The moment a "Mayday" call goes out, lives are altered forever.

"Mayday" is an internationally recognised distress signal used in emergencies, particularly in aviation and maritime situations. It signifies an urgent plea for help, a call when someone is in grave danger and needs immediate assistance.

This month, we invite and encourage you to write a story that incorporates a disaster (natural/man-made) in any genre of your choice.

Prompt courtesy: Lalitha Ramanathan

• Weave a tale based on the prompt given. (Head on to the thread of this post on our FB Group for an enlightening discussion with regards to this prompt.)
• Login to your profile on our website and draft your story.
• From the drop down under Prompts choose “#MayDay″
• Attach a cover image for your story in LANDSCAPE with the dimensions: 1200px X 675px. Please use pixabay.com, pexels.com or unsplash.com to source lovely covers in jpg or png. In case your story has a cover of poor quality, is watermarked, or is a graphic image, it will delay the publishing process.
• Allow your story to be admin approved within 24-48 hours.

Rules:

1. The submitted story must be between 2500-5000 words (each). Entries lower than or exceeding the word limit will stand disqualified for the event. (Penmancy Tip: Use https://wordcounter.io/ to check your word count.)
2. There is no limit to the number of entries you may submit- though only the first one of them will be eligible for the contest.
3. Previously published or plagiarised works will not be considered for contention. The writer of such content stands to be disqualified for the next Penmancy event.
4. AI generated content stands invalid for the contest. Repeated offenders will be barred from participation in Penmancy events.
5. Stories found to have been shared on another writing platform or blog before the declaration of results stand disqualified from the event. Kindly check the Terms of Use for details. You may share the story on your blog with a backlink to Penmancy’s original published post.
6. In case a story is received after the submission deadline, it shall be considered as a guest entry and shall not qualify for the contest.

Winning criteria:

1. The winner will be chosen on the basis of the judges’ scores (out of 10)
   • plot/story/creativity (15 points)
   • language/grammar (10 points)
   • narrative voice & content (9 points)
   • emotional impact, (8 points)
   • characterisation (8 points)
2. The entries adjudged by a panel of judges and event organisers shall be binding. Judges’ scores to be deemed final and may not be contested or sought from the Penmancy team.
3. All writers are required to read and comment on 5 stories other than their own and encourage their fellow writers with valuable and constructive inputs. Comments like ‘nice’, ‘good work’, ‘brilliant piece’, etc., do not provide the necessary critique and are not helpful to anyone.
4. Only stories that garnered and average score/rating of 7.5 and above, as aggregated on judges’ scores, shall be eligible for winning.
5. Contest Duration
   The submission for the contest is open from October 1 to October 31, 2024.
   Results for the event shall be shared on November 7, 2024, at 8:00 pm.

Three winners will win a copy of the book 'Windchimes by the Sea' by Beetashok Chatterjee.