How the Game Works

[Alice]

Post updated 1/13/2007:

These rules are subject to change any time the members of this board decide to change them.  So check back in every so often to make sure they haven't changed on you.


Overview:

We challenge you to write a scene, chapter, or story that makes use of a premise we have all agreed on.  (Go to Premises to discuss ideas for the polls).

The premise will be selected through polls set up in
The Polling Booth under  The Writing Game.   You have a limited amount of time - typically two weeks - in which to write and submit your entry. 

Entries are submitted via e-mail to Submissions.  Submissions work best as an attachment to your mail (.rtf, .txt, or .doc).  Formatting must be explicitly included in your work, even if it is a Word or WP document.   The moderator team will post your story to the Submissions board.  See this thread for formatting instructions.

The winning submission will be chosen through polls set up at the top of each submission.  The highest average will win.  In the event of a tie, a run-off will be held in The Polling Booth.

You must be logged in to vote, and you must vote before you can see the current standings. 

We strongly encourage everyone, whether voting or not, to leave comments on the submissions.  The most valuable part of our game for writers is the feedback!  To leave feedback (please make sure criticism is constructive!]  You must be logged OUT (a guest) to leave comments on the submissions.

When the deadline is reached, the winner will be announced in The Winner's Circle. 

We will then select the next challenge - either a scene, a short story, or a novella.  Suggestions made in Premise in The Writing Game will be converted into a poll, and we will vote for the next premise.  When the challenge is a more than one chapter long, the next premise will be based on the winning chapter until the number of chapters agreed on has been reached.  And thus the cycle begins again.

Picking nits:

If you want to out yourself in Shameless Self Promotion you may do so, but not in the submissions forum.  We encourage authors to log out and post "advertisements" for their submissions (you can be creative in the name you use as a guest poster, but don't make it obvious who you are, please!). 

Any submission that has no apparent relation to the premise may be moved into And The Beat Goes On by the moderators.

To make comments on a submission (you are strongly encouraged to do so)  simply add a reply to the post in which the submission is made.  You must do so as guest (and please don't use your real name/email when posting!  Mods will fix it if we notice you've left a breadcrumb trail accidentally).

Make only comments applicable to a submission in the Submissions forum.  Comments that appear to be a vicious attack or which have nothing to do with the submission may be deleted by the moderators.  There are other places in which to discuss the weather or someone else's submission. 

Authors are NOT encouraged to reply to comments.  Flame wars under a submission may result in the deletion of the submission.  Discuss your concerns about a comment in the chapter discussion forum, should you feel you must. 

Revisions of a submission should be posted and registered the same way as a regular submission with a notation on the PM that it is a revision.  Limit 1 revision per submission per round.  We will *replace* your current text with the revised text, but existing comments and votes will remain in place.

Winners are determined by polling results, which are final as of 11:59 pm Central Standard Time on the day listed as closing date, or as soon as the moderators can get to it.  Since we don't have whiz-bang software to do the calculations for us, it takes a couple of hours to get the finalist results and review them before posting. 

You do not have to enter any particular challenge in order to be a part of the game.  You do, however, have to be a registered member of this forum.

There are no prizes, merely the knowledge that you are the best.

ALL COPYRIGHTS REMAIN WITH THE AUTHOR!!!  This means you must get permission before copying any portion of anything posted on this board, be it in current or past submissions or anything under And The Beat Goes On.

Each challenge will have it's own rules regarding deadlines, length, etc.  Check back in this thread for rule updates.

[Alice]

We are going to place a poll on each submission.  Finalists will be drawn from those with the best average poll and placed in a poll in the Voting Booth.  The poll will be used to pick the winner.

[Alice]

To Submit 

Email your sub to fanlit-subs@chrisjournal.com, and we'll post them from the Submissions moderator account.  Remember:  10k characters!

To Vote (or to see scores)

Log in.  Read sub.  Vote on sub.  Log out to comment, if you so desire.  Please don't use a "real" name or email address when commenting! (PM a mod if you make a mistake and want us to fix it)

Suggested Voting Guidelines

1 -- Needs significant work and does not serve the premise.
2 -- Serves the premise, but needs significant work in one or more areas.
3 -- Generally meets requirements, is well-written, but is lacking in "something special."
4 -- Meets requirements, is well-written, and has at least one "something special."
5 -- I would pay money for this!

About Self-Promotion

We've made a home for self-promotion right here in the Submissions area.  You have to be logged out to post to this area.  Mods will keep an eye on other areas of FF and move any self-promo type action here, to keep it together.

Need help?

PM any mod:  Submissions, Alice, Chris, Kelly, and Cat have the most time right now.  Skirbo will be along when HarperTeen slows down a bit.

[Alice]

Challenge - A single event.  Think of a challenge as being equivalent to all that we did on Avon FanLit.  Next time Avon holds a FanLit contest will be their Challenge 2.  The time after that will be their Challenge 3.  We're a little quicker than they are. 

Round - Each time we go through the process of coming up with a topic, submitting, voting, and announcing a winner is a round. 

Chapter - a round within a challenge.  If we elect to have a 6 chapter challenge then there will be six rounds.  Each round will build off the previous until on the 6th round the story ends, that being the final chapter.

Premise - the subject that must be addressed in a round.  In the case of Challenge 1 the premise was "A woman finds a strange necklace."

[Alice]

The current challenge is always listed in the Winner's Circle under FanLit the Writing Game.  It can also be found under Schedules and Announcements and occasionally other places.

Alice

[Alice]

Except where specifically stated in the rules of a given challenge there will be no restriction in genre, subgenre, setting, or time period.  Any such restriction has to be listed in each challenge where it applies.

Alice

[Chris]

We've had a rush of newcomers sign up to the board, so I thought I'd bump this topic to show up easily, and also remind folks that when the voting's done, everything *is* reviewed by two human beings to ensure that we don't have any scoring problems (accidental 0's, repetitive votes, etc.).  Any questions?  Just drop a note in the "Help" board, or PM or email a moderator (including me -- there's a little email link just to the left of this post under my name).

Welcome to all!

[Alice]

Please do not make us ban you by signing up for multiple accounts then giving yourself 5's.  We will simply remove all the votes from the tally anyway.  And yes, we can see it when you do that.

Alice

[Kelly]

PLEASE NOTE: All submitting authors please remember to insert the appropriate html tags in your submissions. It takes too much time for the moderators to double check each submission for proper html tags, and there's always the chance for something to be missed. Anytime you want to use italics, bold, underline, center, etc. in your submission, you must add the actual html tags.

Ex. To italicize, you must add [ i] [ /i] to your text.  [ i] goes at the beginning, and [ /i] goes at the end of the text you wish to italicize - it closes the html function).  Just leave out the extra space after the [ when you use the code in your work (we have to put it here so you can see the code to use).

Most commonly used tags for subs are:

Bold - [ b][ /b]
Italics - [ i][ /i]
Underline - [ u][ /u]
Center - [ center][ /center]

VERY IMPORTANT ***Remember, you must add the backslash to the closing tag, otherwise the function will go on indefinitely and be applied to every word that follows your opening tag.

Kelly