As I’ve mentioned previously, I have really wanted to expand on our collective efforts of creative writing. One of the most key parts of any role playing server is doing just that! I know that a lot of the players here have made some real efforts that have paid off and the quality of the writing on the server has greatly increased over time and I am honestly proud of how far everyone has come in the quality and caliber of not only their writing but the quality of thought that goes into their ideas. So, lets write a novel together.
The Plan
So, this year I’m going to put into motion something I really thought about doing before and we’re going to hand out prizes for contributions to this project over the next month. The time frame goes from today, November 4th, until the end of the month (November 30th). First place will get $25 in the form of an Amazon Gift Card (since it does not need to be mailed) and 2nd place will get a $10 Amazon Gift Card. Equivalent monetary value can be put on alternatives for those who cannot access Amazon or are unable to claim said prizes (for our International players).
The money will come out of the server’s Patreon fund, which I encourage people to donate to so that we can make a contest like this a more regular occurrence!
The Rules
So any contest must have rules, posts which do not add value to the story (such as posts made up of the same word repeated over and over again or some such) will be removed. Predatory or malicious posts will also be removed — these are defined as posts which discourage others from posting or posts that are designed to upset or otherwise maliciously poke and prod another author. Also, do not edit another users posts and while one may edit their own posts, pleas refrain from making edits to your own posts after they have been the basis for someone else’s posts.
The contest will be judged on the # of words contributed to the story which have a letter length of greater than 3 characters. This is to avoid words like a, an, the, I, if… We are going for actual content here and need a way to measure that. Word length (beyond being at last 4 characters long) does not matter, so there is no need to use the longest words possible.
All server members are eligible to participate and win (other than myself, I will be participating but I am not eligible to win). Characters and ideas need not be approved before posting them, this is not role play and doesn’t even necessarily take place in one of our settings (though it might).
Where?
The actual writing will be taking place on the forum on this thread. Discord simply isn’t suited to this kind of writing, I would prefer to use Microsoft Word but since it is very expensive one cannot promise that people have access to it, that is out and Google Docs does not have sufficient tracking to keep track of everyone’s contributions.
Each post will be an addition to the story as if it is one long document.
What about after?
After the story is complete, we will be judging whether or not it should be further put into a document and edited / polished into a final draft. I would personally like this and then for it to go onto here or be stored elsewhere so that we can go back to it. I think this server has a lot of great talent in it and I look forward to seeing it moving forward.