Let’s face it. Ray Bradbury is the bomb. He wrote some awesome works, and his advice for writers is simple and elegant. Basically summed up in “write,” and “don’t think.” This is what led to this revamp of the Bradbury Challenge to simplify it and focus it.

The Bradbury Writing Challenge is just that: a challenge to write your heart out for a year. The assumption is, as a writer, you are also a reader. So that aspect of the challenge has been dropped.

Every year, on 20th August, a post will go up here to mark the start of the Bradbury Writing Challenge for that year. You can share links to your challenge short stories on that post. If you have your stories on another platform, still do share them here on Substack.

Here are the rules, for what they are.

1. Any genre is great!
   If you’re a writer, write whatever lights your fire. If you’re not a writer yet, start with what you love.

2. Write a short story per week.
   The minimum word count is 1000 words. Anything under that is flash fiction.

3. Keep it raw.
   Don’t edit the crap out of it. Just let it be what it is and, if you think of turning it into a novel later, edit it then. For each challenge, just write it, read it, fix some typos, link it on the challenge post, and leave it. You have writing to do!

4. Keep it positive!
   If you’re going to comment, keep it positive. If you don’t like something, don’t comment!

5. Keep challenge entries free for readers.
   If you link a story you have written as part of the challenge, don’t tuck it behind a paywall. Let everyone enjoy it. It is recommended keeping it free for three months after you post it, but give people a good chance to read it and comment on it.

6. Link as many stories as you like.
   Share as many links to your challenge stories as you want. If you want to link all 52 of them in a given year, go for it!

7. Have fun!
   No matter what, have fun and enjoy writing. Do not get bummed if you miss a week! Or a month! Just write what you can and share it with us!

In places that use hashtags, please do use #BradburyWritingChallenge so we can find you on X, Bluesky, and so on.