“The Way We Heard”: A New Fiction Challenge for ABCtales

“The Way We Heard”: A New Fiction Challenge for ABCtales

This new fiction challenge is sponsored by Cerasus who will donate £100 to ABCtales if all the criteria are met.

It is inspired by Lille Dante’s current project to write a series of vignettes based around every UK Number 1 Single starting from the Chart’s inauguration in November 1952.

Number 1 | ABCtales

Lists of UK singles chart number ones - Wikipedia

Lille is not confident of completing this project in their lifetime so would appreciate some assistance.

The challenge is to choose any song from any year that reached Number 1 in the Official UK Singles Chart and to write a story inspired by it in some way. 

The story is to be set within the time frame that the song was at number 1 and to be true to the time and place.

Story length to be from 1000 words up to about 2500 words, so long as it can be posted on ABCtales in one complete part.

To avoid complications with copyright, please do not quote any of the song’s lyrics.

The story should not be about the song itself or its singer, but evocative of its atmosphere in a realistic, grounded setting.

For each decade that is represented by a short story, Cerasus will donate £10 to ABCtales.

If there is at least 1 story in each of the 8 decades from the 1950s to 2020s, Cerasus will donate £80, plus a bonus of a further £20 if there is a different author writing about each decade.

You can post more than one story set in whatever years you choose, but the challenge is only completely met when all decades are represented.

In order to meet the challenge’s full criteria, there need to be at least 8 distinct stories, each from a different author; one from each decade from the 1950s to 2020s.

Please title the story “The Way We Heard:” followed by the song’s title.

Closing date is the 31^st July 2026, whereupon Cerasus will determine how far the challenge has been met and accordingly donate up to £100 to ABCtales.

Please voice any queries below and we will answer them as soon as possible.

To keep a track of progress, we will post regular updates – and it may be useful if you ‘sign up’ to cover a particular year by leaving a comment.