• The forum software have been upgraded to the latest version.

    If you notice anything that looks off, or does not work, please let us know.

    For more information, click here.

Contest April-May 2016 Short Story Contest

Scalenex
Slann

Scalenex

Keeper of the Indexes
Messages
11,496
Likes Received
20,442
Trophy Points
113
It is with great pride that I announce this next contest. This is our sixth contest and our second April-May Contest.

Mighty Slanputin the winner of the last contest has been given the honor of selecting the theme for this contest. The theme is "Anti-Heroes." Usual rules apply.

-Must be between 500 and 2500 words, enforced by the honor system, we are not going to word count your stories or toss out anyone's work for being too long, but be mindful of the people who are reading your work and understand they will probably be intending reading several pieces at once.
-Your name must appear nowhere with the story. There is no point in having an anonymous competition based on skill if we know whose entry is whose.
-You must send your story via private message to Scalenex by midnight (US Central time) on April 30th. .
-The story must be new. No dragging up a story you wrote months or years ago.
-No plagiarism. This means no stealing a story verbatim. You are free to use characters or settings from other works.
-The story must involve Lizardmen (or Seraphon or Salamanders) to some extant
-The story must stick roughly within the theme.
-No comics or illustrations. This is a short story contest. Visuals are limited to fonts and text colors.
-Only one entry allowed per person.

I will do my best to providing proofreading and general advise to writers who ask for it. Keep in mind there is usually a flood of entries coming in the last week, so the earlier you submit your piece to me, the easier it will be for me to help you.. @spawning of Bob is traditionally willing to give fellow writers advice as well.

Once again, the winner of this contest has the honor of choosing the next contest theme. Unless they don't want to it which I case I'll come up with something and/or steal something from Slanputins very long list of perfectly reasonable themes.

Not everyone defines anti-hero the same way. What one person calls an anti-hero another calls a tragic hero, doomed hero, penitent hero, villain protagonists, affable villain or any number of things. The differing interpretations of the concept will be what makes this contest interesting. He is the bare bones minimalist definition of anti-heroes on Wikipedia. For more detailed analysis and over a dozen subtypes, check out this article from TV-tropes.

There is no wrong answer for "what is an anti-hero?" Let's see how you can apply the concept to reptiles!
 
Last edited:
I'm glad to see that voting ends in march - good to know scalanex's foul experiments have finally cracked time travel.

If I'd known this'd be the theme I would have saved my noir! I'd be noir-ing all over this competition. But now I'm going have to be original. Ugh yuck.
 
thedarkfourth said:
I'm glad to see that voting ends in march - good to know scalanex's foul experiments have finally cracked time travel.

If I'd known this'd be the theme I would have saved my noir! I'd be noir-ing all over this competition. But now I'm going have to be original. Ugh yuck.
Click to expand...
Your hardboiled noir novel would have been brilliant for this! Dammit @thedarkfourth you're a loose cannon. That story only had one day left 'til retirement. Now its contents are spilled all over the Internet. Turn in your pencil and keyboard. You're off the case.
 
thedarkfourth said:
I'm glad to see that voting ends in march - good to know scalanex's foul experiments have finally cracked time travel.
Click to expand...

Okay, you got me, I copy and paste the entry threads from the past contest and modify. Sometimes mistakes are made.
 
Anti your usual hero type (ie doesn't eat his girlfriend) would leave the field fairly wide open for choices for you.

Unfortunately for me, my heroes are pretty Inspector Clouseau, so I will need to work harder.
 
I got exposed to two WIP contest entries in early stages so far. That's a good start so early in the contest, but we still need...MOAR!

Don't let the fact that the Short Story Contest entry timeline and Art Contest are overlapping stop you from writing. Most of you cross-competitors should be done with your art submission by now. I just finished mine (and by "finished" I mean "passed on to @n810 to tweak slightly"), so I'm going to get back to my writing tonight. The rest of you follow your leader and write. Your writing is the only thing keeping the Skaven from invading (again).
 
Should be interesting, should (hopefully) be able to finagle something this time!
 
Homework for all entrants. The last comp stories were all excellent as you know, but there weren't so many memorable hooks - I think there were better hook lines with the previous comp eg.
  • Temple guardians do not suffer fear.
  • Something else was in the tunnel and Ikkit knew it.
  • Unique. Empowered. Destined.
  • It was a dark and stormy night
  • Our town is haunted.
That's just the first 4 stories of the October comp. Some samples from the most recent are:
  • The sky was clear bar a few wisps of clouds that gently sailed in the breeze.
  • Huintzi woke up early in the morning.

OK, there were other good hooks, but you get the idea. When you have written your draft entry this time, and are about to begin polishing, make sure you go back and twist your first couple of paragraphs around so that within the first three lines, you have something that will compel the reader to keep reading.
 
spawning of Bob said:
The sky was clear bar a few wisps of clouds that gently sailed in the breeze.
Click to expand...

spawning of Bob said:
It was a dark and stormy night
Click to expand...

These are functionally the same. Many professional writers and critics warn against starting a story with a description of the weather. I wouldn't say never start a story with the weather, but if you do, the weather should have some direct bearing on the story and not simply be just to set the mood.
 
spawning of Bob said:
Homework for all entrants. The last comp stories were all excellent as you know, but there weren't so many memorable hooks - I think there were better hook lines with the previous comp eg.
  • Temple guardians do not suffer fear.
  • Something else was in the tunnel and Ikkit knew it.
  • Unique. Empowered. Destined.
  • It was a dark and stormy night
  • Our town is haunted.
That's just the first 4 stories of the October comp. Some samples from the most recent are:
  • The sky was clear bar a few wisps of clouds that gently sailed in the breeze.
  • Huintzi woke up early in the morning.

OK, there were other good hooks, but you get the idea. When you have written your draft entry this time, and are about to begin polishing, make sure you go back and twist your first couple of paragraphs around so that within the first three lines, you have something that will compel the reader to keep reading.
Click to expand...
Hmmm.

Was: "Fast is good. Hard to hit is better." a hook?
 
Yes, but I was trying to prove that there were fewer good hooks in the newer comp. If yours had been a total dog I would have quoted it :).

I'll reiterate - they were good stories, they didn't suffer from lack of hooks. It's just a technique to keep in mind.
 
I was wondering the same for me - took me a week to get an idea. Now, after one page, I've written myself into a corner.
 
I am definitely looking forward to what people come up with in this competition! This seems like it would be a fun one to push through all those crazy character ideas!
 
Done mine! I'm just sitting on it and waiting for the inevitable "oh god I need to change all of it".

Yes this time I can't be bothered with the mysterious "have I entered?" schtick. OR CAN I?!?!?!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top