This is how the Size Riot writing contests go: January is always Cruel, April is always Gentle, and then July and October are up for grabs. Generally the topics for these are voted upon, to provide more variety and some rotation of topics. For the July contest, almost 40 people suggested topics for the writers to work out, and then within that list 135 people voted on their three preferred topics. Yesterday, the most voted-for topic was announced, and ____July18 was renamed GrowthJuly18 and added to the Size Riot homepage.

Obviously this process means that the topics are reader-driven, and it identifies a slight schism between what writers want to write and what readers want to read. The writers want to challenge themselves with new techniques and explore new subjects, and the readers want to read more of what they’ve always read. (Here’s a little foreshadowing for October: some of you may want to push yourself to compete in July, especially if you’ve competed before.)

Here’s how the voting broke down:

1. Growth: 33
2. Butts: 28
3. Giant Couple: 26
4. Voluntary Shrinking, New World Order, Gentle Semi-Dangerous Sex: 24
5. First Date: 22
6. Crush: 21
7. Relationship Giants/Tinies: 19
8. Rampage: 18
9. Teasing, Strictly F/m: 15
10. Amazons: 14
11. Summer: 11

For a long time, Butts and Gentle Semi-Dangerous Sex were tied for first place, and I totally would have permitted a double-theme had they lasted to the end. This, of course, is a violation of my “no repeatsies” rule, put in place to ensure greater variety from year to year, rather than Butts every time it’s left open to public appeal.

Which I’d be fine with. If someone instituted an All Butts, All the Time monthly writing contest, I’d get much more writing done. And if someone set the limit to be short story instead of flash fiction, i.e., 7,500 words… can you imagine…

Anyway. Sign-ups for GrowthJuly18 are going for five more days, so respond here, email me, or message me on Twitter if you want to compete. All questions you have are likely going to be answered on the Rules page, so please read that first.