[Locked] Seasonal Writing Contest 2011!

It's back! Time to dust off the keyboard and decorate it in glorious red and green, or whatever colors Christmas was again, for the seasonal writing contest has returned to delight one and all. Just like last year, we challenge every person with a loose grasp of English and the inherent madness needed for literal creation to participate in this no-holds-barred free-for-all write-off. Seriously, there is no bigger thing to happen to the Writing and Fanfiction forum, so crack your knuckles and start thinking with your Santa cap on because this year will be a blast!

Deadline

The deadline for entries is 00:00 of New Year's Day, the 1st of January, 2012 (EST, GMT-5). Entries after this time will have to be disregarded.

Rules

1. 1500 word limit (we will disregard the extras!).

2. It must be Winter, Christmas or New Year themed.

3. It must contain something related to Fakku in some way (like a character cameo, or a closet Fakku obsessive). If you want to get user specific; you'll have to ask people first, and anything grossly offensive/libellous will be ruled out.

4. It can be any kind of creative writing - stories and poetry are welcome.

5. It goes without saying that it must be your own work. We will be looking very closely at your words for anything that has been plagiarised.

6. Keep posts in this topic relevant. Comments are allowed, and submissions should be posted here as links to separate Writing and Fanfiction forum threads. Details can be found in Judicator Xenon's post below.

7. It has been decided that it will NOT be allowed for the participants to have someone else edit/improve/fix grammatical errors in your entry. You'll directly be disqualified if we find out about it.

Recommended Rules:

8. Please try to include the following tag [Contest Entry 2011] at the front of your entry's thread title. An example would be "[Contest Entry 2011] Fakku's Wonderful Christmas".

9. Each contestant is allowed to submit a maximum of one entry.

Judging

A panel of three judges - myself, Xenon and tsuyoshiro - will choose our favourites, explain the reasoning behind them, and declare the overall winner.

However, in case people don't trust us and/or end up in complete disagreement, there will also be a public poll on the selection of top picks, so that everyone gets their say.

The Prize

[color=#9D0A0A]Courtesy of Jacob, our lucky winner will be granted the exclusive 'writer' forum rank, as well as all of the satisfaction, plaudits and front page advertising that'll hopefully come with it. [/color]

Additionally, you will gain the praise of the Writing and Fanfiction's members and receive the ability to judge in next year's competition if you so choose.

Give it a shot and get your ideas out there; we wish you the best of luck. And of course, happy holidays!

Credits to winter55 for the topic picture of this thread.

Ask any questions you may have in this thread. You may PM one of the judges instead if you would like.

Also, please try to leave comments on the entries that the other contestants submit. I'm sure that they'll appreciate the feedback.

F.A.Q.s
______________________________________________________________

--How Do I Submit My Entry?

Make a new thread for your entry in the Writing and Fanfiction Section. Then copy the link to your entry and post it in this thread.
[color=#9D0A0A]
You must post the link to your entry in this thread or we will NOT consider it.
[/color]

Also, it would be helpful if you start the title of your thread with [Contest Entry 2011]. It would make it easier for people to find.

--Can I submit Multiple Entries?

In order to get through all the entries, there will be a limit of ONE (1) entry per user. It is not yet known how many will be participating, and each judge has to read every entry. In order to avoid potential eye strain, please limit your entries to one piece please.

--Does it absolutely have to be under 1500 words?

Yes. If we could do with 1000 words in the previous contest, you can do it too.

--Can I change or edit my entry?

Sure, but please announce and let the judges know. You can change or edit your entry up until the deadline - 00:00 of New Year's Day, the 1st of January, 2012 (EST, GMT-5)

--What is this poll and how is it going to work?

There are 45 final entries. It was decided that groups of more than 10 users proved to be excessive, so we will have 5 polls of 9 authors plus the final. Yes, that means this entire voting process will take 18 days to complete, but I think it's only fair for the participants and it creates a nice three entry per day average.

The top two users in each poll will move on to the finals. The winner of the Final(aka the sixth) poll will gain the notoriety of being the Fakku reader's best entrant.

--Polls:

[color=#9D0A0A]Closed:[/color] You can view the first poll here.

[color=#9D0A0A]Closed:[/color] You can view the second poll here.

[color=#9D0A0A]Closed:[/color] You can view the third poll here.

[color=#9D0A0A]Closed:[/color] You can view the fourth poll here.

[color=#9D0A0A]Closed:[/color] You can view the fifth poll here.

[color=#9D0A0A]Closed:[/color] You can view the final poll here.

Each poll will be open for 3 days.

[color=#9D0A0A]If you do not see your name or the name of someone you wish to vote for on a particular poll in the near future when a poll is ongoing, it is because they are either going to be on a future poll or have already been on a previous one.[/color]

--Winners:

You can view the [color=#9D0A0A]Winners[/color] declared in the thread here.

__________________________________________________________

List of Entrants and their submissions:



If your name is not on this list, it means:

>You did not post a link to your submission as was instructed in the rules above.

>Your entry did not follow the rules: Under 1500 words and include both themes of Fakku and the Winter Holiday season.

>Your entry was not posted before the deadline.

>You were just BSing us with your entry.

If you committed any of the above infractions, then your submission may not be included.

Good luck to everyone, and remember to have fun! The future of seasonal writing is now in your hands.

I submit I wish , I pray , I hope poem.

Edited : Changed the poem

[font=Arial Black][color=blue]Mod Note:[/color][/font] I have stickied this topic... at least until the contest is over.

That being said, good luck everyone! More importantly, have fun!

This is really reputable from you to wish the new generation good luck.
+ rep.

I also wish everyone who participates in here good luck. Have fun with writting some good pieces.

[font=Courier New]Time to get in the creative flow again. Good luck to everyone and let's have a good time like last year![/font]

Interesting!!!

I CAN SEE THE ENDING NOW!!!

Roflroflroflrofl, I remember this now. And then I remember it being silly because it had to be Christmas-themed. And then I remember Grover's poem. It wasn't bad, but it most definitely wasn't my taste.

We've added the winter theme in an attempt for allowing people to have different pieces to write if they couldn't come up with something good for Christmas or New Year. An example is that anyone can even write about Eid.

It was actually the very thought that had us add that theme. Basically; anything winter related is now allowed. I believe.

Writing. The only thing I never did in English class. Failed at writing so hard.

Good luck ALL!

Can it be a comic?

neko-chan technically did just that but it was more of a poem with illustrations. Ideally, it's a writing contest, so the main focus should be writing. I would like to see what you have in mind, though. I assume you're talking more like the style of a comic book and less like the style of a newspaper funnies section?

Yeah, was was thinking a ComiPo comic perhaps: people who already own the full version are getting a free Xmas/New Years accessory and costume pack this week, and I thought I could incorporate that into a Fakku-centric comic. :)

From the short Engrish video I saw on their site after Googling, it looks very interesting. However, I want to dissuade you into thinking the visuals will give your submission any extra advantage in case you want to dedicate a lot of time on them. We're only grading on the strict literary content. If you want to accompany that content with visuals, that's great, but we won't judge that part of it. I still would look forward to seeing it if you do decide to go through with it.

True that. I wouldn't assume a leg up for bringing visuals to a literature contest. :)

[size=12]yay! thank you gizgal, for asking the question i was just about ask here! and of course it wouldn't be for an advantage, that wouldn't be fair to anyone else. it'd be for adding another quality and depth to the story, right?[/h]

I got an idea for a short story about a Christmas-themed love story after taking a 5 minute nap. I'll probably submit a story.

If we write a Christmas story using characters from a particular anime should we assume that you guys have no clue who the characters are? For example, if it was Fairy Tail based Christmas story, a comedic scene involving Gray stripping should be explained in greater detail so that the reader's understand he is an "accidental" exhibitionist.

If you think that will help convey an understanding towards a lesser known character, that will be acceptable. Just state your explanation at the beginning or end of your story in parentheses or italicized and it will not be counted into your word limit.

Thank you for your question, I'm sure it will help others.