Hello everyone. Since I promised contests for this group on the main page and more or less everywhere else too, I decided to elaborate on how those will work when we get around to them.

I like to keep contests lasting about a month, since that way they're easy to bookmark and it gives everyone plenty of time. I mean, I know people are slow and all, but 3K to 20K strikes me as a reasonable length for a month, and I've seen longer stories get done in that time too.

Most contests revolve around a prompt. Personally, I tend to try doing things a bit differently. In the past, I've done a series of short stories that made up a collaboration of sorts, among others (which was pretty fun). That's not to say I may never do a simple prompt contest, but you can pretty much get those anywhere. I try to be more interesting: different restrictions will allow for different and interesting stories, after all.

Prizes are generally limited at this point to advertisement: I go out of my way to advertise the winning stories on the Shameless Self Promotion Bureau, on blogs, on this group, and anywhere else I can find. This is mostly because, as a student, I'm broke. Sorry about that. For the purpose of the group, I'll endeavour to get as many mad dollars as I can in the future. I may also try offering requests and the like too later down the line.

I intend to start our first contest as soon as August begins. This should give people time to join, get settled, get to know the group a little if they want to, and stuff like that. It also gives me time to smooth out the details with the rest of the staff.

Typically speaking, myself and at least two of the staff will act as judges, although I have been known to find ways to avoid my duties as a judge so I can participate myself. In those cases, I'll probably find a guest judge or two from other places I work on, like the Goodfic Bin.

That's the gist of what'll be happening for the bigger events. For the smaller events, like the prompt threads, those will be scheduled very regularly. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

4561703

I'll probably find a guest judge or two from other places I work on, like the Goodfic Bin.

Anyways, all sounds very reasonable, and I look forward to see what comes of this. Now back to practicing reviews.

4561718

Offering art? you have my attention. I've been trying to find better cover art for Fleet for a while...

Anyway... should this topic be pinned or something? for newcomers and all...

I like the idea of alternatives to prompts as ways of organizing contests. I love prompts, but it's nice to shake things up.

It's gonna get bloody. Wether I'm a judge or a player. Hehehehehehe.

4561815 Like you could actually finish a story.

4561789 There are limits to how creative I can be with contests, since if I get too tricky it ends restricting too much, but something different that 'write something about [insert word-prompt here]' strikes me as a nice change.

4561823

My hands get sticky in the Dark. You see.

So it slows me down.