Post by Kaez on Jan 14, 2013 14:29:15 GMT -5
It's a February Challenge! ....starting in January!
... IT'S A FEBRANUJARY CHALLENGE!
Okay, so James, Taed and I have decided that the format of the old Monthly Assignments ("here's your topic -- you have a month to write it") just doesn't work anymore. It's outdated. Formats like the Arena work a lot better for a modern AWR, and we think the Challenge could fit right into that. As of tomorrow, there will only be six writers left in the Arena (and a few days from then, only three). To keep the momentum rolling, we though it could work well to get a Challenge going right as the Arena slows down into its dramatic conclusion.
The best thing about the Challenge: it has an incentive for both quality -and- quantity. The more you write -and- the better you write both factor in. At the same time, it's drop-out proof. You only have to write in the rounds you wish to write it. Don't have the time one week? Don't have to. The competition can move on without everyone writing every time.
For those of you who don't recall how the Challenge works: tonight at midnight, I'm going to post a topic/genre/prompt. You'll have till 11:59pm of the 18th to write something, four full days. I'll be a sole judge, scoring each entry with the same template, and then your scores will be posted to the leaderboard. Quality affects how high the score is, but quantity affects how many scores you'll have in total (e.g. five scores of 40 = four scores of 50).
At 11:59 on the 18th, a new topic will go up. Again, there will be four days to write until the next topic comes up.
The judging format is:
Spelling & Grammar - /5
Ease of Read - /5
Use of Topic - /10
Entertainment - /15
Quality - /15
Total - /50
The schedule is:
11:59pm 14th Jan – 11:59pm 18th Jan
11:59pm 18th Jan – 11:59pm 23rd Jan
11:59pm 23rd Jan – 11:59pm 28th Jan
11:59pm 28th Jan – 11:59pm 2nd Feb
11:59pm 2nd Feb – 11:59pm 7th Feb
11:59pm 7th Feb – 11:59pm 12th Feb
So, in total, /300.
At the end of six rounds, there will effectively be two winners: the proper highest score on the leaderboard, and secondarily, the person who wins the most individual matches.
Lastly, I'm going to get kind of creative with the topics. I don't want to give much away, but, you know, prepare yourself for a wide variety of styles here. But every one of them is going to carry with them a restriction, designed to stretch your creativity as an author and help shake some rust off if it's been a while (for a lot of us, it has).
So then, the only real rule is to keep your story between five-hundred and five-thousand words. Flash fiction, poetry, and sprawling sagas simply cannot be judged properly in comparison to ordinary short-story prose. It wouldn't be fair.
Any questions? Suggestions? Who plans to write?!
... IT'S A FEBRANUJARY CHALLENGE!
Okay, so James, Taed and I have decided that the format of the old Monthly Assignments ("here's your topic -- you have a month to write it") just doesn't work anymore. It's outdated. Formats like the Arena work a lot better for a modern AWR, and we think the Challenge could fit right into that. As of tomorrow, there will only be six writers left in the Arena (and a few days from then, only three). To keep the momentum rolling, we though it could work well to get a Challenge going right as the Arena slows down into its dramatic conclusion.
The best thing about the Challenge: it has an incentive for both quality -and- quantity. The more you write -and- the better you write both factor in. At the same time, it's drop-out proof. You only have to write in the rounds you wish to write it. Don't have the time one week? Don't have to. The competition can move on without everyone writing every time.
For those of you who don't recall how the Challenge works: tonight at midnight, I'm going to post a topic/genre/prompt. You'll have till 11:59pm of the 18th to write something, four full days. I'll be a sole judge, scoring each entry with the same template, and then your scores will be posted to the leaderboard. Quality affects how high the score is, but quantity affects how many scores you'll have in total (e.g. five scores of 40 = four scores of 50).
At 11:59 on the 18th, a new topic will go up. Again, there will be four days to write until the next topic comes up.
The judging format is:
Spelling & Grammar - /5
Ease of Read - /5
Use of Topic - /10
Entertainment - /15
Quality - /15
Total - /50
The schedule is:
11:59pm 14th Jan – 11:59pm 18th Jan
11:59pm 18th Jan – 11:59pm 23rd Jan
11:59pm 23rd Jan – 11:59pm 28th Jan
11:59pm 28th Jan – 11:59pm 2nd Feb
11:59pm 2nd Feb – 11:59pm 7th Feb
11:59pm 7th Feb – 11:59pm 12th Feb
So, in total, /300.
At the end of six rounds, there will effectively be two winners: the proper highest score on the leaderboard, and secondarily, the person who wins the most individual matches.
Lastly, I'm going to get kind of creative with the topics. I don't want to give much away, but, you know, prepare yourself for a wide variety of styles here. But every one of them is going to carry with them a restriction, designed to stretch your creativity as an author and help shake some rust off if it's been a while (for a lot of us, it has).
So then, the only real rule is to keep your story between five-hundred and five-thousand words. Flash fiction, poetry, and sprawling sagas simply cannot be judged properly in comparison to ordinary short-story prose. It wouldn't be fair.
Any questions? Suggestions? Who plans to write?!
