The aspect of writing we shall be exploring this time is RESEARCH – Scavenger’s idea, since my win of the last contest was so narrow. Research and accuracy are important aspects of writing, ones that are eagerly avoided. So, I’m assigning a subject that most of you will know little about, but I happen to know quite well, as it was the subject of my recent 50 page senior thesis.
The subject of your stories must be JOAN OF ARC. She can be the protagonist, or simply the focus of the story, but Joan must actually appear in it. Whatever method you choose to use this is up to you – historical fiction, biographical character study, alternate history, time travel, cloning (though finding her genetic material would be tough), whatever, but the Joan in your story has to be recognizable rendition of her.
For the purposes of judging, I only ask the professional writers who are so generous as to help us to judge prompt adherence by how believable your Joan is; I, however, will respond with greater detail on that. The quality of the story is still, of course, the most important part, but you still need to obey the prompt to win
1. The contest launches officially on June 12th, and submission time ends July 16th at 11:59 PM. (we'll use Pacific Time because I live on the West Coast and we need more love)
2. Your story should be around 1000-8000 words. Anything smaller is flash fiction, anything larger and we're looking at chapters.
3. Your story should be spell-checked and written clearly so that the judges can do their thing. You don't want to submit a work that is indistinguishable as gibberish or English.
4. Your entries should be submited in a new thread and prefixed accordingly:
[Short Story Contest IV] Your Story Title
or
[SSCIV] Your Story Title
5. DO NOT plagarize, copy, or infringe on copyrights. Duh.
6. Please do not use previously written stories, or excerpts from works you have already written. You're entries should be original, and written within the guidelines setforth by the Short Story Contest rules.
7. Limit one entry per person. Subject to change in future SSC contests, but not this one. (actually I don't think this will ever change)
Judging Points.
The following points of each short story will be judged, and will be given a point total. In the end, the story with the most points will win the contest.
Here's where things change. Pay attention, this could potentially affect your entry.
0-5 Adherence to Prompt: This isn't just "Is Joan of Arc in the story." This is "Does she seem like Joan of Arc?" Historical innacuracies will come out of here, though I'll likely be the only one to dock for that.
0-5 Spelling and Grammar: Sefl-esplanator.y Don't neglect this - Scavenger had a few spelling errors, and lost last round by half a point. These are not hard points to get, so don't take them for granted.
0-10 Characterization: How well are your characters (all of them) developed? Are they believable? Do they come alive to the readers, or are they just flat archetypes?
0-10 Plot and Structure: Does everything flow well? Does the story make coherant sense? Do we care about what happens, at the same time as not being able to see everything coming?
0-10 Style: How effective your words are. How well you use symbolism, imagery, voice, and all those other mystical writing concepts.
0-10 Creativity: Just because you have to use a well-documented historical figure, doesn't mean you can't be creative about it.
Judges.
The following judge roster below is subject to change, as I would like at least three to five judges, depending on how many entries come in.
1. VestDan
2. Cory Herndon
3. Scavenger
And Now... THE PRIZES!
First Place:
Custom Blue Tag, Front Page Recognition, and Genre/Subject Choice for the next SSC! AND AUTOGRAPHED COPIES OF THE RAVNICA TRILOGY!
Second Place:
Front Page Honorable Mention
Third Place:
Front Page Honorable Mention
If prizes need to be mailed/e-mailed, you will receive a PM asking for any required information needed so that you may recieve your prize. in most cases, links to images or [tags] will be sent to the winner via PM or e-mail, where you can copy and paste your winnings and trounce around in all your glory here on the boards! WHEE!
Questions?
Submit them in this thread and we'll answer them to the best of our abilities.
Thanks for entering, have fun, and good luck! I've read a lot of stories about Joan, so I'm eager to see what ya'll come up with.
If you don't mind me saying, I personally think that the stakes should be upped for this SSC, now that it is in its fourth rotation. If anybody wants, I'd be willing to donate a bigger "prize" of some sort.
Ahhhhhhhh research:(. The story is still fictional, right? Do we have to write about an actual event Joan of Arc took part in?
You CAN write about an actual event, or a fictionalized version of that event, or an event that didn't occur but could have, or something that never happened. You could devise some way to move Joan of Arc into a different era and setting entirely. What's important is, the character HAS to be recognizable as Joan of Arc, and not simply some woman with the same name.
I've honestly already got a dozen ideas flying through my head, as we speak. Of course, I've already DONE more research than any of you will (or should, heh). The lesson this time isn't just how to research, it's how to research efficiently. Remember: writers don't need to know everything about everything, they just have to be able to sound like they do.
@MoFo - Bill and Ted had one of the better hollywood interpretations of Joan, actually. Very few Joan movies capture her youth the way that movie did. The ironic thing was, the young looking actress was about 35 at the time. But, all that said... I don't really think Bill and Ted fanfic is the way to go, heh.
Unfortunate news - Will McDermott is too busy to judge for this contest (sadness!). We were glad to have ya, Will, and look forward to having you back when time allows!
As an example: Say it's only a SSC of 5 rounds, with only the top four advancing into the next round. It would be a "closed book" kind of contest then.
Or, in other words, I'm just over thinking
[Guys, call Scavenger with his new nickname: Venger. or Ska. Or Scab. It's the least we can do. :D]
Now as for the prompt, I love the idea, but I'm not to keen on Joan of Arc though. But since it's research, then we all got to deal with uncharted territory. I apologize I wasn't part of the last contest. I promise to enter this one.
@ Siby: I hope the prize is kinky.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
" I came to them in a flock of ravens that filled a northern sky at dawn...
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
[Guys, call Scavenger with his new nickname: Venger. or Ska. Or Scab. It's the least we can do. :D]
Now as for the prompt, I love the idea, but I'm not to keen on Joan of Arc though. But since it's research, then we all got to deal with uncharted territory. I apologize I wasn't part of the last contest. I promise to enter this one.
@ Siby: I hope the prize is kinky.
But Scavenger didn't actually win a nickname! I'm sure he will, but don't jump the gun, silly person.
Edit: Also, a clarification - if you choose to do alternate history or whatnot, or put Joan in her original setting but alter the timeline in some way, please just make note of it at the end, and make sure all the changes make sense. This is a perfectly fine thing to do, and alternate history is an interesting field to explore, it just has to be done with elegance and subtlty.
Well, scabies, I really like your topic. Only problem is it forces me to be serious - which will probably be better for my score, and worse for my attempt to have my sense of humor in every piece I write.
In the end, that's probably a good thing ...
I already have an idea for a closing passage. Hehe. Now I just need a beginning and a middle.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
my mouth is full of winsome lies -
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
Remember: writers don't need to know everything about everything, they just have to be able to sound like they do.
This will be the approach I'll be taking. Being that I have done research on JOA, it was so long ago I'm just going to take a refreshing course to get all the facts straight.
I've read in one of my writing books that exact same phrase. That writers guidelines being somewhere among: Example: Just because you don't know anything about that part in history doesn't mean you can't sound like you do. Just take a few facts here and there and throw them in, make sure the setting is right, get their speech right and attitude, and you're well on your way. Remember: Tons of stories are written on history (wether real or not), as long as the story's good, people will love it and nevermind the inaccuracy's.
Or something among those lines.
This will be the approach I'll be taking. Being that I have done research on JOA, it was so long ago I'm just going to take a refreshing course to get all the facts straight.
I've read in one of my writing books that exact same phrase. That writers guidelines being somewhere among: Example: Just because you don't know anything about that part in history doesn't mean you can't sound like you do. Just take a few facts here and there and throw them in, make sure the setting is right, get their speech right and attitude, and you're well on your way. Remember: Tons of stories are written on history (wether real or not), as long as the story's good, people will love it and nevermind the inaccuracy's.
Or something among those lines.
QFT
Perfect Example: The Da Vinci Code-- a ton of utter BS about Catholicism and the Catholic Church, some extremely exaggerated points about the Priory of Scion, a few misinterpreted facts, a couple of inaccurate or suspicious quotes, and voila: A very well written, exciting, suspenseful and completely fictional story. Or maybe I'm just mad at those who take it seriously because I'm Catholic...
Being Catholic shouldn't be a reason for you to be mad at the Da Vinci code or anybody who takes it seriously, or those who don't have the same beliefs as you. Sure, it has a lot of vague ideas, but they sure do raise a lot of dirt on the Church's dark history, be it exagerrated or not. If you were mad at Da Vinci, don't be mad at me for my rendition of Joan of Arc. It's all fiction anyway.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
" I came to them in a flock of ravens that filled a northern sky at dawn...
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
The subject of your stories must be JOAN OF ARC. She can be the protagonist, or simply the focus of the story, but Joan must actually appear in it. Whatever method you choose to use this is up to you – historical fiction, biographical character study, alternate history, time travel, cloning (though finding her genetic material would be tough), whatever, but the Joan in your story has to be recognizable rendition of her.
For the purposes of judging, I only ask the professional writers who are so generous as to help us to judge prompt adherence by how believable your Joan is; I, however, will respond with greater detail on that. The quality of the story is still, of course, the most important part, but you still need to obey the prompt to win
1. The contest launches officially on June 12th, and submission time ends July 16th at 11:59 PM. (we'll use Pacific Time because I live on the West Coast and we need more love)
2. Your story should be around 1000-8000 words. Anything smaller is flash fiction, anything larger and we're looking at chapters.
3. Your story should be spell-checked and written clearly so that the judges can do their thing. You don't want to submit a work that is indistinguishable as gibberish or English.
4. Your entries should be submited in a new thread and prefixed accordingly:
[Short Story Contest IV] Your Story Title
or
[SSCIV] Your Story Title
5. DO NOT plagarize, copy, or infringe on copyrights. Duh.
6. Please do not use previously written stories, or excerpts from works you have already written. You're entries should be original, and written within the guidelines setforth by the Short Story Contest rules.
7. Limit one entry per person. Subject to change in future SSC contests, but not this one. (actually I don't think this will ever change)
Judging Points.
The following points of each short story will be judged, and will be given a point total. In the end, the story with the most points will win the contest.
Here's where things change. Pay attention, this could potentially affect your entry.
0-5 Adherence to Prompt: This isn't just "Is Joan of Arc in the story." This is "Does she seem like Joan of Arc?" Historical innacuracies will come out of here, though I'll likely be the only one to dock for that.
0-5 Spelling and Grammar: Sefl-esplanator.y Don't neglect this - Scavenger had a few spelling errors, and lost last round by half a point. These are not hard points to get, so don't take them for granted.
0-10 Characterization: How well are your characters (all of them) developed? Are they believable? Do they come alive to the readers, or are they just flat archetypes?
0-10 Plot and Structure: Does everything flow well? Does the story make coherant sense? Do we care about what happens, at the same time as not being able to see everything coming?
0-10 Style: How effective your words are. How well you use symbolism, imagery, voice, and all those other mystical writing concepts.
0-10 Creativity: Just because you have to use a well-documented historical figure, doesn't mean you can't be creative about it.
Judges.
The following judge roster below is subject to change, as I would like at least three to five judges, depending on how many entries come in.
1. VestDan
2. Cory Herndon
3. Scavenger
And Now... THE PRIZES!
First Place:
Custom Blue Tag, Front Page Recognition, and Genre/Subject Choice for the next SSC! AND AUTOGRAPHED COPIES OF THE RAVNICA TRILOGY!
Second Place:
Front Page Honorable Mention
Third Place:
Front Page Honorable Mention
If prizes need to be mailed/e-mailed, you will receive a PM asking for any required information needed so that you may recieve your prize. in most cases, links to images or [tags] will be sent to the winner via PM or e-mail, where you can copy and paste your winnings and trounce around in all your glory here on the boards! WHEE!
Questions?
Submit them in this thread and we'll answer them to the best of our abilities.
Thanks for entering, have fun, and good luck! I've read a lot of stories about Joan, so I'm eager to see what ya'll come up with.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Poetry Challenge
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Trade Thread
I like open-ended stuff. I'm really tempted to do Bill and Ted fanfic though.
You CAN write about an actual event, or a fictionalized version of that event, or an event that didn't occur but could have, or something that never happened. You could devise some way to move Joan of Arc into a different era and setting entirely. What's important is, the character HAS to be recognizable as Joan of Arc, and not simply some woman with the same name.
I've honestly already got a dozen ideas flying through my head, as we speak. Of course, I've already DONE more research than any of you will (or should, heh). The lesson this time isn't just how to research, it's how to research efficiently. Remember: writers don't need to know everything about everything, they just have to be able to sound like they do.
@MoFo - Bill and Ted had one of the better hollywood interpretations of Joan, actually. Very few Joan movies capture her youth the way that movie did. The ironic thing was, the young looking actress was about 35 at the time. But, all that said... I don't really think Bill and Ted fanfic is the way to go, heh.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Visit: Cabalwannabe's Art page right here on MTGS!
Cabalwannabe's Cards!
Control Lover Generation 1 if you see this in someones sig copy it and take the generation number plus 1 to show your generation!
Cabalwannabe's Stories
So'for of the Vedalken
Vansen, Dreamer of Dreams
Clone of Joan
Aeriedle's Mission
Yes on both counts. Why wouldn't someone be able to submit a story?
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
As an example: Say it's only a SSC of 5 rounds, with only the top four advancing into the next round. It would be a "closed book" kind of contest then.
Or, in other words, I'm just over thinking
Visit: Cabalwannabe's Art page right here on MTGS!
Cabalwannabe's Cards!
Control Lover Generation 1 if you see this in someones sig copy it and take the generation number plus 1 to show your generation!
Cabalwannabe's Stories
So'for of the Vedalken
Vansen, Dreamer of Dreams
Clone of Joan
Aeriedle's Mission
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Now as for the prompt, I love the idea, but I'm not to keen on Joan of Arc though. But since it's research, then we all got to deal with uncharted territory. I apologize I wasn't part of the last contest. I promise to enter this one.
@ Siby: I hope the prize is kinky.
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
COLOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
But Scavenger didn't actually win a nickname! I'm sure he will, but don't jump the gun, silly person.
Edit: Also, a clarification - if you choose to do alternate history or whatnot, or put Joan in her original setting but alter the timeline in some way, please just make note of it at the end, and make sure all the changes make sense. This is a perfectly fine thing to do, and alternate history is an interesting field to explore, it just has to be done with elegance and subtlty.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
@ VestDan: I'll PM you with what I have in mind.
Poetry Challenge
In the end, that's probably a good thing ...
I already have an idea for a closing passage. Hehe. Now I just need a beginning and a middle.
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
This will be the approach I'll be taking. Being that I have done research on JOA, it was so long ago I'm just going to take a refreshing course to get all the facts straight.
I've read in one of my writing books that exact same phrase. That writers guidelines being somewhere among: Example:
Just because you don't know anything about that part in history doesn't mean you can't sound like you do. Just take a few facts here and there and throw them in, make sure the setting is right, get their speech right and attitude, and you're well on your way. Remember: Tons of stories are written on history (wether real or not), as long as the story's good, people will love it and nevermind the inaccuracy's.
Or something among those lines.
Visit: Cabalwannabe's Art page right here on MTGS!
Cabalwannabe's Cards!
Control Lover Generation 1 if you see this in someones sig copy it and take the generation number plus 1 to show your generation!
Cabalwannabe's Stories
So'for of the Vedalken
Vansen, Dreamer of Dreams
Clone of Joan
Aeriedle's Mission
QFT
Perfect Example: The Da Vinci Code-- a ton of utter BS about Catholicism and the Catholic Church, some extremely exaggerated points about the Priory of Scion, a few misinterpreted facts, a couple of inaccurate or suspicious quotes, and voila: A very well written, exciting, suspenseful and completely fictional story. Or maybe I'm just mad at those who take it seriously because I'm Catholic...
Trade Thread
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
COLOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
No matter how much research you do, someone will always say you are wrong. Feel free to ignore them.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6