Winter Writing Contest 2020

Greetings, everyone, and welcome! The time for the highly anticipated FAKKU! Writing and Fanfiction section's annual Winter Writing Contest has come again. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the contest. It has been a decade of ups, downs, and immense growth and challenge. It has been my honor to help continue the traditional contest going this long. Members of the community new and old are welcome to try out and submit any kind of original written work from poetry to prose. Similar to last year, there will be no judges. There will still be a poll, but it will be for fun. In the past, the winners were able to receive some nice FAKKU! prizes. This year, depending on the number of participants, there might be participation gifts instead to encourage everyone to contribute something. However, please take your submission seriously and avoid tossing something in with little effort just to get a prize. You can discuss the contest and find the rules and guidelines in this thread.

The contest will accept entries until its deadline which is 00:00 of New Year's Day, the 1st of January, 2021 (EST, GMT-5). Submissions posted after this date cannot be included, so please participate, prepare your submissions, and remember to have fun in this seasonal and festive time of the year!

Rules

1. No word limit.

2. The themes this year will be: Escapism, Friendship, and/or Winter/Holidays. The first two themes were suggested by Cinia Pacifica and xninebreaker respectively and I felt it appropriate to include the ability to also base your entries on winter/holidays if you desire to. You’re also welcome to write outside these themes if you wish, or something you’ve been planning for a while. Feel free to use these as a starting point.

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

4. It must be your own work. The community will be looking very closely at your words for anything that has been plagiarized.

5. Please avoid having someone else privately edit/improve/fix errors in your entry. It goes against the spirit of the contest in questioning whether your submission is truly your original work. However, feel free to post and ask the community for advice during or after the contest.

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 the post below.

7. Please try to include the following tag [Winter Contest Entry 2020] at the front of your entry's thread title. An example would be "[Winter Contest Entry 2020] Fakku's Wonderful Christmas".

8. Each contestant can submit any amount of entries, but they will not receive multiple prizes for doing so. One (1) prize per author.

Deadline

The deadline for entries is 00:00 of New Year's Day, the 1st of January, 2021 (EST, GMT-5). Entries after this time will have to be disregarded.

Judging

There will be no judges this year and thus no Judge's Choice or runner-up award, there will however be a public poll on the selection of top picks come January so that everyone gets their say. The winner of the public opinion on FAKKU will receive the Reader's Choice award title. The user receiving second in the polls will be a runner-up for this award who will also be commended for their close placement. There will be no additional prize for placing in the polls, however.

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Ask any questions you may have in this thread. You may PM me instead if you would like.

Also, please try to leave some comments on the entries of the participants, whether constructive or supportive. It doesn't matter whether you're a fellow writer, a participant yourself, or someone who barely writes and just reads; writers enjoy comments and feedback from almost anyone.

So please give it a shot and get your ideas out there; I wish you the best of luck. And of course, happy holidays!

Credits go to waterflame for working on this year's banner. Thank you!

F.A.Q.s
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--How do I submit my Entry?

Make a new thread for your entry in the Writing and Fanfiction Section. Then, copy the link of your entry and post it in this thread.

You MUST post the link of your entry in this thread or else it will NOT be counted.

--Can I submit multiple entries?

Yes, there is no limit to the number of entries one may submit this year. However, you will not get multiple prizes for doing so.

--Does it have to be under a certain number of words?

No, there is no restriction on word count this year. However, it may amuse you to know that people could make do with 1000 words in the first contest.

--Can I change or edit my entry?

Sure, but please announce it and let us in the community know. You can change or edit your entry up until the deadline - 00:00 of the 1st of January, 2020 (EST, GMT-5).

--Can I take ideas, or have a parody from an already-existing work?

Sure, you can. However, you need to explain it to the community that you did and have permission from the owner of that work if it's a work located on these forums. We may suspect plagiarism otherwise. Just leave a footnote regarding it in your thread.

--Do I have to include adult/sexual contents in my entry?

This is purely your choice. We don't mind if sexual content is present. We don't encourage or discourage it.

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

Depending on the number of entries, we may have multiple polls. The top users in each poll will move on to the Final poll. The winner of the Final poll will receive the Reader's Choice award. The second highest will receive the Runner-up award.

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Polls

Closed: You can view the poll here.

Winners

Reader's Choice: Congratulations goes to DatYuriThough for her winning submission The Distance Between Two Souls.

Reader's Choice Runner-ups: Congratulations also goes to crazr, xninebreaker, and I for tying with the entries Fujiwara Finds Peace, Together in the Void, and The Warmth of a Cold Metal Heart.

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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 instructed by the rules above.

- Your entry did not follow the rules.

- Your entry was not posted before the deadline.

- The list is yet to be updated.

If you've made an error from any of the infractions described above, then your entry may not be included, but you will be notified of such and given the opportunity to fix as appropriate, unless the deadline has passed.

Comforting to see this is still going. I'll try my best to submit something!

Yes! The time has come to rise up from the grave once more! Maybe I can write a new chapter to a A Young Man’s Journey, too.

Teaching sometimes kills all my motivation, but I’ll try my hardest for the spirit of the seasons! Good luck to everyone!

It is that time again to raise from the grave to the forums as the yearly writing contest is upon us. I'll try to submit something this year as well.

Here you go.

Fujiwara Finds Peace

Crazr requested I submit something, so I suppose I will make my long awaited (ha, as if) return to post something here for everybody. Please enjoy and thanks for running this, nice to see it's still a thing~

https://www.fakku.net/forums/writing-and-fanfiction/winter-contest-entry-2020-the-distance-between-two-souls

Of course! It's great to have you here for it. Thank you for your entry! And thank you crazr for spreading the word.

Merry Christmas, everyone. This is your notification that there is one week left to work on your entries before the deadline. Including me!

Here is my entry for this year: The Warmth of a Cold Metal Heart

Thank you to everyone who wrote entries (and me coming in right at the literal last moment!)

As of now, the deadline for the contest is passed and submissions will no longer be accepted. Stay tuned for the Reader's poll that will be posted in a couple days.

Thank you for your participation and Happy New Year! May you find this year a million times better than the last.

https://www.fakku.net/forums/writing-and-fanfiction/winter-contest-entry-2020-together-in-the-void

I'm sorry about the late entry, but if you would accept it, here it is!

Since you are a respected veteran, and this contest is more for the fun of our humble group, I'd be honored to include you. Even a little tardy, thank you for bringing it to us!

Wowzers, look at all these last minute submissions! So much for my one on one with Yuri... O-O

Anyway! I wish good luck to everyone! I will make sure to leave a review for all your stories! So much to read!

The poll for this year is up and you can find it here. Please cast your vote after giving each one a nice read and remember to leave a comment on the submission threads if you'd like.

Happy voting, all.