[Apr 2016] - The Last Contest - Discussion Thread

[xiagan]

The Last Writing Contest


6.000.000.000 A.C. by kaaaay

“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.” - Dr.Seuss

With more regret than you can imagine I have to inform you that FF doesn't have the capacities to organize these contests anymore.

THIS WILL BE THE LAST SHORT STORY WRITING CONTEST ON FF.

We can't thank you enough for all the fun, the amazing stories and the time, blood, sweat and tears you put into this. You're amazing. When (not if) you are published, don't forget to put us in the acknowledgements!

Guys and gals, the last years have been a blast and so that's what you are going to write about now!

Apocalypse. For real this time. And none of the conspiracy theorists saw it coming. The world is going to end in a day. What's going to happen until then?

Bonus exercise: Take a beloved character from a previous story entry and follow them through that day.

Rules:

1. This must be prose or poetry.
2. If the world's not going to end in your story you are out.
3. Prose must be 500-1500 words long.
4. Poetry must be 100-500 words long.
5. One story per person or writing team (not per account).
6. You will be disqualified if you exceed the limits, full stop. That's why they're called limits.
7. Your entry can't be published somewhere else before.
8. This is a writing contest, not a "I have written something like this ten years ago" contest. So if you happen to have a story that fits one of the themes, I'd like it to have a mayor overhaul/edit. Work for it.
9. Please add your story's word count and, if you have, your twitter handle.
10. Please put your story in [ spoiler ] tags to make the thread easier to handle. You can find them above the smileys next to the 'youtube' symbol.

Entry will close April 30st/May 1st, 2016 and voting will begin somewhere around the same time too.

All members are eligible to join. If you are not a member you can join here. Sign up is free and all are welcome!

The winner will have their piece displayed on the main Fantasy Faction website sometime in the next months.

Please post your entry here.

Note: This thread is only for questions or discussing this month's writing contest. Good luck!

---------------------------------

Got you (again), I think!
Of course this is not the last contest, today's just the first of April. So instead of writing about an Apocalypse, please do a love triangle with a teenage girl, a werewolf and a vampire.
Wait, this sounds familiar....

---------------------------------

Dystopia


dystopia by shadow9020


Apocalypse is a rad theme but as you all remember, we had it just recently in January 2013.

This month I want your story set in a dystopian world/society.

A dystopia [...] is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is translated as "not-good place"[...] [The antonym] "Utopia" is the blueprint for an ideal society with no crime or poverty. Dystopian societies appear in many artistic works, particularly in stories set in the future. Some of the most famous examples are 1984 and Brave New World. Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Dystopian societies appear in many subgenres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to real-world issues regarding society, environment, politics, economics, religion, psychology, ethics, science, and/or technology, which if unaddressed could potentially lead to such a dystopia-like condition.

Alternatively you can write a story set in an utopian world/society. I believe it is much harder to do so, but if you want that extra challenge, here it is.

Rules:

1. This must be prose or poetry.
2. Setting must be a Dystopia or an Utopia.
3. Prose must be 500-1500 words long.
4. Poetry must be 100-500 words long.
5. One story per person or writing team (not per account).
6. You will be disqualified if you exceed the limits, full stop. That's why they're called limits.
7. Your entry can't be published somewhere else before.
8. This is a writing contest, not a "I have written something like this ten years ago" contest. So if you happen to have a story that fits one of the themes, I'd like it to have a mayor overhaul/edit. Work for it.
9. Please add your story's word count and, if you have, your twitter handle.
10. Please put your story in [ spoiler ] tags to make the thread easier to handle. You can find them above the smileys next to the 'youtube' symbol.

Entry will close April 30st/May 1st, 2016 and voting will begin somewhere around the same time too.

All members are eligible to join. If you are not a member you can join here. Sign up is free and all are welcome!

The winner will have their piece displayed on the main Fantasy Faction website sometime in the next months.

Please post your entry here.

Note: This thread is only for questions or discussing this month's writing contest. Good luck!

[ScarletBea]

You got me for a second

[Rukaio_Alter]

Dang it. I had just come up with an idea for Apocalypse before I saw what the real topic was. That'll teach me not to scroll down before I start brainstorming.

[JMack]

Awesome.  I'm so glad SB chimed in because... I'm really gullible. I mean, I only just figured out why the manager was playing tricks on the staff at the neighborhood bakery this morning.

And this.

2. If the world's not going to end in your story you are out.

And a beloved character form a prior story gets to watch the world end?
I may have start a poll.
I will start a poll! 


EDIT:
Wait. What?
Dystopia?
Shit. Now, if Rukaio hadn't chimed in, I'd have started a poll about which of characters to kill off!


Bad @xiagan. Very bad @xiagan.


EDIT2:

And hold on. This is like tailor-made for @Nora.
Is there a conspiracy at foot? 

[Lanko]

With that initial description it totally should have been about dirty liars, con artists or mischief 

Almost got me, the key element was the quote from Seuss, it made it sound natural and like it was really happening 

[Henry Dale]

I have a vague idea for dystopia, though it's an oddball one (again...  ).
Time to write a rough version this weekend. 

[ArcaneArtsVelho]

Got you (again), I think!

I didn't know you well enough last year, xiagan, but you can't fool me any more. 

Bonus exercise: Take a beloved character from a previous story entry and follow them through that day.

I know this wasn't part of the real theme, but I think I'm going to bring back The Merchant from my first ever contest submission (Science Fiction, Jan 2015).

What is this, you may ask? AAV reusing his characters for two months in a row? Has he no imagination? Stay tuned to find out.


Also Jmack, thanks for that post of yours. For some reason it makes me grin like an idiot. 

[Nora]

And hold on. This is like tailor-made for @Nora.
Is there a conspiracy at foot? 

What? Am I the house apocalyptic writer? I like Dystonian worlds enough that I've actually written all I had on them, so I guess I wouldn't mind the fresh start...

I woke up and immediately checked the new topic, and did not fall for it, not even for a second. Everything was sealed with this :

FF doesn't have the capacities to organize these contests anymore.

It's only a matter of having dedicated members putting up topics, and SB has been doing it just fine these last months, can't imagine running short of volunteering staff, and besides Xiagan turned our crazy ideas often enough by telling us he's got years worth of themes lined up. 

However I definitely enjoyed the scramble of those who were caught in the April fool 

@Rukaio_Alter : Can I petition you to please take that quote in your signature out of spoilers? Not only does it deserve to see the light of day, but I've already clicked it thrice this morning thinking it was a discussion spoiler, it's very confusing   

[Lady Ty]

You got me for a second

Snap - good one xiagan

[m3mnoch]

You got me for a second

Snap - good one xiagan

totally.

i'm not going to lie -- i was all hand-wavey-wtf?!? until i remembered it was april fools and decided i could read on.

/sigh

[SugoiMe]

And here I was all excited for the apocalypse.   Hate April Fools.

[tebakutis]

Apropos to the original thread. Never gets old.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw[/youtube]

[Blackthorn]

I'm excited for this one. I've entered the last three contests since January, but this is the first one where I feel my idea will follow a more traditional story format.
I plan to spend all month polishing this one up. If I don't get lazy and toss in my rough draft 

[Nora]

I'm actually struggling to come up with an idea... It's a broad topic, where you could go biopunk, cyberpunk, steampunk, post apocalyptic, anything so long as it's bad and in the future.

So here you go @Eclipse, found you a poe based one to tune up to my standards :




 

[shadowkat678]

I was about to freak out. I just got here and what? I really was about to get upset, waiting for this one because I couldn't come up with an idea for the last one. You got me. Time to start brainstorming!