**THE CONTEST HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!**
**JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER, APPLICATIONS WILL NO LONGER BE ACCEPTED (10 JUNE 2013).**
UPDATE: There will be a wonderful incentive for those who are determined to write a wonderful fanfic, since it would be unfair to write ten chapters for only bragging rights. I introduce to you, the Grand Prize of the FQPBSSC -- POKEMON BLACK2 (NA*). 
The winning party will be PMed, asking for their most convenient mailing address, and from there, the prize will be shipped.
*Accommodations will be made for international winners. If you are located outside the United States, please notify me via PM.
UPDATE: LIST OF CONTESTANTS:
- RaichuGirl
James86134
DNA
Some Loser
Luckyfire
Rally
Game Over
Serperior
HypnoticChairman
Artemis
TheGuy
CloudlessRayne
First Quarterly PokéBeach Short Story Competition
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(II.)Image credit to Lftan | Dreamstime.com, edited by me...
First Quarterly Competition by Dustin DeVine
Hello, PokéBeach users. The Writing Café Staff is excited to invite you to join the First Quarterly PokéBeach Short Story Competition!
The competition must meet certain criteria for judging eligibility, which are as follows:
“I. Stories and their chapters cannot be shorter than 1,000 words in length (approximately two pages on MS Word).
A page is typically considered to be about 500 words long on Microsoft Word. As such, we require most stories to have at least 1,000 words per chapter. If you need to check your submission’s word count, please use this online word count tool or the “Word Count” option under Tools on Microsoft Word.
Prologues are exempt from this rule. However, prologues should be of reasonable length (namely, 300 words or longer) to be posted on their own. Likewise, poems under ten lines long cannot be posted in separate threads without more being added over time. Anything longer is fine, so long as many threads aren’t being posted within a short period of time (hours or days of each other).
*Violating this rule may result in closure of the fanfic, based on the moderator’s discretion. Continued violations will result in a 10% warning for spamming per offense.
II. Stories cannot exceed a PG-13 rating!
Anything that contains the constant use of strong profanity, heavy violence and depictions of death, an overzealous description of drug or alcohol use, or graphic sexuality without proper warnings will be locked or removed without question! Though we allow anything that you would see in PG-13 (or similarly rated) movies, we do not tolerate anything too graphic, immoral, unlawful, or obscene in stories. For specifics, check below.
a. Profanity: Mild swearing, such as hell, damn, dang, crap, and crud, that isn’t already censored automatically by the forum, are perfectly fine to use in fanfics without consequence. However, stronger swears (the f-word, the sh-word, the n-word, etc.) are only allowed when used sparingly. It is alright to edit them so that an asterisk replaces one vowel while the rest of the word remains intact, but finding a way to fully censor-jump the word isn’t allowed.
b. Violence and Death: Light to moderate violence is commonplace in Pokémon fan fiction, therefore referencing things such as occasional bleeding or bruising of characters is perfectly fine. Heavier violence such as gunshot wounds, gouging/goring/disfigurement of a character’s body-parts, and even depictions of death are also allowed to an extent. However, most of these things should either be infrequent or downplayed to where their descriptions aren’t leaving the full impression they would in something along the lines as an R-rated horror movie.
c. Drug/Alcohol Reference: Dark-sided fanfics occasionally have content where human characters are actually smoking or drinking for whatever reason. In the case of alcohol use, minor instances such as someone taking a swig from a can of beer or downing a shot of whiskey are perfectly acceptable, but it shouldn’t escalate to the point where he/she is actually getting drunk. Smoking, on the other hand, is fine so long as it’s on the lines of cigarettes, cigars, or tobacco pipes, but other types of drug use/reference (marijuana, heroin, cocaine, etc.) is strictly prohibited.
d. Insinuation: Insinuation typically involves characters talking about or displaying romantic tendencies towards one another. Mild things such as characters kissing one another on the lips, hugging/cuddling each other, or even talking vaguely about sex are fine. Full-blown erotica such as description of graphic nudity or sexual acts are strictly prohibited, however.
*Aside from closure/removal of the fanfic, violators of this rule will also receive a 10% to 40% warning for inappropriate content. If the case is severe enough, a ban may even be issued based on the moderator’s discretion.
III. Don’t plagiarize.
Plagiarism itself is considered a crime in real life, and thus isn’t tolerated here. Spoofs and parodies are the exception to the rule, but otherwise all fanfics should be your own writings. If it comes to light that you copy-and-pasted a fanfic someone else wrote and posted somewhere else, it will be removed and you will be banned for plagiarism.
IV. Don’t be a hater.
Stories written with the full intent of harassing or slandering a specific group or person on the forums aren’t tolerated. Mocking people based on their race, age, gender, orientation, background, upbringing, etc. is one of the most horrible things you can do online to begin with, and writing fiction with that as the sheer focus is even worse. Mild jokes are excusable, but anything more is not.
V. Good grammar/spelling and proper formatting are absolute musts.
All writings must be of readable quality! Occasional grammar and spelling mistakes are forgivable, but if your fanfic is difficult to read, expect it to be closed without question.
Likewise, all paragraphs need to be double-spaced. It is very hard to read through fanfics that appear as a virtual block of text, not to mention it is downright annoying trying to forcibly peruse through a story that’s just line after line of words without any sort of spacing to denote when new paragraphs start. To rectify this issue, just hit the Enter Key twice whenever you want to start a new paragraph (This applies to dialogue as well since you’re supposed to start a new paragraph every time a new character talks anyways, even if it just ends up being a short sentence he/she speaks).
Additionally, spoiler tags (i.e.
) can be added to lengthy chapters to help separate the actual update from the writer’s commentaries or compensate for the fact that they’re so long. These are by no means required, but some people find it better to use them than simply post the chapter as is into the post.
*Violating this rule will result in closure of the fanfic and possibly a minor warning, depending on the moderator’s discretion.”
As written by PMJ and Incinermyn, these guidelines are to ensure quality writing, and any violation of the above guidelines will result in deletion of your short story, or a warning (depending on the violation).
This quarterly topic is [ANYTHING OF YOUR CHOOSING, WITHIN REASON].
You are given three (3) months to create your fanfic; the fanfic must not exceed ten (10) chapters. Once your post is submitted, you may NOT edit the fanfic under any circumstances. You must be aware that we are not only judging for content, but your work will be judged based on your spelling and grammar.
YOU MAY NOT ENTER YOUR FANFIC CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER. WHEN YOU ARE READY TO POST YOUR FANFIC, YOU MUST POST THE ENTIRE FANFIC.
This exhilarating competition was created to showcase the work of our members, and to encourage more activity in TWC. With that being said, I present to you the application that MUST be completed, and posted in THIS thread, NO LATER THAN JUNE 10, 2013.
The official guidelines can be found above.
Please complete this application and post it to this thread no later than June 10, 2013.
THE COMPETITION WILL OFFICIALLY BEGIN ON JUNE 1, 2013 (in ten days, at the time of posting)!
To sum up the guidelines, you will have three months to create your fan fiction, and to post your fan fiction. Failure to post your fan fiction before SEPTEMBER 1, 2013, will result in 10% off your final grade.
There will be two stages of grading that will determine the winning fanfic, and they are as follows:
In the end, the fan fiction's grade, and the score of the poll will be averaged, and that will decide the winner.
We, the staff of the Writing Café, hope you have a pleasurable experience when creating your short stories, and we look forward to seeing your wonderful creations!
*Violating this rule will result in closure of the fanfic and possibly a minor warning, depending on the moderator’s discretion.”
As written by PMJ and Incinermyn, these guidelines are to ensure quality writing, and any violation of the above guidelines will result in deletion of your short story, or a warning (depending on the violation).
This quarterly topic is [ANYTHING OF YOUR CHOOSING, WITHIN REASON].
You are given three (3) months to create your fanfic; the fanfic must not exceed ten (10) chapters. Once your post is submitted, you may NOT edit the fanfic under any circumstances. You must be aware that we are not only judging for content, but your work will be judged based on your spelling and grammar.
YOU MAY NOT ENTER YOUR FANFIC CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER. WHEN YOU ARE READY TO POST YOUR FANFIC, YOU MUST POST THE ENTIRE FANFIC.
This exhilarating competition was created to showcase the work of our members, and to encourage more activity in TWC. With that being said, I present to you the application that MUST be completed, and posted in THIS thread, NO LATER THAN JUNE 10, 2013.
The official guidelines can be found above.
Please complete this application and post it to this thread no later than June 10, 2013.
THE COMPETITION WILL OFFICIALLY BEGIN ON JUNE 1, 2013 (in ten days, at the time of posting)!
To sum up the guidelines, you will have three months to create your fan fiction, and to post your fan fiction. Failure to post your fan fiction before SEPTEMBER 1, 2013, will result in 10% off your final grade.
There will be two stages of grading that will determine the winning fanfic, and they are as follows:
- The judges (moderators of TWC) will grade your fanfic based off of the official guidelines, with a total Score of 100%.
There will be a final poll for users to decide who THEY would like to win.
In the end, the fan fiction's grade, and the score of the poll will be averaged, and that will decide the winner.
We, the staff of the Writing Café, hope you have a pleasurable experience when creating your short stories, and we look forward to seeing your wonderful creations!
Ice Arceus, Department Head
Delta, Moderator
Colress, Moderator
Delta, Moderator
Colress, Moderator
