Submissions for December are open until December 31st!
Achievements:
- Have a character make a
resolution.
- Portray a change in the
season or
weather.
- Show a scene of two characters
bonding.
Hello, everyone, Kitsune here. You'll have to forgive me ahead of time for my post not being as humorous or... evocative as Kenny's. Let's make do with what I have here.
Basically, this is the spiritual successor to the Bi-Weekly Competition, now in a monthly format. For those of you unfamiliar with it, let's have some
posthumouszombie words from Kenny about the idea behind it.
Originally Posted by
Uncle Kenny
"You know what, man? Life be hard. A dude trying to get his write on and ain't nobody give a bit of damn. We needs like... motivation. We needs like... to do something big, son."
In so many words, this is one giant "GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND WRITE" thread.
Basically, you submit a composition that falls within our guidelines by posting the story in your thread. (Don't have a thread? Post below to receive an application to sign up for an application to sign up for a thread.
Or just press the Post New Thread button.) So yeah once you've posted your work, link it to this thread to officially sign up and stuff. Then, at the start of the next month, our lovely judges will review your work, write a review, give you delicious feedback, then dress it up with a pretty descriptive score for bragging rights.
The important thing isn't the scores you receive, but the free feedback, exposure, and motivation to your story. This creates a lovely cycle of readers reading, writers writing, and mods being coerced into doing work without pay. Everybody wins! Except the mods. So yeah, just remember to have fun and not be a goblin.
Competition Organizers
Kitsune Inferno - Senior Advisor
Uncle Kenny - Public Relations Director
RPGJay - Mistress of Ceremonies
Cuddles the DarkhesCa - ReadingCheesecake God
LaCaSiNa - Lady Horrorheart
Judging
Judging is done by a panel of eccentric internet people chosen by
lottery a selective process involving interviews, auditions, and resumes whoever's available. We always need judges so if you want to judge, PM one of the organizers. If we think you're up to it, we'll let you on the panel. Remember, as a judge you are responsible with reading each story, giving quality feedback (not just a random "good job!"), and wearing tight T-shirts.
The judges will make use of descriptive scores to rate each story. The descriptors are as follows, though it is to the judges' discretion which descriptor they deem appropriate:
Poor - You gave it a shot, but ultimately, you fell a little flat. However, there really
isn't such a thing as a failure! Even if you get a poor score, don't be disheartened: give it a shiny new coat of paint!
Fair - You gave us a piece that, while not bad, did not stand out. Again, don't be disheartened by this! It just means you're not a bad writer; you just need a little fine-tuning.
Good - You gave us a piece that really has the makings of being something amazing, but it's not quite there yet. You're on the right track,
baby, you were born this way, you just need to find a way to really let it sing.~
Great - Here's a piece that's just wow! It's not
quite to perfection, but damn are you coming close! Give it an edit run or two, take our advice, and you'll wind up with a piece that's sure to impress!
Excellent - This is a piece deserving of our highest level of praise. Keep in mind, this does not mean your piece
can't be improved upon, but you sure aren't making that task easy! There's not much you can do to make it better, but that doesn't mean you can't try. ^^
Also important, the judging period will be from the 1st to the 15th. To all prospective judges,
WE MUST HAVE YOUR REVIEWS AND SCORES BY THE 15TH OF THE MONTH! *ahem*
Due to past shortages on judges, even though the monthly format makes it
significantly easier to find a judge because the deadline is longer, inevitably we still may have a hard time finding a judge. So we are enforcing a rule on monthlycompetition winners:
the winner of each competition is required to be a judge once within the next 3 competitions (months). The winner can decide which of the next three competitions they want to judge, but they must choose one. Obviously during whichever competition you choose, you can't submit any work. So choose carefully.
Guidelines for Submissions
- Minimum of 5,000 characters per submission; Maximum of 40,000.
- One submission per
story per month, please. Yes, you may submit multiple submissions, but only one submission per story. Don't get too greedy.
- Please do tell us if you believe something may be inappropriate in your work as we're not intending to judge your character or anything but it would be better if our judges don't get surprised or offended. You should always maintain a level of tact within your submissions or at least give us a head's up as that is also an act of tact.
- In order to get your work reviewed, come here and tell us which story it is of yours you would like to have reviewed. We'll link back to each of your stories and keep a record of it here so in the case that you have more than one story going on, please inform us which story it is you would like reviewed. You can also tell us which stories you would like removed from here if you choose to withdraw indefinitely. Keep in mind that simply missing bi-weeklies doesn't erase you from competition, it's perfectly fine if you skip a few as this is an optional, on-going competition. We won't pester you or anything so don't fret.
- Each judge will review your work at their discretion based on their own criteria of what makes a good character, story flow, etc. If you submit, please understand and don't expect them to break away from their criteria. Instead, if you'd like them to give a more in-depth look in certain areas then tell them that and if they're willing, they'll give you an analysis in that regard in addition to their standard review. But also please understand that it is a courtesy and does not affect competitive standing.
- Please do not pester the judges either. I'm not insinuating that anyone shall but just in case you have any questions then come here and post it and if it's a more private matter then simply PM me about it. Understand that the judges are simply here to look over your stories and provide writing help and that they don't actually manage the competition. If you would like individual help then I suppose it would be alright to PM them but they may be busy with other things and if that is the case then I ask you to please not push them or try to coerce them into believing that it's their responsibility to help you, it's not.
- Also, to our readers, do not presume to be a judge unto yourself. I do encourage readers to critique and such but I do not endorse elitism and I beg you to retain your own beliefs and tastes. Do not take the judges' criticisms as the standard for all writing as new perspectives are always welcome to the table. Which brings me to another point: If you're a writer, don't get detered by your reviews and if you're a judge, don't become elitist. Just always keep in mind that this is in good fun and we're attempting to improve on a whole. That includes as people. ^^
- Finally, as was said before if you have any questions or comments then just post about it here and enjoy the competition. The goal of this is to improve as writers and gain exposure. And for our readers, their goals should be to help us help them to have a good experience. We're all mutually circle-jerking here.~
January 2013 Monthly
December 2012 Monthly
November 2012 Monthly
October 2012 Monthly
September 2012 Monthly
August 2012 Monthly
July 2012 Monthly
June 2012 Monthly
May 2012 Monthly
April 2012 Monthly
March 2012 Monthly
February 2012 Monthly
January 2012 Monthly
Past Monthlies
Monthly Writing Competition: Keep Up The Standard!
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