What the Short Story Of The Month Answer Key Actually Covers
The Short Story Of The Month Answer Key is a scoring and evaluation reference used by judges, teachers, and competition organizers who need to assess short fiction submissions quickly and consistently. It's not a creative writing guide. It's a rubric-based breakdown that maps story elements to measurable scoring criteria. Most people come across it when they're running a writing contest or a classroom module. The key itself usually breaks down into three or four categories: narrative structure, character development, dialogue quality, and thematic execution. Each category gets weighted differently depending on the competition or curriculum. A school program might weight character development at 40%, while a literary magazine submission portal could weight originality and voice at 50%.
Using the Short Story Of The Month Answer Key in Practice
Here's how I actually use it when judging enters a room full of submissions. First, you read the story straight through without writing notes. That's counter to what most people assume. If you start highlighting as you read, you'll lose track of pacing and overall impression. You need to feel the story before you dissect it. After the first read, go back with the answer key open. For each criterion, assign a score based on what you observed. The key will have descriptors for each score band — usually something like "exceeds expectations," "meets expectations," and "below expectations." The problem most people have is that those descriptors are vague enough to interpret however they want. That's why the second read matters. You're checking whether your initial impression holds up against the written criteria. I ran into a specific issue once where two judges scored the same story wildly differently on dialogue. One gave it a strong mark, the other marked it down. The answer key had a section on dialogue that mentioned "naturalism" and "character differentiation," but neither judge agreed on what those terms meant in practice. I solved it by going back to the raw text and pulling actual dialogue lines. We compared them line by line and realized one judge was evaluating whether the dialogue sounded like real people talking, while the other was evaluating whether each character sounded distinct from every other character. Those are two different things. I rewrote our scoring instructions to separate those two concepts explicitly, and the disagreement rate dropped significantly after that.
The key works best when you apply it blindly to the first three submissions, then recalibrate. Your internal baseline shifts as you read more stories in the same theme or genre. What felt weak at story number one might feel solid by story number five. The answer key anchors you so you don't drift.
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Common Mistakes People Make With the Answer Key
The biggest mistake is treating it like a checklist instead of a weighting system. You can tick every box — plot, character, dialogue, theme — and still produce a bland, forgettable story. The answer key rewards balance, not just completion. A story with a thin plot but exceptional voice will often score higher than one that hits every structural beat without any personality. Another mistake is applying the same weights across every submission. Different genres demand different things. A literary flash fiction piece and a speculative action piece should be judged with slightly different priorities. The answer key gives you a framework, not a rigid template. If you're running a horror-themed month, atmospheric tension matters more than plot complexity. Adjust the weights accordingly. The answer key also doesn't account for experimental writing well. Nonlinear narratives, unreliable narrators, and fragmented structures can look like failures on paper when scored mechanically. I've seen solid experimental pieces get crushed because the scorer treated a deliberate structural choice as a plot hole. When a story breaks conventions, you need to evaluate whether the break serves the story, not just whether it follows the template.
If you're looking for the actual Short Story Of The Month Answer Key document, it varies by organization. Some writing programs host it on their intranet. Educational publishers sometimes include it in teacher resource packets. You can usually find it by searching for the specific program name along with "rubric" or "scoring guide." The most reliable sources are the organizations running the competition directly rather than third-party sites that rehost PDFs without context. The key is useful, but it's only as good as the person using it. Read widely. Calibrate your sense of quality. And don't let the rubric override your actual judgment of whether a story works.
