Yooooooo!


So WRITING CONTESTS WILL BE COMING TO THE WRITER'S AND ROLEPLAYER'S GUILD SOON! (I skipped January because I only learned of the thing when the month was already half over, and in February, the official forum contest will be a Writing Contest so we'll be skipping February, too --


but March will be bringing the contests home to the Guild! and while I have some ideas, I'd like to hear from you guys about what your thoughts are on future contests!

This is what I've got so far, but really it was just updating original Writing Contest rules:

Contests will be separate from Writing Challenges, and as you see in the image, there will be Prizes for contest winners and their works will be saved in a board (like an exhibition board!) for people to read through. o_o they may even continue to be put in the Writer's area of the forum for people to see XD


So! What I'd like from you guys are:

1. Suggestions on what you would like changed about the Writing Contest ((besides how long it is. XD I changed it so you have a full 3 weeks to get something out!))((!!and that now you can put in two entries for two categories: sailor moon and not sailor moon))((yay original fiction!))((also we can't change the PG-13 bit due to forumotion's terms and conditions, so no luck there, sorry))
   
2. Suggestions for themes types - Broad or Specific or a mix of both!
   
3. Theme suggestions (^^')
   

Reading the welcome board, I saw Mercury's comment:

Sailor Mercury wrote:

Comments: It might be fun to do story battles (not exactly challenges) wherein we all get specific prompts (more specific than the monthly challenges themes, so like Character X gets in Y situation, etc) and see what everyone comes up with from that. It would be interesting to see the results.

And I reeeally like that idea! o_o but I kinda think it would fit more with a Challenge than a writing Contest, you know? Since it'd be challenging the author more than letting the author fly with their interpretation of the theme.



So..... YES HERE WE GO SUGGESTIONS AND COMMENTS AND IDEAS ACTION!

I personally like more specific themes more. For example, I meant to participate in the 'Christmas' themed contest a while ago, but just couldn't come up with any ideas because it was too broad. Maybe mix it up? A general theme this month, more specific next?

Or if you're going to be broad, go for places or characters instead of something abstract like Christmas/Celebration? Something like 'Crystal Tokyo', 'Silver Millennium', or 'Princess Mars'. For the Sailor Moon part anyway.

Oooo. What if on the senshi birthdays, we have a contest dedicated for their character?

That would mean taking up 10 of the 12 available months, lol, maybe not.

XD The super-broad themes often have me going @.@ too; maybe just throw two broad things together to make it more compact? Like "Crystal Tokyo Christmas" and such?


lmao like people throw out a bunch of broad ideas or characters and we use a randomizer to throw them together XD

OMG yes. We might come up with the most random but amusing stuff. Like... Chocolate Tuxedo Mask.

This might be a little off-topic in a way, but I really love the idea of Mercury's challenges, so I'm going to throw some ideas that sparked from reading about it xD

We could use those really specific prompts as a way for all of us to improve as writers. Like one challenge could pinpoint/emphasize dialogue between two/three/etc characters, or another could be a challenge for a battle scene. Challenges for various emotions, challenges for different genres to broaden our experience with them, or even challenges that make us use a specific item in the story? There's so much to do!

I think it would be such a great and fun way to improve and we'd all be encouraging to eachother and we all get to keep on challenging ourselves to get better =] It wouldn't be a contest though in any sense, but more of a "oh, look what this prompt inspired me to do!" But there could be prizes to be the incentive! Like "Oooh I completed 5 Guild challenges! Look at my shiny badge <3", or something. It'd be cool to have that on our signature area so people could see them and think "Hmmm I wonder what fun things are going on in the writing/rp Guild?!"  .. Or something like that =P

Also, It'd be really cool if these challenges were on a smaller scale and happened more often than the big writing contests. We would only get a short time (few days? A week?) to complete it, but if someone missed one challenge, it doesn't matter because there's always another one coming up again soon anyway!

  I like the challenges idea, is what I'm trying to say. Shut up now Verdi. Okay xD

Sailor Mercury wrote:

OMG yes. We might come up with the most random but amusing stuff. Like... Chocolate Tuxedo Mask.

  Oooh, Mercury~chan~ what are you thinking? ((  ))

Sailor Pluto wrote:

This might be a little off-topic in a way, but I really love the idea of Mercury's challenges, so I'm going to throw some ideas that sparked from reading about it xD

We could use those really specific prompts as a way for all of us to improve as writers. Like one challenge could pinpoint/emphasize dialogue between two/three/etc characters, or another could be a challenge for a battle scene. Challenges for various emotions, challenges for different genres to broaden our experience with them, or even challenges that make us use a specific item in the story? There's so much to do!

I think it would be such a great and fun way to improve and we'd all be encouraging to eachother and we all get to keep on challenging ourselves to get better =] It wouldn't be a contest though in any sense, but more of a "oh, look what this prompt inspired me to do!" But there could be prizes to be the incentive! Like "Oooh I completed 5 Guild challenges! Look at my shiny badge <3", or something. It'd be cool to have that on our signature area so people could see them and think "Hmmm I wonder what fun things are going on in the writing/rp Guild?!"  .. Or something like that =P

Also, It'd be really cool if these challenges were on a smaller scale and happened more often than the big writing contests. We would only get a short time (few days? A week?) to complete it, but if someone missed one challenge, it doesn't matter because there's always another one coming up again soon anyway!

  I like the challenges idea, is what I'm trying to say. Shut up now Verdi. Okay xD

YES


GOOD OKAY CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN APPROVED.
...as for the little prizes... Mercury and I may be way ahead of you XD ^^ please look forward to it~ teehee


Okay! So weekly challenges, y/y. 

DECISIONS DECISIONS:

1. Themes for Monthly Contests: broad matched with specifics, such as Mercury's above match-up ((oooh mercury~ XD))  ((Other ideas welcome!))

2. Themes for Weekly/Biweekly Challenges: specific, yet open-ended. Examples (from lovely Verdi~): A conversation between three characters; a fight scene; a certain emotion ((super good for writing practice, btw)); a certain item; a certain genre/setting/world. Question: Should there be a word limit? If yes, should it be equal to or less than contest length? Should we length the contest length?

It isn't... That's not what I... I don't know what you're talking about!

I always have difficulty with word limits when it comes to creative writing; so I think making it less than 1000 would be a struggle.  But that's just my opinion; I have no idea what other people like.

You could alternate the word limits. When I ran the writing contests, I liked having no word limit with the special event writing contests, so as to add some variability.

varying word limit sounds good XD


ALSO!

February Official GC Contest is now Live! http://www.thegalaxycauldronforums.com/t6592-gc-s-official-writing-contest-2014-valentine-s-day#199191 C'MON WRITER'S GUILD! XD   

I submitted my entry a few days ago

Miss Moon Rose wrote:

I submitted my entry a few days ago

   that's because you're an awesome and wonderful person XD

I sent one in too!

Okay, everyone! 

First Writing Contest will start This Saturday! The contest will follow the rules in the picture above, so I'll be accepting entries until the 21st!

Our first Writing Challenge will start this Saturday as well! I'm thinking challenges won't be blind or voted upon (? correct me if you think we should have votes and stuff on challenges!) so it'll be up and posted and open for like, what, a week? or should we keep them open indefinitely, just as fun challenges to whomever whenever they decide to participate? Questions questions XD