Faye's Official CHYOA Story Contest 2026

AHHH! What the bloody hell!

Oh, oh, sorry dear! You just startled me, that's all! I, er, wasn't quite expecting you to arrive already that's all.

What? It is April 2026 already? Sweet merciful Eos, it is, says so on my phone even. Well, come in, come in! Let me grab that pile of unfolded laundry off the comfy chair here, please, sit. I'll just grab that empty tea cup sitting beside you there thanks you're a darling please ignore the empty tray of scones I will take that too.

Now if you'll excuse me for just a moment a lady needs to take off her very comfy bathrobe and put on something with some slink. Maybe some scandalous lingerie. Be back in a jiff!

Welcome, my little wicked writers, my naughty novelists, my sultry scribes, my spiciest of storytellers! Even you degen dabblers in the back, yes I can see you sticking furtive hands into the pockets of your adorable raincoats. We here at CHYOA not only tolerate all manners of creative... output we cherish the breadth of your creativity and the limits of your occasionally twisted imaginations. Sticking to the site rules, naturally, for any listening devices haha ha. But seriously, if any of you are feds you have to tell me, I read about it online. No one? Good.

I am Faye, and as CHYOA's resident Head Librarian Of Erotica - please, take a business card from the big bowl by the door, I made Friedman buy 5000 of the bloody things and he pouts every time he sees how many I still have a decade later - I am here to tempt you with that thing that authors and writers yearn for more than anything else. Money? Power? Orgasms? Sure, all that nonsense is nice I suppose. But offer an ink-stained wretch of a creative exposure and and see their eyes cross with genuine desire!

So before I ask you what we, the hordes of eager readers, want from you let me tell you what is on offer: the author of the winning story will get a year of access to the ad-free site, and your story gets a prominent place on the front page so you get all those eyeballs your wonderful art deserves. There are also second and third place prices of six and three months of ad-free access respectively. Please ignore the way the lights dim when I talk about giving away ad-free access to the site, that's just a coincidence.

What we would love from you is a new story of 1500 to 7500 words. To change things up this year we are requiring at least one branching point in your story, so it can't be just one single branch! The minimum one decision point in your story should come after 500 words and all branches need at least 500 words to flesh them out. Essentially, what the judges want is (at least) one inflection point where the decision comes after you have established your story and the resulting options are satisfying to the reader whichever ending they choose.

There is no real theme this year, other than the inherent theme of "choice" that comes with all stories having at least two branches, but as always we are very interested in your delightful imaginations so style, genre, point of view and all that is wide open. Our judges are, if I may be honest, rather 'out there' in what they write so you can assume that high levels of hardcore smut are just as likely to score well as a subtle love story in a few thousand words.

In less exciting contest news I am aware of this annoying "generative AI" stuff that's going around. A fad if you ask me, but obviously this contest is to celebrate the writers of CHYOA by awarding the best story with some prizes and acclaim, not to find out who can ask a bloody computer to do the fun part for them. Spell check, grammar tools, that is all fine of course, but I must strongly suggest you do not use AI to create your story for you. Trust me, we can always tell because the next time anyone reads a story created by an LLM and says "Wow that was a well told and interesting piece of fiction" will be the first time.

That is basically it! As always, questions or is welcome, and don't forget to read the Submission Requirements link below for detailed rules. And finally a thank you to the people who make this yearly contest happen is in order, so me in a polite round of applause for Friedman, gene.sis, and the judges who were wandering out of that pub late at night and lured into that van that said "WILL READ YOUR STORIES AND COMMENT/LIKE THEM" on the side. I swear, you writers have the survival instincts of guppies.

Add your story below before the contest ends May 23 and once I whip this of volunteer judges into shape we'll have them declare the winners. Cannot wait to see what you all come up with, ta!