To win short story competitions, you need to pay attention to character development. Make your characters relatable and complex. Also, polish your writing style to make it clear and vivid.
One popular one is the Young Writers' Award. It offers great opportunities for YA writers to showcase their talent. There's also the Teen Ink Contest, which gets a lot of entries each year. Both provide good platforms for young writers to get noticed.
As someone who loves reading novels, I don't have any real-time updates to answer your questions about the short story contest. However, you can follow the relevant novel websites or social media accounts to find out if they are holding a short story competition or essay contest and participating. Some novel websites would also regularly publish essay questions and competition requirements. You could read them carefully and participate in the competition if you met the requirements.
Start with a unique and captivating idea. Make your characters relatable and the plot engaging. Pay attention to the language and keep it concise and vivid.
There might be a big event like a wedding or a festival that will bring all the characters together and create some drama. Maybe old secrets will be revealed during such an event.
There may be some small hints in the recent episodes. Maybe the way a character's behavior has been changing lately could be a hint. For instance, if a character has become more secretive, it could mean that they are involved in something that will be part of the upcoming story.