Let the Battle Begin! My First Writing Battle Underway
- Jason Kurtz
- Apr 22
- 2 min read
2025 Wonder Flash Fiction
Well, I entered my first writing contest since... let's see, elementary school probably. This contest is hosted by Writing Battle, who hosts various writing "battles" throughout the year. The Wonder Flash Fiction Battle is a work of fiction, between 500-1000 words, and the writer must incorporate the story from three prompts. This contest has four genre categories: adventure, fairy tale, fantasy, and sci-fi.
How Writing Battles Work

The Battle Begins
The Battle begins on a scheduled date and time, when contestants receive their prompts, provided on what appear to be virtual tarot cards. Contestants can use the prompts they are dealt, or redraw a certain number of cards. In the Wonder Flash battle, contestants receive a genre card and two other cards that are either a character or an object. The genre card can be redrawn only once and the other two cards can be redrawn five times.


Stories Grouped By Genre Then Compete 1v1
In the Wonder Flash Fiction battle, all stories are initially grouped by genre and divided into separate 'Houses'. Stories then battle head-to-head with other stories in the House. Basically, a battle is my story compared to another story, as read by the person judging it. Each entry is forgiven two losses, but is eliminated from the battle upon their third loss.
This goes on for a few more rounds, with winners announced on June 15, 2025.

Cash Prizes
There is $20,000 U.S. in total prize money to be divvied out to category winners.

My Experience
If you read Anunnaki Gold, you'll see that I was preparing to write a sci-fi story. I figured two in four chances were pretty good that I'd draw the sci-fi genre. Nope. Oh dang. That's okay though, because almost any story can be turned into an adventure, and that was my task, along with a charlatan (character prompt) and tobacco (object prompt).

Fun Facts
805
Number of stories entered in 2025 Wonder Flash Fiction Battle
46
Number of stories in House Kinsleye, the House I'm in
67
Number of duels judged so far (by timestamp of this post) in Round 1
20,000
Number of dollars (U.S.) in total prize money
0
Number of times I've won a writing battle; but also number of times I've entered a writing battle, before this one