting July 2025 and continuing through December 2025, there will be a separate round of the contest for each month, each with its own winner. In January of 2026, the winners of each of those six rounds will work on their stories by implementing (or not implementing) reviews. Those six stories will go head to head in February.

Interesting facts:

1.) Each of those six stories will get a review from the judge in January, and the writers will need to figure out whether or not to follow the judge's suggestions (along with the suggestions of any other reviewers anytime along the way.) 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 are 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.

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

3.) Each round will have the same main prompt, but with different specifications.

4.) The first round of the final run of the Lodestar will begin July 1, and full rules will be posted then. You're free to ask questions in this forum at any time.






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.