Following the discussion here, and after receiving approval from the Powers That Be, the DLP Writing Contests may start up again.

Slight changes in rules and organisation have been decided:

- Organisation: Mordecai and Dwitty are officially in charge (actually, they wrote about 95% of this post -- I'm just here to pretty it up).

- New rules, by Mordecai:

Rejoice and celebrate. And write.

 

Thanks to the organizers for starting this back up again.

A brief suggestion: you may wish to specify whether stories can appear in a public setting before judging/results are announced. I suspect you'd prefer for them not to be--after all, if one could simply post one's story on fanfiction.net or patronuscharm, it'd defeat the whole purpose of double-blind judging.

 

Thanks for pointing that out Pers. As per the adjustment above, prior to judging being completed authors should ensure their story remains anonymous, and after the judging is complete all entries we have received will be posted in a dedicated thread in WbA with the authors names attached.

 

A separate WBA subforum might be more appropriate. It'd be good if people are able to find all contest entries in one place. If it's a normal thread they'll slowly get buried in WBA history.

 

Why can't you just use the Story Showcase subforum that already exists?

 

That's entirely possibly how we'll do it. We'll work it out more specifically towards the end of January.

 

Time to see if I've polished up my writing skills any since the last contest fizzled out. Great to see this is back up and running, guys!

 

When does it begin... January 1st, or as soon as viable topics are discussed and decided upon? I'm definitely writing for the first competition. Glad to see it up and running so soon.

 

We'll be taking in topic ideas for the next 48 hours. I'll then put up a poll, and after 48 hours of voting we'll apply the results to the next several cycles. The top result will immediately be used for the first competition cycle, the second result to the second cycle etc. The deadline for entries in the first cycle will be the 31st of January, giving you roughly a month and a half to get your entry put together.

Those wanting to suggest topics should PM either myself or Dwitty with the ideas, or email them to DLPWritingContest@gmail.com

 

Would be nice to see topics that are a little more interesting than just 'Auror!Harry', 'Azkaban!Harry', etc. I think submissions in those topics would be boring, especially in characterisation. Hopefully the topics are quite creative.

Additionally, why extend writing periods if the topics are known in advance? Wouldn't the fact that you can write for a competition 10 months from now remove the need for an extra 30 days of 'writing time' between competitions? Won't certain topics lack for entries whilst authors concentrate on one or two topics?

 

We'll only use the poll to select topics for the next couple of cycles. We'll repeat the process down the line. To prevent the problems you mentioned.

 

Fantastic news. I've been needing some motivation to get more writing done recently, and this might just be it.

 

I love contests like this, so I'm looking forward to this.

 

OP updated in response to a couple of queries about judging I got by PM.

 

What about length and completeness criteria? I had assumed it would have to be complete and you wouldn't want oneshots or single chapters of a WIP, but looking back briefly through previous contests, it looks like those things were accepted.

 

Length is a maximum of 50,000 words. Nothing longer is allowed. Anything shorter is fine. If you want to submit a 3k oneshot short story go for it, nothing to say it won't be good enough to win.

For completeness, if you want to submit a multi-chapter novella that fits into the 50k limit feel free. If you want to submit a oneshot, feel free. If you want to submit something that would be the first part of a WIP, that too is fine. In the latter case you'd be well advised to ensure it is something of a self-contained story, so that the judges can really get a feel for what is going on.

The only thing that is not accepted is an entry that would require specific foreknowledge. No sequels, continuations etc of the authors previous work. That'd both defeat the purpose of anonymity, and prevent equal judging.

I'll get a mod to add this stuff to the OP at some point.

And remember, we're into the last couple of hours for suggesting topics!

---------- Post automerged at 09:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:48 PM ----------

CLICK HERE to vote on the theme being used for the next couple of competition cycles.

You can place up to three votes. There are 18 options available.

This is an honour system, so don't try and cheat the poll to get the result you want. If we think the poll has been screwed with, we'll have to repeat it here on DLP, which will mean fewer options. So don't screw with the poll.

The poll will remain up for roughly 48 hours.

 

We could also do with more judges. If you're willing, having seen the topics, don't hesitate to fire us an email. Don't be shy now, do it. (DLPWritingContest@gmail.com)

Here's the poll link again: Link

 

Done and done.

Looking forward to this.

I've had this idea for a story rattling around in my head for awhile. My thanks to all who have a part in organising this venture.

 

Voted.

Good luck to Joe and all of the other competitors when the time comes.

 

/voted. Here's to hoping the topics I want win, as I can keep the story I've started to outline.