How to enter our spring writing competition #CBCSpringStory26
BY Maya Fernandes
9th Apr 2026
Write a flash fiction story inspired by one of our prompts to be in with a chance of winning a writing course place. Our #CBCSpringStory26 writing competition is now open for entries. We're hosting this competition over on Instagram (@curtisbrowncreative) from Thurs 9 Apr to Tues 5 May.
Use one of the three writing prompts set by our brilliant tutors Julie Cohen, Lucy Holland and Vaseem Khan as the first line of an original flash fiction story or opening scene. Post your response to your Instagram page to be in with a chance of winning one of three places on one of our short online courses.
Keep reading for prize details and information on how to enter.
Prizes:
Three winners will be awarded a free place on the online writing course of their choice (courses run for four, five or six weeks and are valued between £135 and £250). Winners can join one course only from the courses listed on this webpage.
Prize may not be exchanged directly for cash. Prize must be redeemed by 31 March 2027.
Winners must email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to claim their prizes.
How to enter:
To enter the #CBCSpringStory26 competition on Instagram we want you to write an original flash fiction story or opening scene that continues from one of three prompts set by our tutors Julie Cohen, Lucy Holland and Vaseem Khan. Feel free to adapt or swap the pronouns if that better suits your story:
1. When they planted last autumn, they had no idea of what would emerge in spring.
2. It was too late. The last of the blossoms had fallen.
3. He had little idea, on that cold spring day in March, just how dramatically his life was about to change.
Post your chosen prompt’s image graphic to your Instagram grid either on its own or as part of a carousel post. You can download the graphics by clicking the buttons below.
Then use the prompt as the first line to write your mini story or opening scene in the caption of your Instagram post (up to a maximum of 300 words).
Remember to tag @curtisbrowncreative in the post and use #CBCSpringStory26 in your caption to enter.
Other rules:
- Please follow the instructions found in the ‘How to enter’ section above.
- Follow us on Instagram (@curtisbrowncreative).
- Like this competition post.
- Winners can redeem their free place for use on any of the short online courses listed on this page. Prizes are not eligible for use on courses that are not found on that web page. Prize must be redeemed by 31 March 2027. Prize may not be exchanged directly for cash.
- You must be 18+ to enter. One entry per person. Public accounts only please. This competition is not affiliated with Instagram.
- Competition starts Thurs 9 April at 11am. Competition closes for entries Tues 5 May at 11am (UK time) and the winner will be announced in our stories and on our blog at 11am Thurs 7 May (UK time).
We will update this blog by posting the three winning stories on Thurs 7 May.
Helpful tips from our prompt makers:
Here are some top tips for writing an opening scene or flash fiction story from the very writers that gave us these brilliant prompts . . .
Julie Cohen
Julie Cohen is an award-winning author whose novels have sold over a million copies worldwide. Twice selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, she is a Patron of literacy charity ABC To Read and a founder of the RNA Rainbow Chapter for LGBTQ+ writers. She has also written two thrillers under the name Julie Mae Cohen, Bad Men and Eat, Slay, Love. Julie is the tutor of our Writing Romance – Advanced course.
- Writing, especially in shorter pieces, is about movement. From the beginning to the end, something should change. It can be emotional change, or physical (plot) change, or, ideally, both. It can be unexpected, or satisfyingly predictable. It should usually, in some way, be foreshadowed in the beginning. Your job as a writer is to facilitate and manage that change so that your reader feels they have been on a journey, no matter how short or long that journey may be.
- Never underestimate the power of verbs. Once you’ve finished a draft, examine your prose: what’s carrying the meaning of your sentences? Is it adjectives and adverbs, or is it nouns and verbs? And how can you revise your sentences so that, whenever possible, the verbs are doing the hard work? (If you’re not sure what verbs, adjectives and adverbs are, treat yourself to a copy of On Writing by Stephen King, and enjoy learning another skill.)
Lucy Holland
Lucy Holland is the author of The Times bestselling Sistersong, a finalist for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2022. Writing as Lucy Hounsom, she is the author of the Worldmaker Trilogy. Lucy also co-hosts the intersectional feminist podcast ‘Breaking the Glass Slipper’, which won Best Audio in the 2019 British Fantasy Awards. She has given talks and workshops for various organisations, including the British Library and MCM ComicCon. Lucy is the tutor of our Writing Fantasy course.
- Just write. Stop fretting, planning, let go of that perfectionist urge. Stop trying to pick a clever theme or a concept and just start. Writing is a subconscious practice as well as a conscious discipline. Leave the bigger questions for later. Focus on character, emotion and senses, and let that essential humanity lead you deeper into the world. Only by writing it will you figure out what you want your story to say.
- There is no more important aspect than character. Following on from the above, character is where you start. A person somewhere feeling something. This is surprisingly easy to forget when you're juggling all the other strands that go into storytelling. But character is more vital than worldbuilding, plot and action. Your characters are a reader's gateway into your world. We see it through their eyes, apprehend its structures via their unique perspective. The most brilliant and inventive world is a wasteland without well-rounded believable characters to populate it. Plot often comes from character, and action from plot, so getting to know your own will lay all the foundations you need to tell an original and compelling story.
Vaseem Khan
Vaseem Khan is a former Chair of the UK Crime Writers' Association and the author of several award-winning crime series including the Baby Ganesh Agency novels and the Malabar House historical crime series. His debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published in 2015-2020, and has been translated into 17 languages. Vaseem is also the author of Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the world of James Bond. Vaseem is the tutor of our Writing Crime Fiction short course.
- Keep saying to yourself: readers are smart! Leave more to their imagination. Write and then make a mental commitment to cut out at least ten percent. Less is always more with short stories.
- A short story can work on many levels: beautiful prose; quickly sketched but memorable characters; a precise, punchy narrative or a brilliant twist. Pick one or two of these. It's difficult to do them all in a few thousand words.
If you need help posting your competition entry to Instagram, email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
We can’t wait to read your stories!