I thought that with a fair number of people on this site interested in science fiction it might be interesting to run a short story competition. Perhaps we could have a similar set up to the debate forum, with an area to vote and discuss the stories.

 

I'm interested in the level of support, and any suggestions about how you'd like to work.

I would be most interested in partaking in said competition (though what little writing skills I have).

 

I would say as many people can enter as they want. You submit the stories to the person running the competition who would make a thread, and attach the stories to the thread. The winner would be decided by a user vote.

Perhaps a prize could be offered? And a word limit range as well?

I want to start small with this idea, having this one competition, but there is enough Staff interest that this could become a quarterly event or even have an ongoing forum of it's own. For now let's imagine it as a yearly competition.

 

I'm reluctant to limit or constrain the number of words but I'm also concerned that someone will dump a 97 page effort they wrote in junior high on us. I suppose we should have an upper limit, though.

 

Prizes are tough since we're not charging for this so someone's got to pony up the dough for anything we give away. I guess I could donate a set of steak knives for second place.

I want to start small with this idea' date=' having this one competition, but there is enough Staff interest that this could become a quarterly event or even have an ongoing forum of it's own. For now let's imagine it as a yearly competition.

 

I'm reluctant to limit or constrain the number of words but I'm also concerned that someone will dump a 97 page effort they wrote in junior high on us. I suppose we should have an upper limit, though.

 

Prizes are tough since we're not charging for this so someone's got to pony up the dough for anything we give away. I guess I could donate a set of steak knives for second place. [/quote']

 

I meant some sort of forum prize. A temporary custom user title perhaps, higher PM limit... something of that nature.

 

The rest of your ideas sound good to me.

How about a custom avatar, like a trophy? I dunno, something cool looking with "winner of the 2006 sci fi comp" on it.

OOo! maybe I can try this to see if I can get my idea to work.

 

I would be pleased in getting first. A natural reward!

 

...but if your still in suggestion for the literacy forum, you could make the prize moderation of a sub-section, like creative writing. I think if you get enough contestants, the winner surely would be qualified. Or maybe have like the top 5 winners put into a vote for moderation.

 

Then again I doubt yall want voted in moderators.

Sounds like fun, though I'll have to come up with something new, since my current work in progress probably exceeds just about any word limit (45K words and growing).

 

Mokele

I'd be interested

We going to do this? I have something written for it...I mean, its crap on a stick, but I'll still submit it. After all, you all don't have anything better to do than reading my horrible short stories.

We going to do this? I have something written for it...I mean, its crap on a stick, but I'll still submit it.

Hey, Crap on a Stick is the name of *my* short story!

mine has become far too violent and gorey for kids to read so i don't think i can post it here. although it is incredibly funny to the sick minded

Ahaha, post it anyway. Those damn kids need to grow up sometime and if you can't learn to fly by jumping off a cliff, then you deserve to be eaten by lemmings. Which is actually the topic of my story.

It's a shame that maths is my only real area of knowlege. I would however, quite like to write something based on this premise:

Hahaha!! It took me about 1o minutes, but I finally got it! Nice one!

So, any more plans on this? Or perhaps we could just have a new portion of the forum for creative endavors of the members, science-related and otherwise?

 

Mokele

Hmm... Perhaps a forum for SciFi, with a subforum for commenting on the stories as they develop. We should, somehow, restrict posting in the SciFi threads there to the writer only.

Sounds fun; I'd be more than happy to post my major WIP in installments. Perhaps we should just have one big forum, though, to include both written works and other artistic endeavors. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one here who does something creative.

 

Incidentally, the portions I've edited and polished so far are up at my dA page: http://mokele.deviantart.com/

 

Mokele

I wrote this for a class last semester. But, I'll enter it here. It's not great but, STFU.

 

It's ~5,400 words.

 

PS... I also have some sci-fi shorts on my blog (see my sig.)

I think, if there's going to be a competitive aspect to it, it might be more interesting to put strict limitations on the writing. For example, what's the best story you can write in under 500 words? What's the best story you can write from the perspective of a single brick? etc.

 

Not only would that sort of thing lend itself more easily to comparison, but it would be more likely to produce something interesting from amateur writers, which, I'm assuming, we pretty much all are. Plus, severe restriction is excellent practice in becoming a better writer, which is a good idea, since, frankly, the VAST majority of science fiction is ATROCIOUSLY written. For some reason science geeks tend to think that, despite the years and years it took them to become competent in their fields, they can still write well on a whim...

 

I'm not talking about any of you specifically, BTW. I intentionally didn't read anyone's work before complaining about terrible sci fi writers in general...

I think, if there's going to be a competitive aspect to it, it might be more interesting to put strict limitations on the writing. For example, what's the best story you can write in under 500 words? What's the best story you can write from the perspective of a single brick? etc

 

This is a great idea... it adds some structure and purpose. Plus we can have recurrent competition with different themes.

I'm simply worried that we won't get enough participation, as the debate forum has suffered from.

I wrote this for a class last semester. But, I'll enter it here. It's not great but, STFU.

 

I quite liked it; nicely original, a bit of Frankenstien mixed with a bit of Metropolis (the film, not the city).

 

As far as contests, they could be good, if enough people participate, but maybe just a section for creative endeavors in general, where people can post stuff as they please.

 

Mokele

I quite liked it; nicely original, a bit of Frankenstien mixed with a bit of Metropolis (the film, not the city).

 

Thank you very much, sir

I just read it too. Sounds like it could be the opening scene for a sci-fi action movie. Very cool!

 

As a short story though, are you trying to make any political statements? As in, it might be better to be blissfully ignorant than enlightened but paranoid?

I'd have severe delusions of grandure if I claimed to be remotely talented, but I'll submit none the less.