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As of April 3rd, 5 people have signed up. The contest will begin on April 10th, and end May 10th. As stated earlier, I'm putting up 100 of my own experience points as a prize for whoever can come up with the best story in that amount of time. No pre-existing stories can be used in the contest, unless they only have ten pages or under finished. If you wish to submit a story that is currently in progress, you must either enable sneak peek or temporarily make me a coauthor so I can view your work in progress and give it the okay to be submitted. 

THEME

Anybody can submit a theme for the contest during this week. If you have an idea, try to make it as broad as possible, so as not to stifle creativity. Anybody can submit an idea or vote for the contest theme, whether they're participating or not. The votes of contest writers and judges will count as 2 points, while the votes of spectators will only count for 1. Since my own experience points are being put as the prize, I reserve the right to veto the majority vote, but I doubt that's going to be necessary. 

JUDGING

To maintain impartiality, I would like there to be a total of three judges, myself included. I'd also like there to be a reserve judge, because there's a chance I'll be going offline for a long time after the 21st, for personal reasons. If nobody is willing to help judge, and I'm not able to get online after the 21st, then we'll be in a bit of conundrum, but I'm fairly certain somebody will be up to the task. 

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That being said, if anybody has an idea for the contest theme then now is the time to post it. I'm hoping to see a dystopian setting, but the subject is open for discussion.

@ecoLyte

@Tanstaafl

@Ogre11

@betaband

@Romulus

DO NOT REPLY DO NOT REPLY DO NOT REPLY

Votes for theme so far.

Dystopia- 14 points

Mystery- 2 points

Grey vs Grey- 12 points

Romance- 2 points

Good luck all of yous! ^_^

Please count me in for this competition, anything that encourages writing is good :) As I had to Google search what dystopian is I think my vote would be for an adventure thriller or fast-paced story because Dystopia sounds a bit gloomy :D

Great! :)

I like the idea, but I want ideas to be a tad bit more concrete than that. What you suggested are genres, which I don't want to limit people to. 

I will participate as well. The very idea of a dystopian story is one that I love.

Woot woot! Glad to have you on board.

DO NOT REPLY DO NOT REPLY DO NOT REPLY

Participants are as follows:

• ecoLyte
• Tanstaafl
• Ogre11
• betaband
• Romulus
• Will11
• Clayton_97
• Negative
• LeoScales7
• TheNewIAP
• Malkalack
• malacith
• Creature
• Wolfmist
• Jamescoker
• Fazz

Judges are as follows:

• Myself
• Killa_Robot
• Kiel_Farren

I vote mystery theme.

Hate to do this, but I can only join if the theme ends up being mystery or something related. If not I'll be happy to join as a judge :)

EDIT: Or even something like what Aman said.

So what's it gonna be? Mystery or Grey vs Grey?

Cray crey for grey gray

Hahahaha thank you, thank you so much for saying that.

Here's an interesting theme. Grey vs Grey morality. Allows for a large amount of story-game genres, and it's always fun to see something like that. 

(Also, I'll donate 50 points of my own for the second place winner)

Aman's theme would be great.
 

I really like this. So much in fact, I'm changing my own vote.

Since you're donating 50 points, you're more than welcome to judge if you're feeling up to it.

Nah, I'm an impartial viewer with Tan participating, ha ha. Glad to support the quest for better Storygames howerver. ^_^

Great! :)

I would love to try and submit my current work in progress, but I have two reservations:

1) I can only submit it in the event that the contest can include everything.

2) I will most likely pull a Kiel move, only finishing part of the story (and hopefully it would be judged accordingly) because it will be kind of long (for its genre) and hard to finish in a month.

I'd have to see how much work you have done on the story with my own eyes first if it's a work in progress, but I'm adamant that I want to see a central theme. Let me know if that suits you.

Well, I admit that I haven't done too much recently due to school work, but I have the story already available to view (with that sneak peak function). Granted, I have a tiny bit more that I haven't transferred yet, but that is because I am still writing/planning it.

If you want to check it out, here it is: Enjoy!

How much is a tiny bit? How many pages?

As for CYS pages, probably another 3-4

I'll allow it.

Oh yeah, as for the central theme, if it is forced into dystopian, than none of the stories I have created would be suitable. In which case, I may have to decline the contest. If I were to suggest a theme however, I would recommend a modern-adventure with romantic elements, or vice versa (although my suggestion is biased because it pertains perfectly to my story).

That's too specific. I can put you down as a vote for Romance though?

Yeah, sure.

>_>' That's not going to become a thing, is it? "S/he pulled a Kiel"? Briar did it first in the Spring Thing contest, anyway.

Haha, for some reason that reminds me of this kid I know named Mike Bard. He had this really annoying habit of whenever you'd hang out with him, he'd smoke your weed and then leave almost immediately after. It became so well known of him that whenever somebody did something similar, I'd call it pulling a Mike Bard. After a month or two, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY knew what that term meant haha. His actions introduced a whole new saying into the lingo.

That's kind of funny ... and kind of sad, because he sounds like a shitty friend.

He was more a whipping boy, than anything. 

Sounds kinky.  I see. Well, sort of. I've never had a friend like that.

He was a friend's friend. To me, he was more of an annoying acquaintance that I never felt like calling out and stirring the pot.

I take it back. I've totally had a "friend" like that.

Since there are two people submitting stories that they've already begun work on, I wanted to ask your guy's opinion on the matter. I don't feel like barring a story from the contest because it has 10 pages, since I feel like that's just a waste of people's time. However, I can't deny the fact that it's unfair to those of you who create a new story from scratch.

So, we can go in two directions. Either those stories be allowed to enter, and we do know nothing about it and just let them be, or I could give everybody who creates a new story from scratch an extra week to submit their entries. It's your guys' call.

I think the extra week for new storygames is fair enough, especially since some people may have already begun their stories some time beforehand.

Agreed with the extra week

I vote Grey vs. Gray 

A vote on grey vs. grey for me.

EDIT: I'm actually going to change my vote to dystopia if voting is still up. I figured I'd try something new instead of something in my comfort zone :P

.

I can't decide between Dystopia & Grey vs Grey.  I like both equally.

I don't know if I want to enter or not, considering that I fell short in the last contest.

So did 25 other people. The odds of you being one of the few to actually go through with the contest are high, as long as you motivate yourself.

You know what?  You're right!  Count me in and put my vote toward Dystopia.

And just for the record, I've done too much groundwork toward the one for the other contest to just scrap it.  I intend to finish it eventually, even without the point/trophy incentive...

Theres no shame in trying and failing, only in failing without trying. ^_^

Yeah.. I'm afraid I'll end up slacking off and entering a half-assed entry. I'm a perfectionist at heart ^ So deadlines don't really do well for me. Still gonna make an attempt though, seems like fun.

Half an ass is better than no ass!

Unless you're wearing yoga pants

My quote of the day ^.^

I'll join, and I vote "dystopian".

I vote mystery or romance. And to be honest, I don't really understand what Grey vs. Grey is...

Grey vs Grey is a conflict in which neither side is inherently good or inherently evil.  Look at the Skyrim Stormcloak rebellion for example. The Stormcloaks fight for religious freedom, while the Imperials fight to preserve the empire and stop the rebels. So, while you could argue one side has a better reason for fighting, there is no clear good guy or bad guy.

And you've gotta be more specific about theme. Choose one or the other.

Grey vs. Gray all the way! My vote is in! Ima get ready for this! Yeah!

So are you joining the competition or are you just voting?

I'm going to join!

Yep, I like the idea for Grey vs Grey, I'll put my vote in for that :) If someone has a pre-existing story of less than ten pages it shouldn't make too much difference as that's only a few hours writing and planning at most... instead of an extra week the judges could just bear it in mind when judging? :)

xD I offered to help judge a couple days ago.

@playa988

Sorry, didn't see the post lol. Glad to have you on board.

So I'll give you guys roughly another 24 hours to vote, and after that we'll see what the winning theme will be. That should leave you with 5 days to plan in advance, so get those creative juices flowing while you can!

If I get a vote, I say Dystopia. I only got to read three post apocalyptic stories that weren't my own and I was expecting a flood of them, so ... I'd honestly like to see more of that general world. Though, if we do go Dystopia, for the love of God, let's have an upbeat theme after this one. (Even if we do Gray vs Gray, cheery will be a needed change of pace eventually.)

Somebody could also choose to do a grey by grey theme in a dystopian setting too, haha. I'd so love to see that.

I'm actually really hoping someone will. Not going to lie, it would impress me--if done well, and that might be a little too complex. Sticking to one theme can be enough on its own.

Note to contestants: IMPRESS THE JUDGES YO

Wooo. Dystopia is currently in the lead by 1 point.

So, if I declare myself a contest entry, my vote jumps from 1 to 2, right? Grey/gray ties with dystopian?

You'd enter the contest? ... Damn, now I'm sorry I'm only judging. That would be awesome.

(Also, uh, sorry--could you delete the post that I tagged you on up there? I accidentally locked one of playa's posts.)

OKay, deleted.

If you edit a post to include a tag, it doesn't seem to notify the person.

I might have time to enter. Working on some thing else, but if it's grey morality,,I think I could come up with something.

Thanks. :)

o.0 Really? Good to know.

Ahh. Hmm.

Yup. My logic is that even though it's a community contest, I want the people who are actually participating to have more of a say in the matter than those who are just spectating.

Just going to subtly bump this so anybody who doesn't know about it can see it...

Very subtly...

Very...

Very...

SUBTLY!!!

...Bump what? 

The thread

Ah. That makes perfect sense. I think we need more (good) attention though...

Question: What is grey by grey? And I guess my vote would be dystopia. 

Grey vs Grey morality basically means that there's no clear good or bad sides in the story. Both sides are more complicated than simply black and white.

Ooh, fascinating. I'm considering entering this, but I've never done it before and have a  horrendous fear of being judged so... hopefully this turns out well. 

Just go for it. I'm sure you'll do fine and it's fun to participate.

Awesome. I guess I will!

What Kiel said. Also, do you plan on entering?

I think so. I just hope I don't end up procrastinating. It's the holidays so... hopefully I'll do okay.

Grey vs Gray.

*Stretches chin* Interesting...

Grey vs Grey.

I'd like to join this competition. I'm not really sure what to do though. Do I write a short story in a number of time? Whatever it is please explain it and I'll try and join.

Also, Grey vs Grey

I'd like to enter. I vote dystopia.

This is gonna be interesting.

I could enter, but can I mix mine with Dystopian/Grey-v-Gray? Honestly, I want mine to be Dystopian but I find the GvG continuum too intriguing to pass up.

Oh, and Dystopia.

You can incorporate as many possible themes into the story as you want, so long as the chosen theme is amongst them.

Oh shoot.  Is it still too late to join?

It doesn't officially start until Friday.  You've missed the window to vote on the theme, however.  Here's the contest thread.

CONTEST RULES CLARIFICATION:

Playa and I were talking about rules and fine details. Some things may need a lil' extra clarification so:

It's okay to share a brief summary of your story with us, but don't share any excerpts or pages from your actual story with anyone. It's really best to avoid forum posts because it'll be hard to post much without giving away more than you really should. If you can avoid talking about the content of your story more than in brief summary, it's ok.

Don't give anyone sneak peaks, don't ask them to beta-read, don't solicit help / feedback. The idea is that you're supposed to be completing this project on your own steam and if you try to get other people to help you, you're cheating.

While I understand the extra time to beta-reading alone might be a little aggravating and that feedback helps deter writer's block, you also won't have the pressure of the expectations of others or any doubt from the efforts of your competitors. It's just you and your project.

And hey, once you're done, you can say "I did this. It was all me." The sense of accomplishment on its own is a good reward, regardless of whether or not you win or lose. Honestly, I love the theme that you guys decided on and we're looking forward to seeing all of your new stories. :) 

Thank you for the clarification.

Thanks for the clarification (as I was thinking about getting editors before, and I don't want to be disqualified).

Also, I don't mean to be "that guy/girl" who finds a loophole, but can we enable a "respectful" (that is, to the rules and those who try to sneak peek) sneak peek like so? Loophole

No. Feedback. Whatsoever.

Those who use loopholes will be disqualified. Those who attempt to find loopholes will be disqualified. This isn't a bureaucracy, what I say goes.

Badass dawg.

ye ye ye nigga

Are you allowed to ask for advanced editor help?

Yes. I can understand why that might be necessary.

playa can I join this competion?

NO! NOBODY CAN JOIN!

Haha just kidding, read the contest threads in the writing workshop and follow the instructions.

I know this might be a stupid question to you but what is grey vs. gray?

"Grey vs Grey morality basically means that there's no clear good or bad sides in the story. Both sides are more complicated than simply black and white."

Lol.

Just bumping this. I admit that I forgot about it for a couple of days. Got an AP that's taking a lot of time. Hopefuly I'll start working less sporadically soon...