Short Story Contest 1 - Rules & Regulations

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 31 Jan 2007, 08:56

I assume you all are interested in having a short story contest? Well, we're going to have one. It's going to be simple. Participants submit their story to me privately before the deadline, via PM or email (scott@scotthughes.biz). Then, I'll post them on the website in the Short Story Contest category under the username 'anonymous'. Then, polling will be open for 2 weeks. At the end of the two weeks, the story with the best ratings wins and the author of the winning story receives a $20 online gift certificate to Barnes & Noble (bn.com).

To be keep the judging fair, the respective authors of the stories won't be revealed until after the contest is over. You must have at least 50 posts to submit a story.

Other rules:

-must be between 400 and 3000 words
-must be fiction
-no poetry, no essays allowed
-must be original, not published elsewhere
-only one submission per person
-correct spelling and grammar required

You can submit stories anytime in February. The deadline is March 1st, meaning that you must submit your story before March 1st to participate. Voting will be held for exactly 14 days after the stories are posted on March 1st.

Good luck, and have fun!

knightss · Post by **knightss** » 31 Jan 2007, 15:14

i like this =) good idea

LoveHatesYou · Post by **LoveHatesYou** » 31 Jan 2007, 15:27

nice- now i have to get my wonderful idea onto paper. I have it written in my head, all except the ending which I'm having some trouble with- and now I need to figure it out and enter! Thanks Scott!

pubspk · Post by **pubspk** » 07 Feb 2007, 17:31

Hi there:

Are children's books allowed in the contest?

Jerry

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 07 Feb 2007, 20:16

pubspk wrote:Hi there:

Are children's books allowed in the contest?

Jerry

The stories are going to be rated by participants at these forums, who aren't children. Nonetheless, if you want to submit a children's short story, I don't see any problem.

daclawson2 · Post by **daclawson2** » 07 Feb 2007, 20:28

How can one find out how many posts he/she has made? Are you going to be exact on the number of posts?

~ Derek

knightss · Post by **knightss** » 07 Feb 2007, 23:12

on the left side, under your avatar (or picture) it has Join Date and underneath that is your total posts. you have 15 right now.

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 08 Feb 2007, 13:27

daclawson2 wrote:How can one find out how many posts he/she has made? Are you going to be exact on the number of posts?

~ Derek

Like knightss said, it's under your username on the left side of your posts.

I'm going to be exact, in that any person entering must have at least 50 posts. The contest is part of this online community, and it wouldn't be fair to the contributors to this community, if we allowed anyone to participate. The 50 post minimum will ensure that anyone participating in the contest is also a participants in the community.

Thanks,
Scott

daclawson2 · Post by **daclawson2** » 08 Feb 2007, 15:55

Awesome! Thanks alot.

Ggoodsell · Post by **Ggoodsell** » 11 Feb 2007, 13:00

Count me in!

DuchessAngel37 · Post by **DuchessAngel37** » 11 Feb 2007, 18:02

Okay, so I just have one question.

By original, not published elsewhere, do we mean actually PUBLISHED-published, or it is okay if I already put it up on my website?

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 12 Feb 2007, 09:58

DuchessAngel37 wrote:Okay, so I just have one question.

By original, not published elsewhere, do we mean actually PUBLISHED-published, or it is okay if I already put it up on my website?

Well, I would hope that the story was newly written for the contest.

Anyway, my main concern with publishing is copyrights. So, if it's only published on your website, just make a not of that with your website URL, so I know that it's yours when I do the copyright check.

ears · Post by **ears** » 15 Feb 2007, 09:13

Wow, great idea! I hope I get 50 posts in before the deadline so I can join the contest. The story is ready to go and I'll enter it as soon as I get 50 posts.

DuchessAngel37 · Post by **DuchessAngel37** » 15 Feb 2007, 15:23

Good news! I started a new story.

Make that, several stories.
Now it's just a matter of finishing at least one of them and then deciding which one to use.

And for the record, it's gonna be closer to 400 than 3000 words for me. If I have enough space to work with more than 1000 words, I tend to start going to deep into the plot, and that's how my novels are born.

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 28 Feb 2007, 10:12

Can you believe we've reached the end of February already?

Anyway, please note that I'm posting the stories tomorrow. If you haven't sent me your story yet, please make sure to do it today. If you email it, please send it as an attachment and include your username on the forums.

If you have already emailed me a story, you might want to make sure I got it by sending me a PM with the title of your story.

(I received a few stories without a username, but the sender never responded when I asked for their username.)

Feel free to PM me stories, rather than use email. It's up to you.

Thanks,
Scott