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Hm. How close are we to having these "contests"? I, for one, think they would be quite fun. And I'd probably be able to get the occasional MC for first prize.

I know that this is the monthly contest thread, not a general contest suggestion thread, but...this seemed the best place for this to be put. The monthly contests haven't gotten off the ground--yet perhaps this is because we're simply a wee bit too small to hold such things on a regular basis.

What I would like to propose is a contest aimed to improve awareness about the benefits of getting a beta...all over Gaia. Such a contest would be open to all in the main writing contest forum. All entries would have to be beta'd by another Gaian, but that Gaian would not have to be a member of the GaBBaB Guild (although this would, hopefully, be sponsored by the Guild and provide a good deal of publicity for it).

I should amend the previous paragraph, I suppose. I would prefer that this work as a series of contests, taking place over about a year (or...maybe less): short original fiction, short fan fiction, long original fiction, long fan fiction. Why the four separate contests? In order to reach all areas of writing on this site, all four must be included--yet if they are all included in one contest, that'd be a huge amount of work to pull together, etc. I would propose that the first contest, announced as the beginning of the series, be the original fiction contest--simply because that would be the easiest to coordinate.

So...er. Logistics of this, then.


Betas:

Well, obviously the greatest obstacle in the way of the writers is the need for a beta--as even on here, betas are hard to find. Thus, before this contest opens I hope to find a good number of betas (by sending out PMs, probably to names on the beta list) who are willing to beta short, original fics--and put their names on the main post, so that authors can go talk to them.

Betas would be able to beta fics for multiple authors (only one story per author) and enter a story of their own; however, they would have to inform their gamma of this--which would be enforced by placing all beta/gamma pairings on the main contest post as they register to enter. If a beta suddenly went 'absent', then hopefully we could have back-up betas.


Timing:

I'm thinking that maybe a month to register, and then perhaps a few weeks past that for all stories to get in--that would give everyone plenty of time to see what their beta was doing, and it would give enough time to set up a 'rescue service', too. But perhaps that's too long. Fortunately, timing is one of the easiest things to modify.


Judging:

Whew, this is a long one. I'm hoping that there would be three, guild-member judges for this. The first reason for that is that I'm hoping this will be sponsored by the guild, and multiple judges would help represent that (plus, it makes it fairer). The second reason is that if we get a lot of entries, it makes things easier--two judge rulings per entry, and if the rulings are too far apart, the third judge also judges and then a median is taken. Obviously, before judging starts the judges should get together and decide on what standards represent what scores--and, just as obviously, they can't be gammas or betas for this contest (see below. Betas win prizes, too).

The basic method I'm going for would have four categories. Two of the categories would be worth 20 points each and two would be worth 10 points each, so in total, it'd be out of 60 points. Like I mentioned above, each story would, ideally, be judged twice. Unless there was a discrepancy of more than two points (perhaps it should be one...) in any category, the scores would be averaged and than added up to get the overall score. If there was a large discrepancy, the third judge would read it over.

'Readability'--otherwise knows an 'the essentials'. This is basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This would be out of 20 points, as basic spelling and grammar are one of the first things that should be addressed by a beta (if they're lacking).

'Prose'--the other category worth 20 points, as it's also very important. Here, the clarity and complexity of the writing would be scored. Purple prose obviously isn't good, but if the person writes, 'He did this. He did that...' for their entire story--they might get 20/20 on 'readability', but 1/20 on prose (because that's awful prose).

'Plot'--this would be development, arcs, depth, and clarity. Obviously, for short stories, this would be somewhat limited--but it should still be there. This would only be worth 10 points, as plot is, compared to the 'prose' and 'readability' categories, a much trickier thing to judge...and it's more based on the personality of the beta than the other two, too.

'Characterization'--depth and consistency. If they change, do they change for a good reason? If it's fanfiction, do they stay true to canon--or if they don't, is it developed in the story why not? This category be marked out of 10 for the same reasons that 'plot' is only marked out of 10.

(In the above, fanfiction is mentioned. Hopefully, for this, we could simply say, 'Don't pick anything too obscure, and give us a brief summary beforehand so that we can do research, and tell you if it's too obscure'. 'cause...otherwise we'd simply need waaay too many judges.)


Prizes:

I propose four prizes per contest. In order to make sure someone doesn't walk home with all of the prizes, I'd also propose that there be a 'one author, one story, one prize' rule. Thus, one author is allowed to enter one story, which can only win one prize. However, if a beta has beta'd multiple stories, they could technically win multiple prizes (which will hopefully encourage betas to beta more than one story...). Betas would receive a prize equal to half of what the author receives.

Best Overall: This is...exactly what it sounds like. The story with the highest total score wins. If there's a tie, than the judges can get together and decide between the stories on an ad hoc basis.

Grammar Nazi: The story with the highest score in the 'readability' category.

Rose of Prose: The story with the highest score in the 'prose' catagory.

The Road Less Taken: The story with the highest combined score from the 'plot' and 'characterization' category.

Thus, the prize categories are explained. But what to actually give? For that question--I'm not sure. I'm willing to donate all the gold I've got (hey, I've got absolutely no other use for it), but I'm a newb and, at the moment, I only have 12k. Which is pretty pitiful, especially if the prize money is going to be divided up eight ways.

...fund-raising, anyone...?


Other little bits:

I'm pretty sure that covers about all of it. Oh, wait!

For the short story contests, I'm thinking between 2,000 and 8,000 words. For the long story contests, I'm thinking between 15,000 and 50,000 words.

Oh, and short stories should be posted in the contest thread. Not sure what to do with long stories, but we can hop that when we come to it. Maybe post on a separate site somewhere.

And if they post in smaller font than the default, or bolded, or coloured, or something stupid like that, automatic disqualification! Yeeesss. Um, 'cause I have no pet peeves...

Other than that...well, hopefully if I've missed something in this plan, someone will point it out to me. Yesno? Obviously, it's going to take some editing before it's ready to be posted for all and sundry, but...what d'y'all think of the idea?

Woot! Yeah, getting new members would be the background, driving goal.

So I can put you down on a tentative list for sponsors, and another for betas? *hum*

(I'm up to 13.3k. Woo!)

These days I seem to suffer from insomnia. So I have lots of time to write up stuff like that. And then edit it. And rewrite it, because otherwise I sit in my bed and daydream of zombies, which are not conducive to sleep. (Why I have a sudden zombie phobia, I have no freakin' idea. Erm. Sidetracked! Sorry, this is one of those 'four in the morning' times.)

About judges...eh, I'm not sure what to do. I saw the judge application thread for the monthly contests, but...eh. Easier to do it informally, since we are so few, I think. I figure if I'm doing most of the organizing, unless someone would like to take that off my hands, which I'd probably cry over as then I'd have nothing to distract me from imaginary green goo, I'd be better off as a judge instead of a beta--unless someone objects. Or whatever. So I guess that makes two of us, Chibi Envy Chan smile

Soooo, to track down a third judge and find examples of writing. Recently someone named Annetia has been hosting a bunch of contests that consist of short paragraphs...ought to be easy enough to give examples of prose/grammar/wot from there. Plot and characterization, though...those're harder to get a baseline for.

Much rambling aside, I have cooked up something that looks prettier. Not a lot prettier, mind, 'cause I'm not so great with pretty...but, eh, I'll go put it in a new post.

(Keeping in mind that each separate heading in the below would have its own post...)

EDIT: After posting below, I realized...the rules look ugly. I have edited it somewhat, but...ugh. Hmm. Suggestions?

I blame Resident Evil for my childhood zombie related tramuas >.< Not a good game to play in front of five year olds!! crying

Ahem. Moving on...

That looks really good!! ^-^

Hopefully we could get a few more betas before we make the thread (^^;; ), but otherwise it I like it! However, I do have one suggestion.

Perhaps we could add a donations part to the...um, table of contents/first post thing. I mean, I'd be glad to donate a MC on a monthly basis, but I'm not sure I can provide one for all the winners ^^;;

We could just have a few sentances explaining that to make sure our winners and betas get their fair share we need a little bit of money here and there. Then we could have a list of donators below that. And we could do.... something for our donators. You know, give them a good reason to want to donate.

If their are any artists here we could perhaps have them do a quick sketch for the donatiors, or something like that. Something nice, but simple and easy.

Sadly, I far from an artist, so if it's scetches we're giving I won't be much help (though I could try). But I did see a thread somewhere (I think in another guild) that had someone writing stories about other people's avatars. We could try that aswell.

Also, their gift can differ depending on how much they donated. Like, if they only donate 100g we could give them a quick sketch, but if they donate 1000g we could get give 'em one of higher quility.

I'm willing to be a judge for any future fanfiction contest.

Also, quick query into the judging.
Are the judges going to be rotated? Like judges 1 and 2 judge fic A, 2 and 3 judge fic B, 3 and 1 judge fic C.
It'd spread out the judging but still have that thrid judge available.

I can also donate trash/inks/flowers/baits for Gaian items of thanks, or I could do things like icons and banners or even chibi sketches.
EDIT: eytek, try using the [ list ] code.

makes bullet points or modifying the [ list ] to list=a/1 gets letters or numbers.