Fireside Storytelling Contest
I’m in search of myths and legends harking back to the beginnings of Subeta, those half-forgotten stories a grandparent might have whispered in your ear while gently lulling you into sleep. And tales of bravery and adventure too of course - variety is the spice of life after all! Although the spices of Fireside are also quite lovely; I’m quite partial to cinnamon myself. But I digress.
So please, if you have a spare moment or two to gather up an old tale and write it down for me, I’ll be ready to accept submissions in about a week and get started on turning them into a proper collection. Let’s work together so all Subetans can enjoy sharing some new tales from around the globe this Fireside!
How to Enter
Write a short story about a NEW Subeta myth or legend for one of the following categories:
- Celestial beings (Sun/Moon/Stars)
- Water (Ocean/Rivers/Ponds/Rain)
- Natural Disasters (Volcanoes/Hurricanes/Storms)
- Nature (Plants/Animals/Geography)
- Magic (Spells/Charms/Curses)
- Supernatural (Spooky, Unnatural, Unliving)
- Story should be 600 characters or less
- Please keep story content to a PG level to help keep entries as reader friendly as possible.
- Enter once Alexander opens up submissions! (This will be in around a week’s time, and submissions will be open for another week after that.)
- One entry per person.
- Users will get to read and vote for their favorites!
Prizes
12 lucky winners will have their entries used in Alexander’s upcoming storybook collection and will receive a complimentary copy of the entire set of books. All participants will receive a storybook themed to their entry category and a special forum title.
All prizes will be attainable after the contest ends, and the winning stories will potentially be used as inspiration for further content in the future - so please don’t submit something you wouldn’t want to be used!
Posted by [NPC] Alexander
Hazit
i was struggling for a solid minute earlier because i misremembered the limit as being 60 characters and boy am i glad its actually 600, haha
I may have a problem... I managed to write a tiny 600 character story (whoot)! However... my tiny story could be used in at least 3 of the topics we can write for. I can't figure out which topic it should be entered under!
oh man. I thought it was WORDS. (600 words) oh man. How in the world am I going to cut this down!! lol
As I see it, the challenge isn't creating a story, it's crafting one that makes sense with only 600 letters. ;)
I sure hope only letters and punctuation count and not spaces because I'm still about 10 letters over. :(
My word processor counts words in a document but not characters. But if spaces count then I'll have to delete at least 1/3 of my story.
I really love the idea and will definitely take part. I just wish there were more submissions allowed per person, like two at least. I've got competing ideas and I'd love to have a chance to share more than one of them. :D
Thanks for doing this contest. I wrote something up, it was hard though...600 characters goes by so quick.
november: PERFECT timing for all the ppl who couldn't participate in nanowrimo. good luck everyone :eyes:
I used to do NaNoWriMo every year, but haven't had the time or energy to do it for the last 3 years or so. I miss it. This will be a great way for me to get my "creative writing" fix! Love this idea and can't wait for submissions to be open :). Good luck, everyone :)
@frederick according to my word count that I was using, the buffer only counted for one character, despite being a new break. Regardless, I played it safe and kept mines around 550 characters while still keeping cohesion. I'd err on the side of caution and keep it under 600 characters unless something does awry. I'm assuming we'll get more details once the submission page is up. Maybe they'll code in a counter that will tell you if you've went over the character limit?
Never mind - I did Maika's story for a warm up and then came up with something better and original to submit. I'm ready!! :D
@frederick i know, i'm just goofing. i'd assume it'd take spaces as characters or else the finished product would be unreadable. my submission has breaks in it but that didnt affect word count.
I have it like this, just for ease of editting, and that space didn't count. hopefully this is helpful ;v ;
I have it like this, just for ease of editting, and that space didn't count. hopefully this is helpful ;v ;
@Frankenchokies it IS a paragraph! about 95-100 words. it is actually quite a fun writing challenge, to have something invoke something with such little words, like those two paragraph horror stories. It's a good exercise to be concise with your words, yet still make sense and leave a mark.
600 characters?! That's... that's like a paragraph. That's nothing. How can you possibly write something compelling and interesting in that tiny allotment? How could you possibly get into it, and enjoy it, and express yourself, with that absolutely insignificant amount allowed? DX
This comment has been 323 characters. More than half gone.
This comment has been 323 characters. More than half gone.
Okay... i will try, im not good on english, but i will do my best for try to done something good :)
Got caught by inspiration and wrote mine already ^.^ Good luck y'all, may the plot bunnies be kind!
This sounds so fun! Can we create myths/legends around existing Subeta characters? Provided it still falls within a category listed?
MAGIC????? MAGICCCCCCC. THIS IS MY GENRE.
cracks knuckles Since I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year, this'll be a great opportunity for me to stretch the creative brain muscles.
cracks knuckles Since I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year, this'll be a great opportunity for me to stretch the creative brain muscles.
I'm at work (shhh) so can't read through dozens of comments, but I was just wondering when it says "new" myth does that mean we make up a brand new story/character/whatever or do a story about an already existing one that is new/recent to the site.
What fun, wish I were feeling more inspired these days so I'd give it a try.
Good luck everyone!
Good luck everyone!
Sounds good. So basically a 100 word drabble challenge.
A question - you have 6 categories and there will be 12 winners. So, does that mean two winners from each category, or will there be more in the categories that have more entries? (Say there were 30 entries for Nature, and only 6 for magic as an example) Or will it simply be the 12 most popular overall?
A question - you have 6 categories and there will be 12 winners. So, does that mean two winners from each category, or will there be more in the categories that have more entries? (Say there were 30 entries for Nature, and only 6 for magic as an example) Or will it simply be the 12 most popular overall?
Oh, wait. I definitely missed that line. Wow. Okay. Narrowing this down to one idea is hard!
I will participate, try my best, I will have to work on my spelling and grammar, but it makes me happy to be able to let my imagination run wild on this time of years.