xie_xie_xie (xie_xie_xie) wrote in qaf_challenges, @ 2008-12-29 14:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | small things made large |
Small things made large: Another challenge in two parts
Hello! I'm here to announce a new challenge! Like the last one, it will be in two parts -- and the first part is something almost everyone can participate in!
As Mark Twain said and Brian Kinney would no doubt agree, "Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising." There's no advertising involved in this challenge, but we're going to see just what large things can come out of the inspiration of something very, very tiny.
Phase One:
ETA: Phase One is now over. The master list of drabbles from Phase One, which are the prompts for this challenge, is here.
In the first phase, you are invited to submit a drabble -- a story of exactly one hundred words -- that will be used as a prompt to suggest or inspire a full-length fic. You can write a drabble whether or not you plan on writing a longer fic.
I hope that even those of you who rarely or never write will submit a drabble as a prompt. C'mon... it's only a hundred words!
You may submit up to three drabbles, but they have to stand alone as individual drabbles, not a series.
When you submit them, please include your LJ or IJ username (and indicate which it is) in the email to me, even if I know you well, so I can copy and paste. If you don't have a journal on either site, please indicate how you want to be identified and if you have another blog, journal, or site that I should link to when authors are revealed.
You may title your drabble but you don't have to. You don't need to format your drabbles, and do not include timeline, rating, or other usernotes. The drabble needs to speak entirely for itself here. That's part of the challenge.
Exception: Please inform me in your submission email if a drabble contains major or minor character death.
You do not need to sign up for the first phase; just submit your drabble(s) to me via email at xie.kay@gmail.com no later than Friday, January 9, 2009 at 11:59 PM Pacific TIme (California). There will be a ten minute grace period. Please paste your drabble(s) right into the email rather than attaching a file.
All submissions will get a response, so if you don't get one, please post here and let me know!
I will post the drabbles anonymously on Saturday, January 10.
Early submissions are VERY welcome.
Phase Two:
Authors will select any drabble(s) and use it/them to inspire a story or stories of any length longer than 500 words.
Authors are welcome to submit both drabbles and longer fics for this challenge, but may not write for their own drabbles.
Authors may write for as many of the drabbles as they wish -- in fact, authors are encouraged to write for all of them if they want to! Now THAT'S a challenge!
Authors may not use multiple drabbles for a single chapter of a story, but they may use a different drabble for each chapter of a multi-chapter story, as long as each chapter is in a separate post.
Full length stories will be due on Friday, February 20 March 6, at 11:59 PM Pacific (California, United States) time. There will be a ten minute grace period.
Email fics to xie.kay@gmail.com.
All submissions will get a response, so if you don't get one, please post here and let me know!
Stories will be posted anonymously on Saturday, February 21 March 7.
Requirements and headers for fics in Phase Two of the challenge:
Full length fics in phase two must be sent as an attached .txt or .doc file ONLY. No other format is allowed.
You have to format your fic with all HTML for italics, etc., as well as with a cut. Please post it in your own journal privately first to make sure it looks how you want it to and the cut works. Ask your beta to help you if you don't know how to do that.
Header must be like this for phase two fics in this challenge:
<B>Title:</B> Your Title Here
<B>Author:</B> Your name or username here
<B>Drabble:</B> The number of the drabble you used (they will be numbered when posted)
<B>Notes:</B> Timeline, warnings, author's notes, thank your beta, and any other comments you want to include. This section is optional, but if your fic contains major or minor character death, you must warn for it.
In the body of the story itself, at the top, please include the ENTIRE DRABBLE that inspired the story, in italics, which you create this way:
<i>Text of drabble. Text of drabble. Text of drabble.
Text of drabble.Text of drabble. Text of drabble. Text of drabble.</i>
Other Rules
Sign-ups are not required for the drabble phase, but please sign up here before January 16, 2009 if you will be writing for phase 2. Late sign-ups are allowed, but due to certain complications of the two-part challenges, please let me know the minute you think you'll be writing, and if you have to drop out, let me know that as soon as possible, too!
Stories must follow the general rules posted here. These rules include a few things that are not allowed in these challenges, including certain pairings and themes, so please read them carefully before writing your stories!
Note that this challenge has slightly different times when stories are due than outlined in the general rules. Entries for this challenge will be handled in accordance with this post rather than the general rules, so if there is a conflict, go by what is in this post. Otherwise the general rules apply.
All full-length fics must be beta'd. If you are not a native speaker of English, please use a beta who is. Certainly no fic will be returned for a typo or two, but fics that are obviously unbeta'd will not be posted until you've corrected them. If you need a beta, you can find one here! Thanks for understanding!
The Reveal
On Wednesday, February 25 March 11, 2009, the authors of the drabbles and the longer works will be revealed. At that time, all fiction can be crossposted to your own journals or other sites. Until then, please don't reveal yourself as the author or post them anywhere.
Please sign up by commenting to this post, and ask any questions you have here as well! And please spread the word; I will accept submissions from users with journals on either IJ or LJ, or from those who don't participate in the journaling communities and have no journals. This challenge is open to all.
If you're willing to beta, please volunteer here!
I'm so looking foward to this!
Xie