"Can You Make the Shot When You Must?"

It's October 31st 2025 and my trick was finishing a 10,000-word first draft of a sword and sorcery short story. The first story I ever wrote to completion in my adult life. And it felt good.

The email came in from The Story Engine on November 24. I had let the first draft sit for a couple of weeks and had just started the second draft. I'd gotten the PDFs of their Story Engine and Deck of Worlds prompt decks a year or two ago. They were sponsoring an upcoming Writing Battle that would start in January of 2026. Writing Battle hosts writing competitions throughout the year. Cash prizes for the winners. Published on their website. The whole shebang.

So I signed up, still high off writing my story. I wanted to write more. Writing Battle looked like a good challenge. It's one thing to write what you want to write when you are inspired to write. It's another thing to write something you normally wouldn't when you are under the gun.

I had this line from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves:
"That's good, Wulf. But can't you do it amidst distraction? Can you make the shot when you must?" I'd find out. I committed to not only the upcoming battle: The Tempest Owl, but also every competition from Writing Battle for the year. My "Year of the Storyteller."

Writing Battle works like this: you get your randomly drawn prompts. Genre, Character, and Object. You get a limited number of "re-rolls," so if you aren't feeling a particular prompt, you can draw another. Genre is limited to a single re-roll. Character and Object share a pool of re-rolls. Five maybe?

The day came, and I got my draws. I had placed myself in the Wizard class, which narrows your genre pool.

Per Writing Battle:

The Wizard conjures fantasies, mythical beasts, and heroic quests. Subgenres and tropes used in the past include:
Sword & Sorcery, and Fairy Tale

Made sense to me. I wrote a Sword and Sorcery story. You're a Wizard, Tim. My tarot card-themed prompts arrived.

Genre: Cryptid Fiction Character: Hopeless Romantic Item: Match

What the fuck is Cryptid Fiction? I looked it up. I didn't really want to write a story about Bigfoot or Mothman or something like that. I especially wasn't sure about Hopeless Romantic. The rules allow you to be loose with your interpretations of the prompts. The main character doesn't have to be a Hopeless Romantic. I can subvert the genre, but I didn't have enough familiarity with it to know how to subvert it.

It's 36 hours later. I'm taking a walk during my lunch break to clear my head and hopefully come up with something.

Nothing. Here I am. Not able to make the shot when I must. If I can't write a 1,000-word story on demand, how can I hope to call myself a writer?

I didn't want to re-roll. It felt like cheating. I'd only get one for genre, what if it was worse? I re-rolled the character. Hopeless Romantic becomes Cage Fighter.
Cryptid Fiction. Cage Fighter. Match.

The gray matter responded. I had an image of the back alley at night. A down-on-his-luck boxer leaning against the wall, having a smoke. A light drizzle creates a haze illuminated by a distant gas lamp. There was something here. I didn't know what exactly. I'd find out in the writing.

It took longer to edit than write, but I managed to turn it in the day before the deadline. "Jerry Was a Bareknuckle Fighter." I loved it. I mean, I was really proud of it. It was something I would never have written on my own.

Genres are grouped into Houses, where they compete against each other over 8 rounds. 3 strikes and you're out. 6 wins moves you to the Final Showdown. This was my first time entering a competition. The first time I really put my writing out in public. I wasn't expecting to do well. I was just hoping not go out in Round 3.

The House Results came out on Friday, February 27th. Weeks of waiting. Then they tease you! You find out the first 6 rounds immediately, and then the slow trickle rounds 7 and 8 over the course of an hour.

"Jerry Was a Bareknuckle Fighter" lost in Round 1.
And Round 2.
Disheartening. I thought for sure I was out. But I kept reading. Round 3: Win.

Round 4: Win.

Round 5: Win.

Round 6: Win.

Somehow, I (or Jerry) was still in this thing! Barely hanging in there, sure. Any loss would take me out. But... I got exactly how far I hoped I would go in my first competition. I do have an ego, though, and getting "out of the House" was seemingly possible.

Round 7 was still pending. But not really. I'm pretty sure it was already determined. Judging for these rounds was long over. They just torment you here. I kept refreshing for about 25 minutes.

Round 7: Win. Round 8: Pending.

You can see the story you are up against. I read it. It's good! I'm probably out. I refresh a few times. No updates. I go to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. I do a pour-over method because it takes longer. By the time I'm done, it's already four minutes past the hour. The results will have already posted. I refresh.

Round 8. Win.

"No fucking way!" I say to my wife. She’s almost out the door to go to the gym, but told me to go back to the computer to check before she leaves. We hug.

Jerry and I are one of the six stories representing our "House" in the Final Showdown in two days. I'm floored! I did not expect to go this far.

I also do not expect to win the Final on Sunday. The initial bracket of 64 has me paired against a story I really like. The winner of that bracket goes up against a story that received a "buy" from finishing Round 6 with zero losses. That's tough competition.

But I wrote a story that made the finals. I “made the shot when I must.” I'm a writer, no matter how much a corner of my brain wants to tell me otherwise. We'll see what Sunday brings.