2019 Summer Writing Challenge Winner

The 2019 summer challenge inspired me. I’m considering a twist to the challenge: instead of one sentence every entrant must use, I’m considering two sentences from which each must choose one.
on Aug 19, 2019 · 5 comments

Congratulations to our Spec Faith 2019 Summer Writing Challenge winner:

Sarah Daffy

If you followed the poll for the 2019 Summer Challenge throughout the week, you saw how the three entries (you can read all three here) ran neck and neck until the weekend.

Thanks to each person who took time to read these finalists’ stories and to vote for the one they liked best. Without readers, the contest would not be much of a contest.

I’ll be contacting Sarah to arrange her prize, a $25 e-card either from Barnes&Noble or from Amazon.

Regular visitors here know that the writing challenge runs twice a year, once during the “dog days of summer,” and another during the cold winter. If you missed the opportunity to participate in the 2019 Summer challenge, be sure to join the fun in 2020 when we’ll run the next winter challenge.

The 2019 summer challenge inspired me. I’m considering a twist to the contest: instead of one sentence every entrant must use, I’m toying with the idea of providing two sentences from which each contestant must choose one. Any thoughts?

For any who missed Sarah’s story—a creative twist, for sure—here it is again.

###$&$&###

Sarah Daffy

Jag couldn’t be a part of the rebellion any more—not with what he knew now—but could he convince the other rebels to lay down their arms?

He had to. He must.

But then again, he was the only one armed with a paperclip.

Now he knew that a paperclip was not strong enough to defeat the enemy. He also knew that when they reached contact with the outside world where it was raining, they would be stripped bare of everything they had ever known. Why, oh, why did he have to be a paper doll?

He aimed his paperclip at the pointed pen caps of the opposing party which was making its way toward the cracked window.

He had to stop them. He had to. He must.

How? He hadn’t figured that out yet.

He was just focused on aiming the paperclip.

###$&$&###

And the final results of the 2019 Summer Writing Challenge poll:


Best known for her aspirations as an epic fantasy author, Becky is the sole remaining founding member of Speculative Faith. Besides contributing weekly articles here, she blogs Monday through Friday at A Christian Worldview of Fiction. She works as a freelance writer and editor and posts writing tips as well as information about her editing services at Rewrite, Reword, Rework.
Website ·
  1. Leanna says:

    Congrats, Sarah!

    The entries from this round seemed the least diverse (the world building had a lot of fun originality but the plot/action were very boxed in by the opener) so I really like the idea of there being two openers to choose from. 🙂

    Also, I really appreciate you running these contests, Rebecca!

  2. Sophie says:

    Yay, Sarah Daffy! Congrats! I love the direction you took the prompt in. Great work! 😉

  3. Hannu Oksanen says:

    Congrats to the winner and thank you Rebecca for this contest 🙂 God bless!