Writing Contest - pick a theme! Voting open thru Oct 12

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Which Writing Contest Challenge Would You Most Like To See Next?

Poll ended at Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:46 pm

Mystery (genre)
8
8%
Horror (genre)
4
4%
Fanfic (genre)
3
3%
Fantasy (genre)
5
5%
Superhero (genre)
5
5%
Essay Contest (genre)
6
6%
Stories That Must Rhyme (theme)
4
4%
Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopic (genre)
10
10%
Lovecraft - horror based entirely on the unknowable or wholly alien (genre)
5
5%
Horror/Spooky (theme)
4
4%
Comedy (genre)
3
3%
Parody (genre)
5
5%
Classics Retold - for example, the Ramayana or the Odyssey in our own words (genre)
6
6%
Ulysses Remembered: The James Joyce Memorial Stream-of-Consciousness Contest™ - (genre)
3
3%
Science Fiction (genre)
3
3%
Journal Entries (genre)
9
9%
"Reasons Why Dad Never Came Back When He Left To Buy a Pack of Cigarettes." (theme)
9
9%
Apocalypse Cult (theme)
6
6%
 
Total votes : 98

Writing Contest - pick a theme! Voting open thru Oct 12

Postby Kate » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:29 pm

TL;NGR: Okay, the poll options are up! You may vote for as many as you'd like. You are allowed to change your vote if you genuinely change your mind upon further reflection, please do not abuse this. This poll will close on Thursday, October 12th, at 11:59 PM EDT.

Hey guys! So as you may know, we sporadically do writing contests here on TCS and there's always a theme to keep things challenging. I thought perhaps it would be a great idea to get suggestions from all of you for potential themes for the next contest and then put up a poll where we can vote on them. The suggestion with the highest vote count will be the theme for the next writing contest, starting...well, starting the day after the poll closes. You have a week to make suggestions and then another week to vote on them.

Please, no suggestion is too silly, and repeats are entirely okay. We're going to try and keep our 13+ standards here, so anything that would only be appropriate for 18+ audiences is off limits, but any suggestion that is within the TCS rules is welcome!

Edit: I just got an excellent question about whether this is a genre or a theme.

We have done contests with both of those things before. If you have an idea for a genre you'd like (like, fantasy), that's great, just make a note that you mean the genre. If you have an idea for a theme you'd like (like, the future!!! - could be scifi set in the future, romance set in the future, stock brokers involved in futures trading, android stock brokers involved in futures trading in the future, etc.), also great, just make a note that you mean a theme. All suggestions that are within the rules will be put up as poll options.

Ideas So Far:

Mystery (genre)
Horror (genre)
Fanfic (genre)
Fantasy (genre)
Superhero (genre)
Essay Contest
Stories That Must Rhyme (theme)
Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopic (genre)
Lovecraft - horror based entirely on the unknowable or wholly alien (genre)
Horror/Spooky (theme)
Comedy (genre)
Parody (genre)
Classics Retold - for example, the Ramayana or the Odyssey in our own words (genre)Ulysses Remembered: The James Joyce Memorial Stream-of-Consciousness Contest™ - (genre)
Science Fiction (genre)
Journal Entries (genre)
"Reasons Why Dad Never Came Back When He Left To Buy a Pack of Cigarettes." (theme)
Apocalypse Cult (theme)




If I have thumbed your post with suggestions but failed to put your suggestion on the list or put the wrong category next to it, please PM me to let me know I made a mistake!
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby KleinerKiller » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:43 pm

We haven't done one for mystery stories yet, so that could be interesting. I'm also down for a second horror or fanfic contest.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby FaceTheCitizen » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:44 pm

...
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Learned Nand » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:48 pm

This isn't a specific theme or genre suggestion, but I think it would be nice to have an essay contest on some topic. Or, if not nice, it would at least be easier for me, because I can't write narrative.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Cpt._Funkotron » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:49 pm

How about stories that have to rhyme.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Learned Nand » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:49 pm

Cpt._Funkotron wrote:How about stories that have to rhyme.

I think writing one would take up too much time.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Marcuse » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:52 pm

I'm down for any of the options suggested by KK and Face. I'd throw the following into the hat:

Post apocalyptic/dystopic - I think it would be an interesting one, though a fantasy topic could reasonably include these as well. I see it as being predominantly about how human society recovers from a critical interruption or radical change to the normal working of everyday life.

Lovecraft - As in, some kind of horror based on the unknowable or wholly alien. Obviously, within the limits of a 13+ sphere.

I'm always down for more SF.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Cpt._Funkotron » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:52 pm

aviel wrote:
Cpt._Funkotron wrote:How about stories that have to rhyme.

I think writing one would take up too much time.


But when it work's, it's just sublime.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby 52xMax » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:59 pm

I think with Halloween approaching, it would make sense to run a horror. Mind you, it doesn't have to be all about ghosts and witches, so long as it's spooky, which can also lend itself to other genres such as mystery, thriller, supernatural or science fiction.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Kate » Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:17 am

One thing to keep in mind is that I was lazy and didn't write this until September 26th, which means the contest will probably start October 10th. Which means if we take 1 month it'll be over on November 10th. Or probably November 12th, since that's a Sunday and gives people an extra weekend. Add in a week to vote and that puts us as publishing the winner on November 19th.

Which is kind of horrifying in itself for Americans, because it means soon we'll be eating turkey and trying very hard not to discuss Trump with our relatives.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby sunglasses » Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:30 am

aviel wrote:This isn't a specific theme or genre suggestion, but I think it would be nice to have an essay contest on some topic. Or, if not nice, it would at least be easier for me, because I can't write narrative.



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Survival, man. Man vs Penguin. Man vs a destroyed world inhabited only by the shells of holiday coffee cups and #1 Teacher mugs. Man vs Sentient Rock Em Sock Em Robots. Searching for a can of vienna sausages as you hide from the giant mutated slugs that have taken over the world just to discover that YOU are actually a giant mutated slug. Wait, no, that's a different genre.

I think I watch too many bad movies.

I like lots of these idears, especially Marc's. I mean, if you think about it Day of the Triffids was Sci-fi/apocalyptic/survival.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Kate » Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:37 am

One more thing! Just to try and be thorough, I'm going to start keeping a running list in the first post. If I have thumbed your post with suggestions but failed to put your suggestion on the list or put the wrong category next to it, please PM me to let me know I made a mistake!
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby CarrieVS » Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:43 am

Proposing Comedy or Parody, purely because I have an idea already.
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby Ladki96 » Wed Sep 27, 2017 5:05 am

Can we do one where we retell our respective culture/religion's myths and epics or really any big literature in our own words :-) make it funny, comment on absurd plotlines, up the epic parts with fireballs and stuff, etc. We had a previous kinda-sorta plan to narrate the Ramayana in a series of articles, but since we don't seem to do articles nowadays I wonder if we can do that in this contest? Obviously it won't be as huge an enterprise any more, just a small part of the story, like just for example, a couple of cantos from Book I of The Faerie Queene ^^
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Re: Writing Contest - pick a theme! Suggestions open thru 1

Postby ghijkmnop » Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:14 pm

Redacted
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