Well!!! ARE YOU!!!

Like the description says, is there interest in me putting together another fiction contest? I'll run it like the last one, which I felt had some great entries. You newbies could hit the link in my sig, but I know how fraggin' lazy some people are so here's a quick run down.

I'll wait until I get 10 entries. Why 10 you may ask? Well you may. Because then I can put the titles in a poll format and let you Dumpshockers, many who I don't even know have a chance to vote for the winner and the articulate among you plead your case for your favorite(s) and try to influence my decision. Why 10? Because when I didn't put a limit on number I once got a single entry that I had issues with. I think with 10, at least one entry will be what I am looking for. Why 10? Why not? If this happens, I keep the forums updated on receiving submissions, so authors know how little time may be left.

Right up front - the PRIZE will probably be a FIRST or SECOND EDITION BOOK. The bad news, it may take a few weeks for me to get it as I am traveling the US. The good news, I may be able to deliver it in person as I am traveling the US. If I can't or you don't want to have me deliver it in person, the winner is responsible for shipping cost. I feel this is fair and opens the contest world wide. I had one winner feel I should pay the shipping because the amount was insignificant to him. Complain to me about an amount you feel is insignificant?

I will post the stories without the authors name until the contest has ended and a winner declared, to try to keep the voting on the merits of the work not your feelings toward an author.

All submissions should be unpublished, including posted on websites. I used to search for shadowrun fiction a lot more than I have lately, but I have thrown out at least one submission because I saw it posted elsewhere. I also invite everyone to rat you out, so hopefully you have to sneak it past the entire community. If no one has read it, was it really posted to the web? I don't ask for rights to your stories and neither does it become the property of Dumpshock. (That was clarified a while back by Adam Jury.)

Is there interest? OK. Is there interest from authors?

Do we want to specify a topic?

Suggestions?

..Well I know I'm interested do you have a min/max word count?

I had a great time the last time so count me in...

I think I go with... long enough to tell the story, short enough to keep us interested. But no min/max word count. Check previous stories and you can get a feel for length. A few seemed painfully long, and some seemed unfinished.

Really though, I'd rather see if there is much interest first before getting into details. If you must have details, go through the link in my sig and see how I did it in the past. It will probably be similar this time.

So here I was sitting here (crouching actually, I just spayed my chair with febreeze) going, "A story? A shadowrun story? What would I write?" And then realized that I don't have to write anything. I've already got the campaign log (in Film Noir format) from...I think it was the only 3e game I played. I wouldn't expect anyone to read the whole thing--it's 102 pages long in 12 point single spaced Times New Roman--though I hear it's quite good (I unfortunately never found the time to read most of it). I would also happily forward the prize--if won--to the actual author, though I'd have to get his address, he moved to Tennessee.

I'm in on this alone, just for the off chance it's Shadowbeat.

If it won't be Shadowbeat just don't say so kthx

Y'know I picked up Shadowbeat at a used bookstore last week for 5$.

Slightly more on topic: I would be interested in trying my hand at a writing contest.

I second the motion.

i'm in. I'm not a fast writer tho so how long does it usually take to get 10 subs?

I'm ready. I recommend against a theme or topic, because reading ten stories about the same thing will be boring.

I usually let the winner suggest titles, and Shadowbeat is a title I have Multiple copies of so I could fill that request.


Seems like 3 months. I usually get 2 or 3 right away, probably already written, but not yet shared. Then a few trickle in over the next couple months until there is only a few slots left, then they get filled within a few weeks. But since it has been a while, and authors may have anticipated another contest - you never know.

The last time I saw Shadowbeat in a bookstore was a week after it came out, and I was short on cash. It disappeared a week later, and I've only ever seen it on eBay and Amazon since.

I know it's worthless and overrated, and if I was super serious hardcore I'd've spent the all of $7 on Amazon for a used copy, but it's the one that got away, man. Nostalgia! Winning it would be karmic justice.

Worthless, overrated karmic justice, but still.

Tisoz:

You started this thread asking, "Is there interest?" You haven't said yet if there is or is not a contest being conducted right now. Is there?

Oh, I grok ya. I have one of those. One of these days I am going to have a coffee at starbucks in seattle. Every time I've been in seattle I never quite got around to it. One of these days man...

Hi,

I would love to join. Get me something to do during the hot nights here in Libya. However, saying "Shadowrun fiction! Go!!!" for me is unstimulating. I would like a word count - and a topic. It does not need to be a really restrictive topic, but it needs to be something gripping.

Best/Worst Day in Seattle.

Toy Soldiers

Why you should not drink the water.

Machines are water to the oil of mages.

The chip-Chop Note

etc.

If you do, you have to find the Starbucks just south of Pioneer Square (Renraku Archology, IIRC) and visit the one with the original more mature logo out front.

Also nearby (besides a tour of the Orc Underground--er I mean, the Seattle Underground) is The Mystery Bookshop.

The contests with assigned topics got the fewest entries and the most abuse. Like "Where were you on the Night of Rage?", got a story about drinking in a bar and minute, tangental, sporadic accounts heard from a trid broadcast about riots. Not the Fiction I hoped for where the writer puts his characters in the thick of things on the docks of Seattle. In fact I'd have to check to see if ANY story was set on the Seattle docks or the buses carrying the metahumans down to the warehouses. I've had a few PCs that lived through the Night of Rage and tell about it in their backstory, one even takes responsibility for perhaps starting the riot. I was hoping for something along those lines, so felt kind of taken advantage of.

If you want a topic, I can assign you one I'd like to read about, but not everyone is going to desire to write about it. One of the first rules of writing is writing about what you know. Not everyone knows all the little things about Shadowrun. I'd like to see a story from the POV of a serious Rigger. I'd like to see some about astral quests, but I am sure someone would take the opportunity to take a story set anywhere and say it was on a metaplane with a paragraph getting there and another at the end getting them back. I'd like to see stories set in the history of Shadowrun, from a few years in the future after the awakening - really more in the time when shadowrunners arise - about historical events - I have a story in mind about a character I have written about that was on Flight 329 (I think that was it) that gets attacked by a gragon and goes down. Since it is a part of the official history, I'll probably have a third person telling it like an urban myth or ghost story around a campfire, thus just that persons assertion of what happened.

I hope you see the problem with assigning topics. If you NEED topic suggestions, just ask.

Word Count. I've read some stories that were very short and very well done. Others should have been shorter, as in left blank. Some 1000 page novels are hard to put down as they keep your interest heightened and you can't help but keep turning pages. I'm afraid if I assign a word count, I'll get padded stories, or some great stories won't be submitted because they can't and shouldn't be edited down to save space.

That's why I suggest it be long enough to tell the story. This kind of discourages just the cool scene submission, which is sometimes the majority of what I got. I also suggest it be short enough to hold our interest. If someone submits a novel length story that people just can't stop reading (or can't wait to get back to if they MUST take a break), then I think everyone will appreciate the submission - even if it takes them a week to get through it. Hopefully there's more to like and earns you kudos when voting time comes, but there's also more chances to have weak spots that people will criticize and a shorter submission may not have any weak spots.

I would take a look at the old contests and see what seems to work in this format. There are polls attached for people to vote their favorites and people did comment on the stories. What worked then is probably what will work now.

I'll happily send you the film noir logs written by one of the players. Just tell me where. I hope you enjoy them (and Jim keeps telling me I need to read them--I just don't have the time).

I would like to give me a few topics. I will personally see about word count, but it will not be anymore than 3000 words (if I can't say it in six pages, I doubt I can say it in 60).

I'd say something along that line should be posted to the vignettes thread or in the Welcome to the Shadows section. I'd like stories with story structure.


I'll think about this today and give you some topics tonight.

Cool. Now I have a bunch more stuff to do in seattle. Too bad it's three hours away and I don't drive. Ah, well. C'est la vie, at least for me.

I've been sitting on an interesting one I've been doing to get back into writing shape. It'll give me incentive to finish it. Let me know when you want it by and you can count me in.

Halloween
Finding an abandoned baby
Enchanting an item
doing laundry where it would earn karma
retrieving incriminating information from a vehicle in the Lone Star impound yard
Having a run go bad, getting shot up (figure about 3/4 dmg filled), on foot, and left alone with opposition looking for you, and the tendency for aninmals to attack the weak and injured.

I'll probably throw my hat in the ring as well. RL is kicking my butt right now so we'll see.

I just realized that the arc involving Kerenshara, just in terms of posted bits in the Vignette Thread is well over 13,000 words. That's over a quarter of the way to being a legitimate entry level novel.

Tisoz:

The suggestions in your last post are optional, right?

I will think over the options and most likely come up with my own list of possible topic titles.

I liked your ideas in the beginning about a metaplanar quest or something similar.

The problem I have with the list mentioned is that they are entirely goal oriented, they answer the questions "how to..." or "what to..." . More specifically, heist stories are entirely built on those lines. More generally, you have a puzzle, which needs to be solved.

The other problem is a much more deeper one, I needed answering and something you have mentioned before. "My summer" in the Vignette thread is an exemplar of this problem. I can take the entire story and put it in 1970, 2007 or 2070, with some minor modifications, it was written with Shadowrun in mind, but I feel is not Shadowrun, because impovrished children do not necessarily have access to the technological culture of their time. It leads to the question: What is Shadowrun? Is a meta-planar quest written in a similar manner as the Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, well Shadowrun?

Halloween is goal oriented? I thought ot more a setting suggestion.

Finding a baby is a complication and could happen during a run, or on the way to or from a run.

Getting shot up is a complication.

I'll agree the others are objectives, but I tried to give a wide variety of suggestions. I thought Halloween might be perfect, especially if I can post the stories on Halloween or a day or so before. I just had a funny idea for a real challenge and that would be working all the suggestions into a single story.

I kept on thinking of Three Men and a Baby, and its Animal House remake, in which the entire premise of the plot turns around "how do you get rid of a baby". But agreed Halloween is a setting.

I will still think about the options tonight, but now I want to buy food.

Ta-ta.

-Chrysalis

I've been looking for something to write...got this sweet typewriter sitting on my desk, fully restored...and this is a great way to put it to use!

Tisoz:

Are your theme and idea suggestions optional, or required?

Are you wanting topic suggestions for motivational purposes, or ... See last quote.


If that gets you writing - fine. But you are going to need to re-enter/re-type the story to electronic format, or am I envisioning a LOT older type writer? (Like from back in my college days.)


I thought they were optional.

I do like the idea of Halloween as a topic or tie in though. It would be nice to get the stories all up a few days prior to Halloween or on Halloween and have them entertain us on the day.

As of this moment, NO, there is not a required topic or required tie in.

Yeah, you are envisioning the right thing...1946 typewriter...

And yeah, I will certainly be getting you an electronic format for my final draft.

Are we doing this or putting it on hold to let the fiction go to other formats? Those formats being Knasser's anthology of fiction project and collections of fiction, and the newly proposed Webzine Bull is querying about.

I have no preference, but the other venues will likely carry a bit more prestige for the submitter.

42,000 words for the log of either the only 3e game I ever played or my first 4e (I don't remember which). God Jim wrote a lot.
80% of a novel?

Hai.

Next time I get a chance I'll see if I or he can post it to the forums.
Gotta make sure it's ok with him and all that.

Tisoz, your post of Aug 22nd, beginning, "Are we doing this", has confused me. Do I understand correctly that this contest is on? I have my entry ready. How do I go about submitting it?

it's looking like tisoz will be the editor for the new dumshock fanzine's fiction segments. you may wish to submit to that instead, since he'll probably be fairly busy with that

Tisoz:

Is that the case? The contest is nixed in favor of the Data Haven?

Nope, I volunteered to help, but haven't heard anything back and looks like they are using others.


That is what I was asking. About the time I asked about interest a couple of Fan Fiction venue projects were bandied about. One was the Data Haven, as it is now named, and the other was a fiction anthology by Knasser (who seems to be one of the main outside editors chosen by Bull and Caine Hazen for the Data Haven.)

I have no problem putting together the contest, IF there is interest. I will wait to get 10 submissions, but don't want the contest to languish if the majority of those that planned to contribute would rather see their work elsewhere.

I'll take submissions by Personal Messenger through Dumpshock.
Please make it easy on me in the following ways -

• Use 2009 Fiction Contest as Subject of PM.
• Please create a Title for your story. This is how it will be listed to be voted upon.
• To get it copied into the Contest Thread, I use the quote funtion to reveal the coding and enable it to copy. (Things like italics, bold and paragraph breaks.) So the way it appears in the PM is largely the way it is going to look when I copy it.
• If you send updated versions, add 1.0, 2.1, etc. sort of descriminator in the subject line and I'll only keep and use the highest numbered version.
• If you want it proof read or edited, I can do it and others have volunteered. If you send it to me for this DO NOT use Fiction Contest as subject, just say EDIT and include a note about what you would like me to do. I have seen some potential to make a so-so story really good (IMO) and have suggested some big changes in the past that I think scared off the author, but I was shooting for memorable, not just acceptable.

If there's more questions, just ask.

As of this moment, I have no stories submitted. I would encourage you to make the submission a story and not just a vignette. There is an outlet for vignettes if that is all you feel capable of, but I'd rather not have a slot taken by one over a complete story. I think voters will feel the same.

Hey I have a few emails I haven't caught up on. The websites taking a little longer than I was hoping to get up, and I was hoping to be able to post up some general submission guidelines there, to save me from repeating a whole pile of info 20 times

Anyways, if you sent an email recently, I may not have gotten to it. If it was before that, I don't think I got it. Please resend (dsdatahaven@gmail.com) if you can or still want. Even if we don't use you right away, Real Life crops up and we may need people to step in or fill in down the line.

Anyways, as for the fiction contest, keep going with it. We don't want to compete with anyone for Shadowrun material. We'd rather there be multiple outlets for this stuff. The more people out there creating Shadowrun material, the better! Plus, we're likely only going to have a couple stories per issue, and the issues are only coming out every 2 months. And with the amount of fiction floating around, there needs to be better outlets than just one.

Finally, and this will answer a couple questions (Though I'll handle this individually as well), regarding fiction (and other) submissions for the DH Data Haven... Yes, you can still submit something for the magazine even if it's something you posted to Dumpshock, or submitted to something like Tisoz's fiction contest, providing tisoz' doesn't mind, and providing the contest you submitted it for is over. Something like Knasser's anthology, again, I'd say is partly up to him, but for my own part, as far as I'm concerned, you retain all rights to anything you publish in the DSDH. Which means you can submit that material anywhere else, no questions asked on my part (It's none of my damn business, really )

For my part, I don't want to "Scoop" anyone, especially in the case of the fiction contest. So anything you want to submit there, wait till that's over to send my way, that's the only thing I would ask

If, of course, that material's been submitted somewhere and seen official print and there may be any question of copyright issues (Magazine, official products, etc), that's another story. We're a simple fan zine done by a bunch of volunteers, and we'd like to avoid potential legal issues, or Cease & Desist letters

Bull

I have received the first submission, so I guess the game is afoot!

Tisoz:

Have you gotten any more submissions?

I'll give it a go, if you allow me. I'll need some explaining about how and what and where and such.
I'm totally not expecting to win though. I'll PM it to you.

Come on! Where's your story? I was counting on you.


It could be.


Where's the Story?


Several months, apparently.


I want it last week.


Come on, guys. Where's the stories?


That typewriter is so sorrowful, not getting to clickity clack out a Shadowrun story.


No.


I'll take submissions by Personal Messenger through Dumpshock.

Please make it easy on me in the following ways -

Use 2009 Fiction Contest as Subject of PM.

Please create a Title for your story. This is how it will be listed to be voted upon.

To get it copied into the Contest Thread, I use the quote funtion to reveal the coding and enable it to copy. (Things like italics, bold and paragraph breaks.) So the way it appears in the PM is largely the way it is going to look when I copy it.

If you send updated versions, add 1.0, 2.1, etc. sort of descriminator in the subject line and I'll only keep and use the highest numbered version.

If you want it proof read or edited, I can do it and others have volunteered. If you send it to me for this DO NOT use Fiction Contest as subject, just say EDIT and include a note about what you would like me to do. I have seen some potential to make a so-so story really good (IMO) and have suggested some big changes in the past that I think scared off the author, but I was shooting for memorable, not just acceptable.

Very interested. I am a casual writer, as are most people looking at this post and willl be submitting my piece within the next couple of days. Thanks for this incredible opportunity to get my brain working again.

I'll finish up something this weekend and get it to you and I may have a friend with one as well.

bump.

This needs more attention than people are giving it, seems like too much fun to go to waste.

2 stories are in.

Tisoz,

Any new submissions come in?