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~ Welcome ~


Yes, ladies and gentleman, it is here. That month we call November, when the leaves turn colors, turkey's are slaughtered, mittens come out, and when writer's hunker at their desks to finish the National Novel Writing Month challenge. Aka: NaNoWriMo.

Don't know waht NaNoWriMo is? Aren't sure of the rules? Need clarification on an issue from the creators? Want to know more before selling your soul? I would very highly reccomend going to www.nanowrimo.com and seeing what you are getting into.

What is this thread you ask? It is a place for you to submit your stories, read one another's work, encourage one another, win big, and possibly win much. More information is further down, and I sincerely hope you will take the time to read it-- it will be worth your while, and make things much much easier on us all.

Good luck, and happy writing.

Table of Contents:
Post 1: Welcome (thou art here)
Post 2: Updates/Questions (so they're handy)
Post 3: Rules (without them-- you die)
Post 4: Entry Form (how this will work)
Post 5: Prizes (it's a long one...)
Post 6: Entrants (let's fill this up, shall we?)
Post 7: Affiliates (c'est mon buddies)
~ Updates ~


11.5
I added a new prize category of 'dares'. This is because it appears so many of you plan on using them. And, since some of you won't, the category will get the same amount of gold as the others, and that gold will then be sub-divided into the dares prize.

11.1
Today is the day!!! This thread is officially open for business!! You can begin writing your NaNoWriMo stories! Good luck and God speed!

10.31
It is the day before the thread has opened, and I have done what I can to prepare for it. I have added different banners that you can put in your sig to try and persuade people to join and get that recruit prize. I have also made a couple adjustments to the rules, so MAKE SURE TO READ THE RULES. I am a stickler and very strict when it comes to my rules, so make sure you know what they are so you can follow them. Other than that, enjoy the Halloween festivities, and get ready to crack down on those stories.

10.19
This wonderful thread has opened. I confess, I am very excited to see what transpires. I hope you will all enjoy it, and I have mad respect and admiration for anyone who completes/attempts this. You are braver and far better than I.



~ Questions ~


fanfic
Are fanfics considered plagiarism?

No, not unless you simply retell the story, in which case it isn't necessarily a fanfic. Read the rules regarding my opinion of fanfics. If you'd like Atreas' opinion, check page 2.

wordcount
If we have a character recite something--say they're in a play or wedding or something similar--which we ourselves did not write, but it is quoted from someone else, do we count the quotation with our word count or no?

As stated on page 7-- count it. So long as you put it in quotes, or give us some indication that it is coming from somewhere (footnote/italics/etc) then you are golden.

threadup
Rules say you can't enter till 10k words, so that means I can't enter my thread until then?

You can begin putting your thread in the OP section of Gaia, you can even link on this page if you'd like, you simply cannot submit the entry form or fee until you have 10,000 words. If you want to go ahead and put a link up, you can simply go back and edit it to make it your entry form. (If you do that, just make sure you let me know.)

rating
If my story is going to be above PG-13, [NC-17, explicit gay sex, lots of sex, super violence, every other word the f word, etc...], can I still enter?

YES! This contest turns no one away because of the rating of their work. We love everything from the Disney G to the wild and crazy... whatever! If you want to simply link your story, just put a giant disclaimer in there, and I would color the font as well. If you don't feel comfortable with that, you can also pm it to me. Technically that's a lie, I would want you to attach it in an e-mail so the format doesn't get screwed up. So yes, please enter, and don't let the rating discourage you.

entering
Is there a deadline by which people must submit their entry fee in order to participate? I have the money, but not a lot of confidence that I am going to get anywhere near 50k

Well, yes and no. Yes, because you will have to enter before the month is up-- obviously. No, because you can enter on November 30th if you like. It will probably be killer, but hey, I'll let you do it. I'm a procrastinator, so I like to help out those like myself. Warning on this-- You have to let me know you may be doing it. If you never post or give any indication this may happen, I will find you and slap you. But yeah, feel free to enter at the last minute.
~ Rules ~


Ah, the rules... Everyone's favorite part. So without further ado, dig in.

- Be kind. Be mean, and you will incure all my wrath and vengence.

- Don't plagiarise. If I catch you doing this: I will hunt you down and kill you. I take this very seriously, and belive me, you don't want to know what happens when I catch it.

- If you have a problem with me, contact Atreas. Or, if I am not on, and he is, and you urgently need something, send him a pm. He is the co-coordinator/ co-sponsor of this contest, so feel free to bug him.

- If you need anything, feel free to pm me. I am usually on once a day, if not more, so a reply should be pretty quick.

- The entry fee for this contest is 1,500 gold. At first, it seems like a lot. But, think of the effort we, the judges, will exact to pore over your entries. Consider the number of prizes available. Most mostly, think of how you have an entire month acquire that much. You have a month to get 1.5k-- that isn't asking too much. I know you can do it, and as I want to provide you with the best possible prizes as possible, as well as the best judging I can provide, I have to have an entry fee of that much.

- Just a warning, if you fail to finish the contest, your entry fee will not be returned. I see no reason to punish people who do finish and who do get there work done. Besides, that would be giving you an out-- and then you might not finish, which would make me quite sad as I want to read your entries.

- Send all trades to 'snakeeeyes'. He is a greedy little mule who will be keeping everyone's gold until the end. If you send it to me, I'm going to go shopping. If you send it to Atread, he will say he's never seen it. But-- if you send it to snakeeeyes without letting him know what it's for (aka- labeling it NaNoWriMo) he won't know what it's for. Just a side note- make sure you get three e's in his name.

- You must have a story with 50,000+ words when you are done. That is what NaNoWriMo is. So anything less than that (yes-- I am a**l enough to check) will not be counted.

- You are not allowed to enter until you have completed 10,000 words. This is to weed out people who *cougharelikemecough* would enter, and then never finish. I want those who are dedicated, motivated, and itching for a prize that will allow them to fulfill their wildest fantasies.

- There will be 3-4 judges, and the stories will be divied up among us. I am not releasing their names, at the moment. I will do so, and tell you what we'll be judging on once the contest gets underway.
~ Entry Form ~


I have a specific entry form I would like you to follow when submitting your entry.

Quote:
username

It's important I know what your name is, otherwise, you can't win, and that could be quite tragic for you. That, and it helps me keep things straight. So I can just take the whole post and move it, using what I need.

Quote:
Story Title

If you are like me, this won't appear until you have written the entire thing. So this isn't as big of a deal, you will simply need to put it in at some point and then let me know. But, if you are someone who knows instantly what the title will be, go ahead and let us know.

Quote:
Link

I need you to provide a link to your prose. Multiple people trying to submit 50,000 words in one thread-- ha ha, yeah right. That wouldn't work. So, you can either post it in the prose section and give us a link, or post it wherever you like to post stuff. I just need a link to your work. I would like this link as soon as you start going (My reccomendation being Nov 1) so I can check your progress periodically-- which I will.

Quote:
Genre

For one prize category, I will need to know what genre you consider your piece. Don't make up some weird genre so you win a prize, that would be scandalous. If I think your piece is a different genre than what you've said, I'll let you know and we'll get it worked out.

Quote:
Rating

You only need this if your entry is over PG-13. This way people who want to avoid anything explicitly violent/sexual can avoid looking at your entry. Obviously, there is no limits in this contest, I am simply checking out what you're writing.

Quote:
Comments

This is in case you have anything else you'd like to say. Ask for a critique, say you don't want anything, do whatever you want. If you don't want to say anything-- don't!
~ Prizes ~


This is everyone's favorite part, and they are numerous and many. I have broken them up into 4 main categories. You could feasibly, win once in each category. It just depends on the entry and the criteria. You have Genre, Developement, Content, and Mini Competitions. Check it out.

Genre:

Genre
Best Fantasy
Best SciFi
General


Obviously these are not all the genres there are. I will be adding/subtracting as needed. I've put a General category in there for those that don't fit neatly into one category, or are mish-mashes of multiple categories.

Sadly, I'm cancelling the genre area, as (I believe) 3 of you were general, and only one was fantasy-esque.

Developement:

Developement

Best Twist Ending
Best Character Developement
Best Plot Line
Best Dialogue
Best Fight Scene

I think these are pretty self-explanatory. I don't want you to simply slap together 50,000 words and hope for the best, I want you to work at this. I want you to develope as awesome a story as you can. Also, if anyone has any ideas on stuff to add to any of these categories let me know. I'm flexible and adore great ideas. So contribution is always appreciated.

Content:

Content

Most Humorous
Most Tragic
Most Action Packed
Most Thought-Provoking
Most Origional/Creative

Not only do I like rewarding parts that are great, I like rewarding the feeling that you get at the end of story. When you've finished and you realize you've gone through a box of kleenex, when you can't finish because you are laughing so hard, when you decide a philosophy class would be in order, when you want to go on an adventure, and when you want to write-- because you are inspired by what you just read. This is where all that will be rewarded.

Mini Competitions:

Mini Comp
Bumping

There will be a bumping contest. The winner of this will be the person who has appeared in the thread the most. And no, I will not count. But I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THE WORD 'BUMP'-- EVER! While this is a bumping contest, it is also a writing contest, and to have you say bump over and over does nothing to foster your writing, nor does it do anything to make friends. So this is a bumping contest without the bump. I suppose it's an 'ing' contest. Just chat and do your thing, without bumping. Just a side note: an emoticon or random words don't work either. I want real conversations.

Mini Comp
1st Person Finished

I am hesitant to put this one up here. This one is not set in stone. My fear is that someone will start working on their entry before others, and will simply say they are done. I am also afraid someone will rush through and submit shoddy workmanship, simply so they can get this prize. However, if I do decide to go ahead with this, be rest assured that if you submit your story on the second day the official contest portion opens, I will be very suspicious.

Mini Comp
Best Recruit
I can't say as I've ever seen this in a contest, but whoever gets the most people to join will get a special prize. If you convince someone to take on the mad task of 50,000 words in a month, simply have them put "Recruited By: yourname" in their entry post. Simply enough, right?

Mini Comp
Dares

The NaNoWriMo dares page is here, if you are interested. At some point, either in your thread or here, you will need to post which dares you end up doing. There will be a few categories for dares, but they will be split after the initial amount is given to the general category of 'dares,' that way it's more fair for someone who doesn't like the idea of dares. The divisions will be:
-Most dares used
-Best used dare
-Best overall use of dares
-Anything else I decide... (or you come up with)

Grand Prize:

You may be thinking to yourself, okay, so there are a whole bunch of little piddly prizes, but what about the big prize? If I'm taking all this time and having no social life for a month so I can write this story, what am I going to get out of it?
Good question. How about a sweet:

100,000 gold


Ah, I see I have your attention now. Yes, this will be the grand prize. All the entrance fees, donations, etcetera will go to beefing up the mini-prizes. So I highly reccomend donating if you want cool stuff. The amount below is not entirely accurate, as I will be draining snakeeeyes account, and that goes up every time he does stuff. (Sometimes he isn't completly lazy and posts) The semi-correct total amount is:

34,561 gold




[Disclaimer] I reserve the right to delete and/ or add prizes as I see fit. If there is a problem with this, please contact me. Deletion may be lack of competition, quality, or anything else the jury deems appropriate. So don't whine if it changes. [End Disclaimer]
~ Entrants ~


Once the contest is underway, and people have begun linking their stories, I will transfer your info here. It will basically be the entry form-- so make sure to fill it out. When your username is blue, it signifies that you have paid, and have met the 10k mark. When your username is green, it signifies that you have met the 10k mark, but have not yet paid.

radioactive alchemist
Story Title: Daydreamer
Link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10664303
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: PG-13, unless I incorporate the "gratuitous gay sex scene" dare. But I'm still iffy on that.
Comments: A critique would be lovely, if you have the patience to wind through Cerulean's thoughts. And of course remember that the story is being posted by him (Daydreamer Cerulean Blue) and not this account, since it's from his P.O.V.

wickeddelight
Story Title: Learning To Kiss Dragons
Link
Genre: Gay Male Science Fiction/Fantasy Romantica
Rating: NC-17 PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNDER AGE 18 OR ARE BOTHERED BY MALE HOMOSEXUALITY, SEX WITH ALIENS, MILD BDSM, HINTS OF BESTIALITY, OR POSSIBLY MALE PREGNANCY.
Comments: Eheh, the chapters are fragmentary and I haven't written the beginning yet, so this is not really in readable form yet. It probably will make no sense if you try to read it as a story, because more is missing than is there. But if you have suggestions for how to improve any of the existing scenes or what should happen next at any place where a scene ends, I would love to hear them! 4laugh Ooh, or I'm still trying to picture in my head exactly what my dragon-aliens look like, so if someone doodled one I might give them a small present... wink

Yashsa
Story Title: Inside the Black Box
Link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10874995
Genre: Unknown
Comments:If you want to assign my story to a genre, the first post on page 2 is a section which explains what's happened so far and why.

Nolah de Fanel
Story Title: In the works
Story Thread
Genre: General
Rating: Pg-13ish at the moment BUT IT MIGHT GO UP IN LATER CHAPTERS SO I SHALL POST A WARNING BEFORE SAID CHAPTER
Comments: Urgh...I should have posted this two days ago. The formatting is kind of weird...It shows up fine and then I'll go back and it will be messed up and then when I go to edit it, it'll be fine again so please don't be angry

HelterSkelterX
Story Title: Saw Dust
Link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?page=1&t=10963161#573175835
Genre: General
Rating: P-13 to R due to it's graphic nature
Comments: Woot! I'm SO behind! To evade any confusion, please be advised that the characters in the story do not have actual names. They are referred to as the main character refers to them, much as you would call a girl you know "the blonde one." Please be advised that there are some graphic details because the plot has to do with murder. If I HAD to give the story a genre, it would be EXTREMELY dark humor. THERE I posted! Ya happy?! I'm ENTERED!!

hiriyou
Story Title: Emily's Story
Link: http://www.fosff.net/viewstory.php?sid=21955
Genre: General
Rating: PG-13
Comments: Hm, well, pretty much I wrote this with a few intentions. I know it's not my best, but I'm absolutely giddy about the fact that I was able to do it at all. Emily's writing was intentionally bad and chock full of cliches. I made her that way because there needs to be a reason why she's never been published. And I would love some critiques.

Stuffness
Story Title: Untitled
Link: http://spnano.blogspot.com/2005/11/desert-crow-nanowrimo.html (its not on gaia but its just a whole lot easier to keep track of here)
Genre: Romance, idententy search
Rating: PG-13
Comments: I doubt this will do well I finished the story at 42K and was forced to put another 8K scattered throughout the story so I doubt it will make a lot of sense.

~ Donators ~


What can I say, you are my heroes and I love you. You make this contest possible, and without you, the world would be a sad sad place.

heart Anonymous heart
- donated vial of unkown liquid, were mask, and robo head
- 4,000 gold

heart Deliastere heart
- 100 gold

heart Miserikordi heart
- 1,000 gold

heart unseen_talents26 heart
- 1,000 gold

heart darktail heart
- Beautiful banner for the art commission/contest.

heart Lochoko heart
- 15,000 gold eek

I would like to give a special shout-out to Vince. Everyone should thank him, and bow down before him. He has donated a more than generous amount, and deserves your love and respect.

heart heart ~ HelterSkelterX ~ heart heart
100k
~ Affiliates ~


Here is a spot for all my buddies, for anyone who wants to advertise a contest, quest, or anything else. The cost? 50 gold. Yep, that's it. For that measly amount, you too can be my friend and have people click on your stuff. Pm me if you want to advertise your stuff.

WW+CCF

If you are holding a writing contest, or enjoy helping other's, this is a place you need to visit. Not only do you owe the WW+CCF (Writers Workshop and Charity Forum) a thank you, but you owe them your gratitude and allegience. They have been helping the writer's forum for a very long time. Seriously, go check it out, ask for help if you need it, and contribute if you don't-- it's very worth it.


[WW+CCF l Poetry l Round 6]

Not only does the WW+CCF help out the writer's forum, they also hold contests allowing you to show your skills. The poetry division has been going on for (as you can see) 5 rounds. The first place winners have won (and will continue to win) 1,000 gold or equivalent item. 2nd gets 700 gold/item. 3rd recieves 300 gold/item. And the honourable mention find themself with a sweet 50 gold. The entry fee of 100 gold is a small amount, when you consider you will only be going against 15 other competitors. As this contest also allows you to enter mulitple times, your odds can only go up! I believe the Poetry division has also just instated an end-of-the-round critique, where your poem will be lovingly commented on. A fine contest, this.


[WW+CCF l Prose l Drabble]

You are probably wondering what, exactly, drabble is, are you not? Well, it is the name the WW+CCF have fondly given the type of prose this round of the contest is geared toward. If you enter, you can be one of 15 to write a short-short, or flash fiction story. (AKA: 500 words of whatever.) In this competition, you can refine not only your writing skills, but help others refine theirs, as you give a peer review to the person who has submitted their entry before you. The winner will recieve a nice 5,000 gold/item, the 2nd place gets 3,000 gold/item, and the honourable mention finds themself with 500 gold/item. When you enter, you too can be like nomee, who said, "Bless you... for encouraging and inspiring me to write heart "
~ Banners ~

Since all of you are going to be working so hard, I figure I'll do what I can to help support you and allow others to support you. Here are three lovely banners you can put in your sig to recruit people, gain support, or just show how cool you are. Pick one, take all three, or just keep your sig the way it is.

User Image

Quote:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/chronicdevil/chronicdevil2/Chronicmisc/novel.jpg


User Image - Blocked by "Display Image" Settings. Click to show.

Quote:
http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/5020/darktaibannernanowrimochalleng.gif

Judging


At long last, here is the information you have been waiting for! The process is slightly changed, as I think you all are waiting on a verdict, and I dont' want to keep you indefinitely. First, you will need to:

Submit three chapters of your story

If you don't have specified chapters, just pick three sections that chapter length-ish. (Use your best judgement here) You can either, if you'd like, post them here, or simply post which ones and we'll go check them out. (A link to them if it isn't in the main part of the page would be helpful.)

We'll use these three chapters to determine the winners. Yes, I realize, it isn't the complete work, and if you want to stone me, feel free. But at the current status quo, it will be a long time for the judging to take place if we simply read your pieces.

By using this method (which real editors use), the judging will be able to look at the chapters and determine the winner by the writing quality, and the judgement will come faster, so you can take your gold and go home, rather than waiting forever and ever. (Because that was a very likely possibility, and I would rather like to live instead of having all of you mutiny)

There will be three judges:

serpenteyes
Atreas
LongTimeListener

I would say don't pm and bribe us, but the pms are disabled, so you can't really do that anyways. Heh. That, and I know you probably can't afford to bribe Atreas, he's an expensive guy.

The judging flow will be based on a score out of 100. The breakdown is:

Creativity ?/20
Flow ?/10
Plot ?/10
Characterization ?/20
Interest ?/20
Spelling ?/10
Grammar ?/10

The judges will score you out of that amount, as well as picking out their choices for the mini/sub prizes. For instance, all three of us will come up with a choice for 'best action,' and will then pool our choices and come up with a final canditate. (That will happen for each category)

We'll all hurry up and try and make this process as quick as possible.
This thread is now officially open! Just know, you can come in chat, say what you think of the thread, the ensuing contest, make suggestions, chit chat, do whatever. Only, you cannot enter, as the official contest does not start until November 1.

So come one, come all, and join this freak show circus. Have fun, make animal balloons, and eat cotton candy.
Hey, this is sort of a very cool-ish idea. ^_^

I'll probably be entering. I mean, I'm going to do NaNo anyway, so I might as well take a crack at winning a heck of a lot of gold into the bargain. I shall be watching this thread with great interest. ninja

Amateur Capitalist

17,050 Points
  • Sausage Fest 200
  • Battle Hardened 150
  • Risky Lifestyle 100
*bookmarked* xd

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