YC 128 New Eden Capsuleers Writing Contest

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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All:

I am pleased to announce the THIRTEENTH year for a writing contest for stories or poems by or about Capsuleers/Baseliners and their worlds and cultures.

BASIC DETAILS:

CATEGORIES: There will be TWO categories this year:

  1. Fiction&Non-Fiction - All Poetry & Prose. This is for your stories, songs and poems about New Eden and those who inhabit it, including yourself! There is a 500 WORD LIMIT FOR THIS CATEGORY THIS YEAR. THIS LIMIT WILL BE ENFORCED.

    1. Academic/Scientific (e.g. Academic, Economic Reports, Science Reports, Theological Writings, Treatises, etc.). This may also include News/Gossip/Opinion Pieces. There is no word limit for this category but try to be concise!

    RULES:
    DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION - NOVEMBER 15TH

    All entries should be posted in Fiction Portal > Player Fiction with the label in title [NEWCYC128 YOUR TITLE] or have previously been published in Fiction Portal > Player Fiction or Fiction Portal > Intergalactic Summit after the close of last year’s contest! (for previously published works, just link in this thread).

Existing works since the last contest on the IGS or stories and gossip reports (in Player Fiction) in the past year can be nominated by their authors or appreciative readers for consideration, as long as they otherwise comply with the rules.

PRIZES, FOR EACH CATEGORY

1st - 1 billion isk
2nd - 500 million isk
3rd - 250 million isk
4th - 125 million isk

(Subject to change as donations recieved)

SPECIAL PRIZES

Each of the Judges may, in their discretion, award a personal prize to the favorite (regardless of the “place” of the submission)

The most “amusing” or “entertaining” to me* or intriguing gets treated to a candlelit dinner by me at a fine restaurant or a meal at another location

ADDITIONAL RULES/COMMENTS

All judges and I (as administrator) are disqualified from submission for prizes.

All entries will be considered. However, no plagarism is allowed.
NO AI GENERATED OR WRITTEN ENTRIES ARE ALLOWED.

if the quality of the entries does not merit the number of prizes, then prizes will be given up to the number deemed meritorious.

if people have any questions or need rulings, I am the contest administrator and you can feel free to message me directly.

Cordially, and with God’s Blessings

Lunarisse Aspenstar Daphiti
Praefecta Societas Sceptri Coronaeque
Co-Director Khimi Harar

((OOC note - no plagarism or AI Generated Stories! it is requested that the work be “original” to the player entering and not copied from another author or created by an AI author.))

8 Likes
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500 words is completely insufficient for passing on a story. You can put together a couple of paragraphs with that limit, not an actual story of any substance. I strongly advise to reconsider this limit, and raise it to 5000 minimally, if not to 10,000.

NB! Your own post is 410 words. You think a story can fit within that post? The limit is laughable.

3

The short limit is there to be open to all. It also allows the judges to read multiple entries in a few days, rather than the slog of reading a small chapter of The Scriptures.

I suspect that they won’t penalise some for wandering a few words over the limit.

4

Have you ever written a story? 500 words is only adequate for a short synopsis of a story! You cannot develop any kind of plot or characters with such a tiny amount of words. Your post is 50 words, within it you have 3 sentences. 30 sentences is not nearly sufficient by any stretch of imagination! It’s completely ridiculous. You get no quality or quantity with it.

Forcibly having participants submit low-effort low-quality work should not be a purpose in and of itself, just because one is too lazy or illiterate to read a proper text!

500 words is an exceedingly tiny piece of text that takes up 1 minute of reading time max. Thus 5000 words – which would be a more adequate limit – would take about 10 minutes to read, and is still within the reasonable capacity of a person. One can read 6 works per day if they set aside an hour for such a purpose. There is no justification for a limit of 500 words whatsoever, other than complete ignorance of just how short a text 500 words make.

If you don’t want to read huge amounts of text then set a proper limit that still allows for the development and treatment of a quality work. Otherwise there is no point in submitting content to this competition outside poetry. Few words over 500 won’t be of much help either. Reasonable limit is 5000. Those who want to submit shorter pieces can still do it.

I also checked some of the latest stories under Player Fiction on these forums, and not one of them is 500 words or less. I suggest the organizer of this contest go and read some of the actual stories and check the word count to understand how many words it takes to develop even a short limited story.

5

Six words were enough for Hemingway.

In all seriousness, I found last year’s 300 word limit pretty refreshing as an amateur. Writers can go on and on, and for many the edit is the challenge. This could be a fun exercise that potentially earns ISK. If brevity is the soul of wit, why not show us a glimpse of your soul?

Such as it is, for an infomorph.

2 Likes
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Hey may I submit this I believe it falls within the word count and I’m rather happy with it.

MR-TI Windflare Orbital Operations - Lab Operations.

1 Like
7

That’s just nonsense. Nobody has written a story with 6 words.

That’s like saying the stump that’s left after cutting all the branches off a tree is still a tree. It is not. It’s a handicapped stump that is good for nothing.

Soul of wit does not equal soul of man. You’re comparing incomparable. None of your ‘‘arguments’’ are valid. Just a bunch of nonsense thrown back hoping it sticks.

8

Fortunately, I like a good challenge, and the results speak for themselves! 500 words of function prose. QED.

Thanks again to @Meridan_Night for the inspiration!