Let's Talk Mental Health

This is a storytelling contest for poets and short story writers about mental health. The catch, you only have seven lines or sentences to tell it in. Stories or poems can be submitted with or without accompanying art. There are four categories for judging in this contest: Poetry adult, poetry 17 and under, short story adult, short story 17 and under. You must be living or working in the Town of Stony Plain, City of Spruce Grove, or Parkland County to be eligible for entry.

Contest Dates

Get ready for 2023! Contest runs January 1- January 31

Submissions

Submit your story or poem

How to Write a Seven Sentence Story

You can use the sentence starter in bold at the start of each of the following paragraphs to write your seven sentence story or use the plot points that follow each sentence starter to form your story.

Once upon a time… this is where in the plot you introduce the main character, what they want, and the first action they take that advances the story. 

And every day… this is the results of the action in the first sentence that makes the situation worse and takes the character further from the goal.

Until one day… based on the new situation, the character takes a new action to accomplish the goal.

And because of this… things change (possibly for the worse) but still aren't going as planned or require further action.

And because of that… based on the new situation the character the character may take a third and final action to accomplish their goal or take further action. 

Until finally… This further action either accomplishes the goal, fails, or there is an unusual but oddly satisfying different result caused by the last action.

And ever since that day... The plot is wrapped up and tells the reader how the character felt about the result, a moral or what else happened to the character and how life continues on.

Examples of Seven Sentence Short Stories by published authors

The Hair Cut by Jasmine Guillory author of The Proposal

The Girl and the Dragon by Laura Sebastian author of the Ash Princess

*Trigger warning, suicide* Girl on the Bridge by Fiona Davis author of The Masterpiece 

Stand Up for Mental Health

The Town of Stony Plain is working with award winning comedian and counselor David Granirer from Vancouver on Stand-Up for Mental Health, a comedy show. The show is meant to raise awareness on the stigma surrounding mental illness.  David himself has a diagnosed bipolar disorder and uses comedy to open the dialogue around mental illness.

The show will take place May 5, 2022 at Heritage Park starting at 5:30 p.m.  Tickets go on sale in April.