edonil Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 (edited) So, this is going to be a preliminary round of the competition to see if the rules for voting, judging, and the guidelines for the writers all work together. For this round, and possibly the entire competition, depends on the participant's feelings on the matter, this is not elimination, so authors will not be paired up against each other. The rules for the competition are as follows: 1. The list of participants will be brought together before the round begins. The Theme Ingredient will be announced at this time. For this round, ignore the first sentence... Added June 2nd, 2012 2. The Mystery Ingredient will be one of four things, or a combination of them. The Ingredient may be a picture, a phrase, an item or a more generic theme. The Mystery Ingredient should be used in each entry, but doesn't necessarily have to be literal. Be creative here! Clarified June 2nd, 2012 3. All entries must be set in the universe of Malifaux, or a recognizable Alternate version thereof. *If enough people have a problem with this, this rule will be dropped. 4. Entries should be no more than 3,000 words in total, and should be complete self contained stories. 5. Participants will have three weeks to complete their entry and post it on the forums in a new thread using a format that identifies easily that the story is an entry and what round. For example: Iron Quill Round 1: The Dark of the Night (or something) Clarified, June 2nd 2012 ON EDITING: All stories can be edited as much as people would like. If a story is going to be modified to such an extent that it no longer matches the original story, please start a new thread. WIP will not be necessary in the title, but it is requested that any story that isn't completed have it at the top of the post. When the story is finished, please remove WIP from the post. Edits can be made up until the deadline, but any edits made on the deadline or afterwards will disqualify the entry from the competition. (As an editorial note- please don't make me do this.) Added June 7, 2012 6. The winner(s) of each round will be determined by a blind score from a public and a private poll. The public poll will be a thread created in which anyone who reads the stories can vote. The private poll will be for Judges and Authors who have weighted votes they can hand out. Each Judge/Author can award each of the following to different stories: 8 votes, 6 votes, 4 votes, 2 votes. At the same time, the Judges/Authors must leave criticism and feedback, not necessarily long, for the following criteria (Thanks to Sholto for the list, and to UberGruber, Sholto and ThePandaDirector for providing all the feedback to the contest): Opening - does it grab you? Setting - is it clear? Is it interesting? Does it add to the story? Plot - was there a clear plot that you could follow? Did it provide tension and conflict? Was it well resolved? Character - did the main character(s) jump off the page? Dialogue - how was it? Point of view - (ie. first person, third person) did the PoV jump from character to character or was it consistent throughout? Was it the right PoV to tell the story? If it did jump around, was it a problem? Theme - was there one? If so, how was it brought out? Three best things about the story Three things you think could be changed for the biggest improvement Please post this feedback in the corresponding thread for the author to be able to respond and read. Clarified June 20, 2012 The Ingredient for the Preliminary Round is: Theme: The Hangover Item: A Chess Piece *If we don't get at least three people interested/able in doing this round, we'll hold it off until later. If you are interested, please indicate in here. Also looking for at least one additional person interested in being a judge. -And we're well past this point, so we're good to go here. Writers for this round: ThePandaDirector The Wind and the Leaves Mako The First Move Chucklemonkey The Morning's Life of Diego Salazar Nilus Fetid Strumpet Flames of Madness Hardlec The Green Faery Absolution Black I Don't Like Mondays Shipwreckgirl SilverChocobo Death's Servant UberGruber Morning After Finnegan Marshimartian Thechosenone The Wolf in the Fog Whitetiger Grantt To the Governor With Love Wulfen Judges for this round: edonil TheDarkRat7177 Sholto Deadline for this round: June 21st, 2012 Edited June 22, 2012 by edonil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePandaDirector Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Well I've got plenty writing to do this month anyway, so might as well throw my hat in. One question, what's the minimum word count =P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted May 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 I'd say a hundred words. Which seems awfully low, I'm sure, but at the same time, I've seen contests built around a story in 10 words, lol. If someone wants to enter a submission and thinks they've got a shot with a very short story, they are welcome to do so! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePandaDirector Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 I can write some pretty short masterpieces: John woke up. "Uh what a hangover- oh look a chess piece." Fin. *Bows to applause* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted May 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Hey now, that wasn't a hundred words. *wink* I guess I don't want to go forcing my style on people, honestly. I know that I'd need at least 800-1000 words to get a complete story down, but that I really, honestly, fit in around the 25k mark. Mainly because I've got a lot of hot air to use, lol. But other people don't need that long, and I don't want to force them to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePandaDirector Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 I tend to create concepts for full novels, but ultimately need to shorten it down to a short scene/prequel because the amount of research they require would cripple me if I were to tackle 25K+ =D Even so, I'm ok with the rules as they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 I reckon 100-3000 is fine, though I wouldn't have a problem being limit at 2000. And count me in, I reckon I can figure something out, and it'll give me a break from the other rubbish my day to day life seems to delight in leaving in my path! Though another random disaster like the idiot who drove into my parked car the other day, might cause a preliminary round DNF! When's the deadline likely to be, end of the month or a little earlier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted May 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 21st of June. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucklemonkey Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Pretty busy over those next few weeks but sure I will try to get something decent in for submission anyway. Great idea this Edonil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilus Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 I may take a crack at this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fetid Strumpet Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 If my work time allows I'm in. Curses to summer stock theatre, why do you drain my time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted May 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 So, a RL friend of mine, Miss TheDarkRat7177, has graciously volunteered to judge this round and future ones. She's new to the forum, but she's great with feedback on writing! And I've updated the first post with a list of writers and judges. Thanks for everyone for joining in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDarkRat7177 Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Hi Everyone! *waves* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePandaDirector Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Hi Everyone! *waves* Hello! Bring out the welcome party boys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDarkRat7177 Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Aww, I love pandas! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucklemonkey Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Hello Dark Rat, welcome aboard and thanks for taking the time to help us all out here. Question, I have an idea for this one and although in my head it takes place in Malifaux there would be nothing explicit whatsoever. Is it back to the drawing board? I really wouldn't mind dropping that restriction, not just because it helps me but it also keeps things in line with the Iron Painter which is fairly open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted June 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 I'm going to say that you can run with it. Honestly, it was kinda thrown in just as a thing... I guess I'd say go for it. Not sure how far that direction we want to take with things, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucklemonkey Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Cheers, I'll draft it up and if there's an opportunity to Malifaux it up I will do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absolution Black Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 wow..already a preliminary..can i commit though thats the thing..I have a few concepts rattling around...I'll give you my final answer on wednesday after the holidays! And as for the malifaux thing, i'm sure even just a reference to the city is technically in theme....unless your story can't be set in this era/setting for any reason? A chess piece...really? Way to make me think edonil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardlec Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) I would like to contribute it's been a while since I wrote fiction. Are initial contributions posted? Edited June 1, 2012 by Hardlec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted June 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Feel free to join in, Abs and Hardlec! Hardlec, I'm not sure if it's because I'm tired or what, but I don't follow the question... And as yet another announcement, we have a third Judge who has agreed to help out with the competition, Wyrds very own: Sholto! Which is awesome and it's great to have his help with this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilus Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Okay so there is a Theme ingredient and a mystery ingredient for each round? Just kinda confused on that part. So my story has to somehow in some way include a Hangover and a Chess piece(in some sort of creative way) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edonil Posted June 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 For this round there's both. For other rounds, it might be different things. Honestly, it's supposed to give you a direction and some inspiration for the story. But yeah, your story needs to include a hangover as a theme over it, and a chess piece at some point in time. Hope that helps, if not, I'll try to explain it better another way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePandaDirector Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) Great to have Sholto on board as well, though I would like to remind him that we Scots need to stick together.. so long as neither of us are fae Edinburgh Edited June 1, 2012 by ThePandaDirector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipwreckgirl Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 Oh! I'd be down for this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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