The Great Planeshift Story Challenge

[Caraick]

Ladies, Gentlemen, Klyros and Kran!

I would like to present, for your consideration, a story challenge.  Fun forum contests like this don't happen enough, and so here is my attempt to liven up the mood a bit.  Without further ado, allow me to explain the rules:

Rules and Guidelines



- Contestants will write and submit a story within the context and world of Planeshift.  Stories not actually RP-ed, or stories  RP-ed in game are both perfectly acceptable.
-The story must be original, and your own work.   Keep it under 10 thousand words, please. 
- The story must be a new work that has not been posted onto the forums yet.  The idea of this contest is to bring about a new round of fiction into the forums for everyone to enjoy, so we'd like to see new stories, rather than ones you've already written, and others have read before.
- The story does not have to be about your own character, and any subject matter is acceptable.  Stories about the history or back-story of Planeshift are welcome.  Be creative with who or what you write about! 
- Keep in mind that others will be reading your story here on the forums, so make sure it's safe for others to read. PG, please.
- Stories should be submitted to my forum account (Caraick) within one month's time.  The final due date for accepting story submissions is October 15.  I'm willing to accept stories received shortly after the deadline if there's reason to be late, but you're making my job much easier if you get them in by the 15th.
-Once all story submissions have been received, I'll post each story in a separate forum post, in a new topic, under the writer's name. 
-After the stories have all been posted into the new topic by myself, the voting window will open.  Voters are allowed to vote for two stories each, submitted again to my forum account via PM. 
-The winner will be the story that receives the most votes, prior to the end-date of the voting window, which will be the 1st of November That's two weeks to read and vote on the stories in the posts.
-Feel free to vote for your own stories, but you cannot vote for the same story twice
-Any questions? Just post a reply in this topic, and I'll get back to you.


Good luck, and happy writing!!

[Mask]

It might be better if people could not vote for their own story - that way, they need to decide which two stories are best.

Who is allowed to vote? Only the authors?

[miomo]

This is a great contest, and maybe, finally, I'll finish Miomai's cycles in the Death Realm to submit.

Just a suggestion, why not allow the authors to post their stories directly to this thread, and then on October 15th, add a poll to the thread for voting? This would ease the burden on you while making use of the forum's features.

Already, I have a hunch on who will win.

[Caraick]

It might be better if people could not vote for their own story - that way, they need to decide which two stories are best.

Who is allowed to vote? Only the authors?

Anyone who reads the stories is allowed to vote, including their authors.  The thought behind allowing everyone to vote for two stories forces authors to vote for at least one other story, besides their own.

This is a great contest, and maybe, finally, I'll finish Miomai's cycles in the Death Realm to submit.

Just a suggestion, why not allow the authors to post their stories directly to this thread, and then on October 15th, add a poll to the thread for voting? This would ease the burden on you while making use of the forum's features.

Already, I have a hunch on who will win.

Simply for reasons of formatting.  I can post all of the stories side-by-side, and hopefully all on the first page of the topic.  Just for ease of reading and later, ease of voting.

[Aramara Meibi]

Are we only allowed to submit one story, or can we submit more than one?

[Caraick]

Just one story per author for the contest.

[miomo]

Nice try Aramara, but I like your idea: the shotgun approach.

[Caraick]

Bwaha!  Aramara is a much better writer than to need to submit any more than one wonderful story.  Good luck to both of you

[Aramara Meibi]

I'd prefer it if you removed the authors' names when you post the stories in a new thread. Anonymity will remove any chance of voting on factors other than the quality of the story. Another idea would be to post all of the authors who submitted, in an order uncorrelated to the order the stories are posted. That way people can guess as to the authorship of each story (for fun!) if they wanted to.

I'm glad you're taking this initiative Caraick. The Daughters have discussed doing something similar ingame. We wanted to hold a storytelling contest, not to take away from the poetry contest of the Klyros Junction

[Caraick]

I'd prefer it if you removed the authors' names when you post the stories in a new thread. Anonymity will remove any chance of voting on factors other than the quality of the story. Another idea would be to post all of the authors who submitted, in an order uncorrelated to the order the stories are posted. That way people can guess as to the authorship of each story (for fun!) if they wanted to.

I'm glad you're taking this initiative Caraick. The Daughters have discussed doing something similar ingame. We wanted to hold a storytelling contest, not to take away from the poetry contest of the Klyros Junction

I had considered making the story posts anonymous; one of my other motivations for having the authors simply PM me with their stories.  However, it would be an easy giveaway when the stories are involving the author's characters, as to who the author is.  Still, I'm entirely up for running this the way that you all would like to have it, so I'll gladly change it to that way, should it seem popular with others.

Good luck on your stories, everyone!

[Aramara Meibi]

I had considered making the story posts anonymous; one of my other motivations for having the authors simply PM me with their stories.  However, it would be an easy giveaway when the stories are involving the author's characters, as to who the author is.

very true very true... hmm... considering this is a story CHALLENGE, maybe us authors can challenge ourselves to writing about each others' characters? kinda as a character exchange swap... i don't know, that'd have to be agreed upon on a personal basis I guess.

Are collab works allowed or do they have to be single author?

[Caraick]

very true very true... hmm... considering this is a story CHALLENGE, maybe us authors can challenge ourselves to writing about each others' characters? kinda as a character exchange swap... i don't know, that'd have to be agreed upon on a personal basis I guess.

Are collab works allowed or do they have to be single author?

I think that'd be a fun idea, perhaps for a second, slightly different, contest.  As for this one, I think we'll just identify each author with their story, unless there's a massive public outcry 

For this contest, it's single author stories only.

[Jilata]

are those storys IG or written here in the forum? I would participate if it is in the forum
I don't have a char who likes writing IC...

[steuben]

forum elder moogie had a great idea.

but dang nabbit i would like more time for this... i don't write terribly quick. though i do have single line that i could build a short story around.

[Jilata]

oops... should have read the whole thread 

*now thinks about what she should write*