La Fin: A Short Story Contest (Win up to 1.25 mil!)

[xHAMR]

L a° F i n
A Short Story Contest

Submissions close:

Saturday, September 19, 2012 at 12:00 PM (PST [GMT -8]) (Subject to change)

I have often been told that to be a successful writer in this day and age, you must first be willing to enter publishing house contests. I have entered my fair share of them, sending out dozens of my best works to publishers, and having won one I can say that I agree with the statement. The spark of competition allows for the creative juices to do more than merely flow, it allows them to boil and simmer until the writing process is no less than volcanic in nature. I urge you, writers of Gaia—both young and old—to enter my contest in the spirit of practicing for publishers' contents. Besides, what better way to give away all the gold I'll never use?

» R u l e s


1. To participate, send a private message titled "Contest: [insert story title here]" to me containing the piece(s).
   
2. Entrants may submit up to two (2) pieces. If submitting two pieces, each piece should be in separate messages.
   
3. The submission piece(s) must adhere to the contest guidelines.
   
4. Entrants must be patient; the process of judging literature is a time consuming effort.
   
5. Entrants may enter more than two pieces, but must designate which two are to be judged.
   
6. Entrants may edit the pieces up until the final day of submissions.

» G u i d e l i n e s


1. The written piece must contain the author's username and/or personal name.
   
2. The piece must be submitted in code form.
   
3. The piece—when placed into a word document with the format Times, 12pt, double-spaced—must be no longer
   than ten pages or shorter than two sentences.
   
4. Any and all genres are accepted.

» P r i z e s


Grand Prize: 1,000,000g
Secondary Prize: 250,000g
Tertiary Prize: 75,000g

» F . A . Q .


Q: What do you mean by "code form"?
A: As specified in post three, you highlight the text and click the "Code" button at the top (sitting between the "Quote" and the "URL" buttons.)

Q: Is there a specific word count or format?
A: There is no specific word count, but there is a format and max page length. Times font, 12pt, double-spaced, 10 pages max. The number of pages allowed may change.

Q: Is there a prompt?
A: There is no prompt. What's the fun in writing about an idea that wasn't your own?

Q: How do you win "up to 1.25 mil"?
A: The only way to win up to 1.25 million gold is to enter two pieces and win both the Grand and Secondary prizes.

Q: How are the pieces judged?
A: The pieces will be judged on many things, including originality and creativity.

» S u b m i s s i o n s


Jade Playhouse by Yume The Loving creature
Utnapishtim Drug by GarGo0or
Buried History by GarGo0or

[phantomkitsune]

What do you mean by code form?

Do you have a specific word count you're looking for? Different formatting can yield very different page counts, and short paragraphs would reduce what one could write under those guidelines.

[Reed Meroe]

I would love to enter your contest. However, as I usually like to write a new piece for each contest (as opposed to recycling old work), I have a question: Are you sure you want to open a writing contest for only three days? This forum really doesn't move that quickly, and you'll probably have a lot of regulars who will never even see it before it closes, let alone have time to enter. It's just a thought; you can do whatever you'd like. That being said, I'd better go get to writing. O_o

I second phantomkitsune, though. What is 'code form'?

[xHAMR]

I thought there might be a bit of confusion as to what I meant by "Code Form." Here's an example:

You enter your piece like this.

@phantomkitsune: I do not have a specific word count, but I have specified the absolute length of the story using a particular format. That is 10 pages, Times font, 12pt, double spaced. The code format allows me to copy raw text from Gaia Online and input it into Microsoft Word where I can make sure the text is within the given parameters.

@Reed Meroe: I will increase the amount of time for submissions based upon the number of submissions I receive by the end of tonight.

[xHAMR]

The rules have been updated and a F.A.Q. sections has also been added. However, if anyone has a question that isn't answered by the F.A.Q. feel free to post it here.

[xHAMR]

Bump

[xHAMR]

Submission deadline has changed.

[phantomkitsune]

It's unnecessary to bump - the WC is quite slow.

Thank you for answering my questions.

[xHAMR]

I quite like bumping.

[Eternal Complex]

Please let me join!!~
I love the fact that you have nothing specific for this!!! whee whee

[Angelic Arisa]

I think I might join xD. But with school starting back up I might not have the time to write it. Sigh~ But If I do have the time, I'd love to enter.

[Vhellus]

First entry sent. It's just under the ten page (double=spaced) limit.

Second entry sent too. ^_^

[This Ship is Going Down]

Oh god, I have the perfect piece for this, but it's way over the max 10-page limit. Guess if I'll just have to try and put something else out because this sounds really fun!

[azn_kid677]

Sounds interesting. I'm gonna try to attempt it with only 8 days left but if it's not in by the deadline, then i'm a lost cause. crying