Guardian's Global Writing Challenge #1

[Stardust]

Global Writing Challenge #1

Spoiler: Explanation and Guidelines

The main problem with previous writing challenges has been a lack of participation.  Not enough people were interested in them, and community writing challenges have faded out.  So, I'm creating a global writing challenge.  Instead of doing individual writing challenges for each community, I'm going to be creating challenges that involve multiple communities.

General Timeline
Weeks 1-3
I'll announce the theme for the challenge in all the communities involved.  During this week, participants are expected to complete their entries and submit them by the due date.  Late entries won't be global, but they can be submitted for local critique.  If you have a partially finished piece, you can submit it, but I encourage people to finish if possible.
Week 4
I'll collect the entries and organize them into a single post, which I'll submit in all the communities involved.  A week will be given for people to submit critique, after which I'll post every critique globally.

Requirements
There aren't may restrictions on the challenges.  Entries can be anything written, they can be as long or as short as the creator wishes (within reason), and deviations from the theme are fine.  However, if an entry obviously isn't serious, I won't include it in the global posts.

Submission
If you're submitting something, you can choose whether you want it to be global or local.  I won't include your piece in global posts if you specify that you want to keep it specific to the community you post it in.  Anything that the creator hasn't specified as being local will be assumed to be global.  If you want particular parts to be local for whatever reason, make sure you specify which parts to leave out somehow.  I also encourage participants to include a way to contact them with their entry.  If you want your entry to be unanimous, you can PM it to me or specify that you want it posted globally as unanimous.

Themes
After each challenge, I'll begin collecting suggestions for the next theme.  After I get enough suggestions, I'll start a poll to decide the new theme.

The Communities
RPG Maker Paradise - This is my own site which I'll be using as a base of operations for organizing everything.  I'll also be archiving everything here.
rmxp.org - I've tried a few writing challenges here, but participation has declined recently.
Spontaneous Generation - Writing challenges were previously hosted by someone else until they decided that there wasn't enough participation to continue.
RMVXP.com - There hasn't been a writing challenge here before, to my knowledge, so this will be a first for the site.

Rule/Community Changes
If you want to discuss any changes to the guidelines above, feel free to contact me via PM.  If you want me to extend this to other communities that you are a part of, send me a PM with a link to the community and I'll take a look.

Theme #1 - Horror
The first theme will be a genre.  A lot of submitted stories I've seen are either fantasy or science fiction, so it's important to explore new mediums.

Times
Start: Saturday, November 8
Pieces Due: Sunday, November 29
Criticisms Posted: Monday, December 6

 

[Cruelty]

i think the reason not many people write horror is probably because it's hard to do, especially for amateurs. :{

 

[Stardust]

It's good to have a hard theme.  It encourages people to think about what they're writing instead of just telling a story.

 

[Surmuck]

..Or it potentially discourages people from even picking up the topic. If you really are aiming for participation, and not necessarily for high-quality work from serious writers; pick a genre with a very wide appeal to the average joe as not everyone enters stuff simply for the sake of being challenged.

If you want serious writers, who actually put thought into their pieces - then this is either going to totally fluke, or you'll get a mild participation. Your drawing from several forums, which is great - but their history is one of very low participation.

Generally these type of things take some time to really build an audience of readers and writers so by all means, continue to run these events. But I really do suggest you look at why you've received low participation in the past (this forum is highly inactive, for example) and apply that to your future challenges.

Just a thought.

*Edit: Another thing you might want to think about is, like I think you've done in the past, having your target audience of writers select the topic their writing on from a list of 10 or something. Eliminate genres' after the challenge, and thus you end up with introducing people into the challenges with genres they are comfortable with, and easing them into new territory.

 

[Stardust]

I'll see how this theme goes before I do something else.  I, personally, find it a very interesting challenge, but maybe that's just because I like to try new things.  If this flops, I'll do something like what you suggested for choosing the next theme.

Thanks for the feedback.  Although it may seem like I'm brushing you off a little, I'm absorbing everything you say.  This whole thing is more of an experiment right now since I'm not sure how everyone is going to react to it, and your thoughts are definitely helping with that.

 

[e]

I think most of the participation problem is more one of time than interest. I've been meaning to write a couple of things for your challenges, but I never really find to develop ideas, what with university and work. I'd definitely participate during breaks (i.e.: christmas, thanksgiving, spring break, etc.), but in between its pretty hard to do.

 

[mawk]

And, as a sidenote, there are much better times to be holding a writing contest than mid-November.

 

[Venetia]

I rather like the horror theme, and your concepts, but like eth said, i usually dont have time for these things. lengthen the deadline, or have people post their partials, and you may get more support.

remember, kids, horror isn't necessarily scary guys with axes. horror novels sometimes aren't even on scary subjects or themes. sometimes it's just about making something atmospheric, moody, or spooky, or even just violent. all these things end up in the horror category.

 

[ultimaodin]

Honestly I'm a writer at heart and would love to do this, except I'm already working, spending time with my gf, working on a new template and game made using said template as well as creating my music and my commercial projects. I barely have the tme to squeeze my friends 18th birthday party in.
If I get a fraction of time to spare I will see but in a week... not a chance.

 

[Stardust]

I'm going to extend this to a month-long challenge.  The first three weeks will be for writing and the last one for critiques.  I'll update the first post with the new timeline and the update on how the theme will be chosen.  I was used to the week-long contests, but I'm sure there will be much more interest if everyone has more time to work on their ideas and type them out.

 

[serrated_colon]

"I never think about the future. It comes soon enough". Albert Einstein, clever old chap he was. If only the future I had dreamt of came as mindlessly as the withered spec thought. Lost everything I did. Dominance, power, self-gratification. Hell, my own fucking dignity too. Yeah, take that and shove it St Peter. Don't need it. Not where I'm going.

The endless pit of grovelling darkness was the place I now would be condemned to explore. Lucifarian humidity I now knew! Fucking purged of my sins, my past life as cold as the perceived phlegm I now spew endlessly! Was a mile away from what I expected. Obscurantism my ass, Plato. The King's Republic flung me to my fucking knees now - compared to what I was - as I begged the perpetual presence to leave me to my current dwelling. But it looked astounded. Stared and me.

Astounded.

The protruding intestine-like structure of the head of this grotesque creature was terrifying; I found the fact that it was amazed by something about me to be quite ironic - as I felt quite the same, as any human would.
"You're not human."
It spoke - no, stuttered swallowing blood gargled in it's mouth. It only contributed more to my fear of what was to come. Knowing this, I decided to ignore my seemingly infinite post-mortem interval and approach this sickening creation.
"Strange. I feel minuscule humanity within myself despite the fact I reside in this hell-hole."
"One step," A shock in the 'ground' was felt. Realising I was standing on the accumulation of the insides of human bodies, "from tyranny;" the fear inside me was taking over, algor mortis, "one step," the supposed ambience I felt was fading as a death-like paralysis took over me, "from anarchy." losing myself all over again, my limbs stiffened -

Silence. The pain gone. This creature's voice mastered the domain I was trapped in. I now realised I resided within the creature! Acceptance of my fate gave me true knowledge. My sins I was once famed for I was now being punished for. I could not speak, as my lips were sealed shut by an unknown force but I screamed in my mind, with all my power:
Fuck you. My true pain lay in the loss of my property. Lucifer, satan, shaytaan, none of you exist! Only the concept lies in our minds, not embodied in our souls.

jesus christ this is a piece of shit i just wrote on the spot
re-iterating that i fucking hate this and just wanted to contribute