Make Me Giggle!--A humor writing contest--CLOSED!

What kind of humor do you like to write?

Dark humor	22.2%	[ 18 ]
Random humor	55.6%	[ 45 ]
Romantic humor	9.9%	[ 8 ]
Yeah, yeah, whatever, just gimme my gold so I can leave.	12.3%	[ 10 ]
Total Votes:			[ 81 ]

[Ninee]

UPDATE: 11/3/07
For reasons that take me away from Gaia much longer than I like (you know, school, workin' for the Man, those abhorrent things called "college admission essays" ) , I will no longer be in charge of this contest. Mahayr in Waiting has dedicated her time to the continuation of this contest. Worship her--she doesn't get worshipped nearly enough. Details and updates from her start on page 5. Thank you for your support (and remind me the next time I'm at the ACME Warehouse to pick up some bazookas to use against the real world smile )!

Throughout my many travels here and there across the wide expanse of the internet, I have often had the palate for a giggle. Of course, an ideally fast way to sate my craving would be to hop onto a website such as Fanfiction.net or Fictionpress and read a silly story. However, it is not often that I can find a well-written humor story. More often than not, I find myself laughing at the poorly-written sneeze of somebody who is blissfully unaware of the term "Mary-Sue," and I feel terrible about it.

So, what to do? Why, hold a writing contest, of course! That way, I can read several silly stories, have a giggle, and help people write better in the process! It's a win-win situation! Awesome. Read on, mister or madam, and please don't mind the chipmunks that gnaw at your toes. 3nodding

[Ninee]

QUICK RULES
Entry Fee: 500g Feh, no more entry fee. I realized that I have two months to get prize money on my own, and get it I shall. 3nodding
Deadline: October 31, 2007

1. Please do not PM the entries to me. Post them here. You can edit them as much as you like between your entry date and the deadline date. After the deadline date has come, however, please don't edit your entry. I prefer entries of this length to be posted at a place other than Gaia. Fanfiction.net or Fictionpress are both wonderful places to post it, or any other fiction archive online. Gaia's color scheme hurts my eyes sometime. It's too white.
NOTE: I will make every attempt possible to contact the author of the story you provide the link to to help prevent plagarism. Because, you know, it's kind of ILLEGAL.

2. A minimum of 1000 words is required, but I don't like maximum word requirements because I often find that by the time I get to the max word requirement that my story is incomplete. However, somewhere below 7000 is all I really expect. If you wish to write more, that's wonderful!, I won't stop you. Judging will just take longer, 'tis all. smile

3. Use a spelling/grammar checker. If your word application doesn't include one, there are several online that are free to use. Just search Google and you should be presented with quite a few. I won't take off for typos, but I was born a Grammar Nazi, and spelling mistakes really pop out at me and hog all my attention away from the context of the sentence. So, please, for my sake, spell-check your writing.

4. A minimum of five entries will be accepted.

5. As always, obey the Gaia ToS. They wrote them for a reason.

6. The final and most important rule of all: HAVE FUN! If you force something from your hand and end up hating it and feeling miserable, it won't be nearly as good as an entry that you want to write and want to submit. Your mental health is my biggest concern, though I don't know exactly how I can enforce it besides commanding you to have fun writing for this contest. 4laugh

These rules are subject to be changed or added to at any time. 3nodding

[Ninee]

Fanfiction?
Yes, I will allow fanfiction. Most of my best humor stories are fanfiction. (Actually, I think all of my best ones are!) These are the series I will allow:
ANIME/MANGA
Absolute Boyfriend
Death Note
Naruto
Ouran High School Host Club
Slayers
Weiss Kreuz
Yami no Matsuei (Descendants of Darkness)

VIDEO GAMES
Silent Hill 2-3
Legend of Zelda (OoT, MM, WW, TP)
Final Fantasy VII-IX
Halo

BOOKS
Harry Potter
Dresden Files
The Scarlet Letter (because I hate it with a passion)

***
Genres?
Humor, of course, is a given. However, there are many types of comedy. I will allow the following:
Dark comedy-- Written with a half-hearted attempt to be serious, but with a plotline that is too exaggerated to be a drama. (Example: the movie Fargo)
Random comedy-- Not written to be serious at all. Takes humor from the randomosity of the plot. (Example: my Silent Hill 2 fanfic Rockin' the Suburbs)
Romantic Comedy-- A romance story that often has bits of random comedy written into it. (Example: the movie Music and Lyrics)

I absolutely can't stand humor with swearing every other word. Yes, you can swear in your story, but that can't be your primary source of comedy.

***
Leftovers?
Yes, you may use stories that you have used before for other contests.

***
Original Stories?
Of course you can use your original story! Please keep in mind, however, that I don't know the characters of your original story before I read it, and therefore may end up lost and confused if I don't know who your characters are. sweatdrop

***
Anything Else?
I like marching band stories. (Go low brass. V> wink

***
Chipmunks?
NO. (Is it obvious what my favorite kind of humor to write is yet? :XP smile


SUBMISSION FORM

[b]Username:[/b]
[b]Story Title:[/b]
[b]Story Fandom:[/b] (if applicable)
[b]Rating:[/b]
[b]Genre:[/b] (type of humor--see above)
[b]Summary:[/b]
[b]URL/Story Text:[/b] (if applicable--if you don't have a URL then just post the story in this area)

[Ninee]

Grand Champion--July 2007 Letter
2nd place-- 5000g
3rd place-- 3000g
HM-- 1000g

[Ninee]

1. Galen Peder, Captain Adventure at the Edge of Space Read! Page 2
2. Daemos, What Friends are For Read! Page 3
3. Hatoshimorae, As Told By the Instructor (found on ff.net) Read! Page 4
4. mina352, In Which Zyan Receives a Book and Furthers His Conviction that Everyone in his Workplace is Insane Read! Page 4

[Ninee]

ninja Reserved ninja

[Ninee]

ninja Reserved ninja

[Ninee]

ninja Reserved ninja

[Ninee]

Hooray! We're open now! 4laugh

--So...so post or something. ninja

[olive17]

Darn. I wanted to try this contest, and then I remembered I can't write funny stories under pressure. XP

I'll still try I guess. But it's sort of unlikely that I'll produce something good enough to submit before all the spots are filled. I subscribed to this post though, so that I can have a laugh too. XD Hopefully there'll be plenty of funny entries.

[Mahayr]

I really like your style, most impressive. I will be keeping an eye on things in here, for my own selfish reasons!

Best of luck... although you might want to consider doing away with the entry fees... mainly because we absolutely frown on profit-making by our hosts and hostesses in here. Just sayin'.

[Ninee]

olive17

Darn. I wanted to try this contest, and then I remembered I can't write funny stories under pressure. XP

I'll still try I guess. But it's sort of unlikely that I'll produce something good enough to submit before all the spots are filled. I subscribed to this post though, so that I can have a laugh too. XD Hopefully there'll be plenty of funny entries.

It's okay! Just write what you can and have fun. I don't want you to feel any pressure by it. sweatdrop As previously stated, your mental health is my biggest concern. :XP:

Mahayr

I really like your style, most impressive. I will be keeping an eye on things in here, for my own selfish reasons!

Best of luck... although you might want to consider doing away with the entry fees... mainly because we absolutely frown on profit-making by our hosts and hostesses in here. Just sayin'.

Thanks for your input! 4laugh The entry fees will be used to buy the prizes. 3nodding

[TheAmberShrew]

I was ready to do this contest until I took a gander at the prizes. sweatdrop

Now...I don't care about prizes, because I just like to write, but for the most part...Gaians' are wh*res. They want gold or a letter or something shiny on a string. Greedy little buggers. Even though I still may enter this contest (because I think it's a bloody fantastic idea), I don't see too many others doing it. sweatdrop heart

[Ninee]

TheAmberShrew

I was ready to do this contest until I took a gander at the prizes. sweatdrop

Now...I don't care about prizes, because I just like to write, but for the most part...Gaians' are wh*res. They want gold or a letter or something shiny on a string. Greedy little buggers. Even though I still may enter this contest (because I think it's a bloody fantastic idea), I don't see too many others doing it. sweatdrop heart

Honestly, this is the first contest I've ever held. sweatdrop I haven't the slightest clue about how to do the prizes. I really was just going to award the caption prizes with items that seemed appropriate (i.e.: the story that was written the most artfully would get a paintbrush, etc.). Yeah, I probably could up the place prizes a bit, but then I run into the problem of getting all that money. :XP: Suggestions for changing this part are more than welcomed. sweatdrop

And, besides, I really just want to have fun with this. Give good writers an incentive to write a good humor story instead of leaving us humor fans in a small closet with Mary-Sues and potty jokes. crying I might even enter a story myself (for exhibition only, of course. xd )!

Thanks for your input! 4laugh

[TheAmberShrew]

You could always get a grant, then pay it back later. 3nodding