A written short-story composition on a given theme, judged on plot, language and originality within a set time.
Short Story Writing is a solo, off-stage written item: every entrant sits down at the same moment, is given a theme, a first line or a situation, and has a single fixed sitting to invent and finish a complete short story by hand. Nothing is performed or read aloud. The panel marks the finished pages afterwards, so everything the judges know about the entrant is on the paper in front of them.
A round runs like an examination. Entrants are seated apart, the prompt is announced, the clock starts and the invigilator calls time. In the university-level templates that carry it the sitting is a single 60-minute total with no warning bell, and the item is marked out of 100. Because a short story has to be invented rather than argued, the real skill under that clock is deciding quickly on a small cast, one turning point and an ending, then writing towards it instead of drifting.
An entry that scores well is short but whole: an opening that sets the scene or the problem within a few lines, a middle where something actually changes, and a closing paragraph that resolves what the story set up. Dialogue and action carry more weight than a list of adjectives, and the point of view stays the same from start to finish. Entries that stop mid-scene because time ran out are the commonest way marks are lost.
Organisers run it beside essay writing and poetry writing so that students who think in narrative have a written item suited to them, and because a large entry can sit in one hall with only an invigilator and a set of scripts, with no stage time to schedule. In the university-level formats it is offered as one competition per language, which is how a multilingual campus lets every entrant write in the language they are strongest in.
Where Short Story Writing is run
Short Story Writing appears under exactly this name in a Kerala university’s own youth-festival rules, in a second Kerala university’s inter-college kalotsavam, and in a Malayalee diaspora community kalotsavam where it is an English-language item for the upper school age bands. In the two university formats it is offered to one adult student band aged 17 to 25 and runs as a separate competition in each of six languages. It is closely related to, but listed separately from, Story Writing and Katharachana, the shorter-named items used in school-level templates.
- India – Kerala (university-level youth festivals, in Malayalam, English, Hindi, Tamil, Samskritham and Arabic)
- Malayalee diaspora community festivals (English-language, upper school age bands)
Key facts
- Individual entry only: no team version appears in any template that carries it.
- Off stage and written: marked from the submitted script, not watched live.
- University-level format: one 17–25 ‘Students’ band, both genders together, 60 minutes in total, scored out of 100.
- Run as six parallel language competitions in the university templates: Malayalam, English, Hindi, Tamil, Samskritham and Arabic.
- The diaspora format offers it in English only, to the three oldest school age bands (roughly 9 to 17), with the same 60-minute, 100-mark sitting.
- No warning bell is set in any template, so the invigilator simply calls time.
On eTalenter, Short Story Writing is filed under Literacy and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 3 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Short Story Writing is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 60 minutes where a limit is set.
What judges look at in Short Story Writing
What a Short Story Writing panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Plot: a beginning, a point where something changes and a real ending inside the sitting, not a description or an opinion dressed up as narrative.
- Opening and hook: whether the first few lines establish the scene or the problem quickly enough that the reader wants to continue.
- Characters shown through what they do and say, rather than a paragraph of stated traits.
- Language control in the chosen language: grammar, sentence variety and word choice suited to a university-level entrant, with idiom used naturally.
- Originality of treatment: judges mark down the most predictable reading of the prompt and reward an unexpected angle that is still carried through.
- Finish and presentation: a story that reaches its ending with legible handwriting and clean paragraphing, not one that is cut off or rushed in the last five minutes.
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Short Story Writing under Scoring Setup, or start from the full essay & story writing judging criteria guide.
How to prepare for Short Story Writing
How entrants and their teachers usually get Short Story Writing right on the day:
- Practise the whole cycle in 60 minutes: five minutes planning, forty-five writing, ten reading back. The commonest loss is an unfinished story, so rehearse the clock more than the vocabulary.
- Decide the ending before writing the middle. Knowing the last scene lets you steer towards it and stops the plot wandering.
- Keep the cast small. Two or three characters and one setting is enough for a story that fits an hour.
- Write in the language you think in. Because each language is its own competition, a fluent entry in a strong language beats a stiff one in a prestigious language.
- Read published short stories in your language for how they open and close, then imitate the structure rather than the sentences.
- Reserve the last few minutes to reread and fix missing words, then add a final line if the ending feels abrupt.
Ready-made event templates that include Short Story Writing
Open any template to preview it in eTalenter and install it as a live, editable event.
| Template | Category | Score label | Competitions |
|---|---|---|---|
| BKS GCC Kalotsavam | Literacy | Marks | 3 |
| Kerala University Youth Festival | Literacy | Marks | 6 |
| MG University Inter Collegiate Youth Festival | Literacy | Marks | 6 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Short Story Writing judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Is Short Story Writing the same as Story Writing?
They are the same kind of task, composing an invented story in one written sitting, but they are separate catalogue items. Short Story Writing is the name used by the university-level festival formats, which run it per language to a 17–25 band; Story Writing is the generic school-level item.
How long do I get to write a short story in a youth festival?
In the templates that carry it the sitting is 60 minutes in total, with no warning bell. Organisers can change this for their own event.
Can I write in any language?
Only in the languages the organiser lists. The university-level formats run a separate competition for each of six languages, so you enter the one you will write in; the diaspora format is English-only.
Is it judged individually or as a team?
Individually. Each entrant writes alone and is scored out of 100 on their own script.
Is Short Story Writing the same as Story Telling?
No. Story Telling is spoken on stage and judged on delivery. Short Story Writing is written silently and judged on the page.
Want the full judging picture? Read the full essay & story writing judging criteria guide, or browse every literacy competition item.
Try Short Story Writing in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Short Story Writing, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
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