Discovery short story competition - discuss

[jammi]

I am curious as to why the "theme" restriction is in place. A 5,000 word piece on a Freelancer related concept should be enough to spark interest. Creating a theme as for example "The first Nomad War and the fighting between Kusari and Rheinland" might appeal to a lessor number of writers than an open theme and word limit only. A good measure of a writers creativity is in selection of a theme for his/her piece. Why would you remove that?

Logan

The theme will be broad enough to apply to the vast majority / all characters, so no-one will be excluded. The word limit will probably be a little lower than that, in hindsight. We'll let everyone know when the competition officially begins.

The purpose of assigning a theme would be to stop people cheating by pre-emptively writing a story and submitting it on day one. The entire point is to have a story written within the month on a time limit.

An example on themes:

Betrayal - this could pretty much apply to anything. You're a transport captain who returns home from a long voyage away, and discovers your wife has had an affair. You're a pirate who's turned in by his comrades and becomes a Bounty Hunter to get revenge. You're a spy working in an enemy House, when a leak reveals your identity and you must battle to save yourself and find the mole.

There's all sorts of stuff you could go with. I'm sure you'll be fine with any theme we provide, so long as you can use your imagination.

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