Welcome one and all to the TCS Write-Off March 2017!
That's right, we're back! And we've got some slight tweaks that we're going to highlight in bold for you just in case you're a veteran and want to get right to the changes.
This is the place for TCSers to flex their literary muscles, and compete with each other for the most interesting and compelling stories we can come up with.
Let’s go over the rules and how things work:
- Story length is up to 4000 words total (including any asides or additional notes).
- Please include a title for your piece. If you do not choose a title, you are implicitly giving us permission to title your piece whatever we want; "Moldy Bread" "Baby's Feet" "I, {Username}, Love Donald Trump" (Oh yes we would).
- Stories can include images, but are limited to a maximum of three per story.
- All stories must follow the usual TCS rules.
- Instances of plagiarism will not be tolerated, please make sure all works are entirely original.
- The contest will run from March 1st 2017 to March 31st 2017. That's an entire month to write, folks!
- All story submissions must be PM’d to Kate before the end of March 31st, (that is, you should have it in by 23:59 PDT). Any submissions sent after this time will not be included in the contest. Due to recent changes in Kate's home life, the voting won't go live until she wakes up the next morning, but will absolutely go live on April 1st.
- All submissions will be posted by Kate, anonymously, in random order, in a locked thread created for that purpose. All stories will be posted under the TCS Writebot account.
- Stories will be judged by poll created when the thread of stories is posted. Voting will continue for the first week of April, ending on April 8th at 16:00 UTC. That's a little over a week to vote, and a time of day when most TCSers will be awake. The story with the highest vote wins.
- The winning story will be featured on the front page of the site under the name of the winning author. Every story will be kept in the Fridge, and the posters changed to the authors of the story, and the thread unlocked for comment.
- Questions, confusion and disputes will be handled by Kate and Marcuse, please PM them for clarification or to report any problems.
Theme - The theme of this contest will be TCS: Weird? Yes! But we thought this was a good theme to kick off the relaunch of the writing contest, especially since April is our four year anniversary and this means the winning entry will be up and running. There is no conceivable way this could end in tears.
Here are some guidelines, since this is such a vague theme:
- We are all real people behind our usernames; if you mention users, do so in a respectful way. This is not an opportunity to bully, harass, or even poke fun at someone. Because this has so much potential to go south, we will absolutely err on the side of users who do not want to be included and reserve the right to change any identifying information and give you the option of either keeping your story on the site with the changes or pulling your story entirely. This does not mean you cannot make a story about your best TCS friend saving the world, but if they ask us to remove their name, we will. So please be careful to keep this is good, respectful fun. If you're not sure whether someone will appreciate a mention or inclusion, it's never a bad idea to ask them about it in advance.
- In the same vein, do not put any users into sexual situations in your story.
- Does it need to be about people on TCS? Not at all! Something that is distinctly TCS just needs to be involved. It can be a story all about this forum, or it could be someone reading an article that was published on TCS long ago or someone just mentioning they visit this forum. It can even be period appropriate; maybe your characters stumble upon a pub called Ye Olde Commente Fection (I know, I know, I read the article too, just give me this one) or travel to planet USLAE.
- This means it can be basically any genre you want, but keep in mind that we are going to ask people to judge based partially on how well they think TCS was woven into the story.
A note on critique - it is often preferable to seek the critique of other people before posting something to a contest, this is true here. However, for those critiquing, please remember to keep your points constructive and designed to help the author improve their piece. This is advice for private crit, and strongly advised for post-contest comment. We’re meant to be building up here, not tearing down.
The contest will officially begin on the 1st of March, submissions will be due by the end of the day on the 31st of March, and the voting will close on the 8th of April. So what are you waiting for? Get writing!