Discovery short story competition - discuss

[jammi]

Jammi, one thing tho. Now that you gave away the surprise, have your peeps decide on a theme. Otherwise people are going to start writing now and everyone should get an equal amount of time to flesh it out. 8| and it could be more fun.

Yup, that's the plan. I'm going to roll with Coin's idea of announcing a theme/title when the competition begins. Providing we get enough interest, anyway.

EDIT: Lythrilux, you're a bad person.

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[Lythrilux]

EDIT: Lythrilux, you're a bad person.

Does that mean I've won already?

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[Coin]

make it so.

the usual gig with short story competitions is for the organiser to give the title, and judge the best story from that - it means then that anyone submitting the story is really unlikely to have previously written one to that exact title, and therefore the playing field is even. this stops people submitting stories that were written previously and polished over several months

This is a very good idea - I'll be keeping that one, ta.

And you're right - I'm modelling this on previous competitions. I think the first one was run by Mwerte when he was a moderator, and Marburg ran another. Props to those guys for the inspiration.

By the way, make sure you all vote one way or another on the poll - it'll make gauging opinion much easier.

np np

Jammi, one thing tho. Now that you gave away the surprise, have your peeps decide on a theme. Otherwise people are going to start writing now and everyone should get an equal amount of time to flesh it out. 8| and it could be more fun.

That is true.

It'll be interesting to see erotic fiction for Disco as a theme.
Fifty Sabres of Grey anyone?

lmao

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[kikatsu]

Yes, I am all for this... this should be fun.

[Geodin]

PLUS A MILLION! YES! YES! YES! YES!

As someone working on a novel that is currently driving me insane, it would be nice (and probably good for my health) to write something without stress involved.

There should be an in-game prize... like a ship that is completely unavailable to the general public.

Theme should be broad enough to allow creative leeway and shouldn't be so focused as to favor any one section of the community over another. Also, word limits should be a range, not set in stone. Personally speaking, 5000 words is hardly three cock tail napkins worth of writing. Finally, anyone who helps organize or come up with the theme itself should not be allowed to participate. I would offer to help myself, but I intend to participate (and win!)

P.S. -- thank you for my prizes in advance :-P

[Kornpatch]

I'm up for the challenge seems like a wonderful way to get those creative juices running.

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"You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years, yet have little of account to show for your efforts. Such failure must be depressing to bear as it is pathetic to behold."
-Imotekh the Stormlord

[Rodent]

I'm down for this.

[Lythrilux]

PLUS A MILLION! YES! YES! YES! YES!

As someone working on a novel that is currently driving me insane, it would be nice (and probably good for my health) to write something without stress involved.

There should be an in-game prize... like a ship that is completely unavailable to the general public.

Theme should be broad enough to allow creative leeway and shouldn't be so focused as to favor any one section of the community over another. Also, word limits should be a range, not set in stone. Personally speaking, 5000 words is hardly three cock tail napkins worth of writing. Finally, anyone who helps organize or come up with the theme itself should not be allowed to participate. I would offer to help myself, but I intend to participate (and win!)

P.S. -- thank you for my prizes in advance :-P

500,000,000 credits
Or maybe a Thor Mk2

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[jammi]

Theme should be broad enough to allow creative leeway and shouldn't be so focused as to favor any one section of the community over another.

This'll be the case, yes - the theme will be generic enough that you can turn it to most characters with a bit of imagination.

Also, word limits should be a range, not set in stone. Personally speaking, 5000 words is hardly three cock tail napkins worth of writing.

Leeway would probably be about 10%, so 500 words over the top. The whole point is to force people to creatively condense work. Sprawling narrative arcs are all well and good, but it takes a slightly different knack to press an entertaining, well formed and creative story into a much smaller space.

Finally, anyone who helps organize or come up with the theme itself should not be allowed to participate. I would offer to help myself, but I intend to participate (and win!)

This'll probably be the case. It may well be that judges can submit material, but would be excluded from prizes. So just for personal fun and honing their own writing on the leaderboards.

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[Geodin]

Screw credits, I want a battlestar! lol.

Seriously though, this is an amazing idea and it should become an annual tradition.

And yeah, I get what you mean about condensing the word limit to a reasonable length.