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December 2016
Spirit of Giving
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Prizes currently are 1 x $250, 1 x $150, and 12 x $100 USD paypalled or Amazon.com gift vouchered. Prizes subject to go up!
Admin Note: Samantha MD has assisted me in the forming of this contest and her help and ideas were crucial for it. ~Sephrena.
| The theme for this year's Christmas contest is the spirit of giving. This is where a selfless act of kindness is shown within the story either towards or from the main character. Either the main character or a secondary character needs to be trans, gay, lesbian, bi, or intersexed.
That's it. How you develop the story is entirely up to you. ^^ The story can use any plot device, any theme variation at all: from romantic, action, horror, to comedy, etc. and any time period or setting. Stories can be any length and chaptered. Stories must be brand new and never posted anywhere else on the Internet or published. Multiple submissions are allowed with only the submission with the most kudos of any author's total submissions to claim a prize. |
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Some possible ideas, in case people have writer's block can include: the giving of one's life, giving of an organ, standing in for someone else because of a situation, rescuing someone, a present someone dearly wanted, etc.
Some variations of theme can include various services of people not often written about: Fire and Rescue services, EMT, Police, Airlines, Military, Local Aid Organizations, Hospitals, College students, etc. Try to be different and creative. These are not the only ones, come up with your own! Music is always a good choice too :) |
When you write an entry, please tag it with this in the story teaser:
<div align="center"><img src="/topshelf/system/files/u1973/lights06.gif" width="480" height="22" alt="lights06.gif" /></div>
<div align="center"><font color='#3344ff'><strong><em>December 2016 Spirit of Giving Story Contest Entry</em></strong></font></div>
to display your entry:
| Currently, I have set up the prize structure to 12 x $100 winners, and SamanthaMD is including 1 x $250, and 1 x $150 USD winners using either paypal to send or else an Amazon.com Gift voucher of $100 for the winners. We may be able to get an additional prize or two depending on what happens between now and Christmas. The winners will be the stories with the most kudos!
The reason for the change of prize setup this year is that I wanted to try something different that was more inclusive for everyone. |
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The winners will need to pm Sephrena with their paypal account names to transfer their prize awards to or else email address for the gift voucher option. All prizes will be transferred very soon after the winners announcement. |
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Comments
As always...
Thank you!
Love, Andrea Lena
This sounds fun
I actually have an idea I've been tossing around that might work perfectly for this.
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.
I'm already started!
Very much looking forward to this.
Bailey Summers
I think I might have an idea
(giggles evilly ....)
Hidden voting instead of Kudos?
Could we use something other than kudos to decide the winners? Using kudos gives an advantage to authors that post their works early, and also makes stories' scores visible to everyone, which opens the possibility of score manipulation.
No way to do it that does not have problems
Write us a module that works as well as kudos and we will be happy to use it. Seriously. We've tried about fifteen of them. And kudos is only visible if you visit each and every one of the entries. We keep voting open for a week or ten days after ending a contest to deal with the earliness problem and some people who post early complain that late posters have an advantage. So... this works and is not a huge hassle like some of the other voting gadgets.
Also, we can actually detect a lot of vote manipulation. We have in the past.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
If I could get some near Novel Length Entries
that showed a well thought out and executed effort, no matter the skill level, I would be enticed to place them in a separate category to toss in an extra bonus. Remember, you can submit as many entries as you like but only one of your entries can win.
... and I would dearly love to read through a long entertaining and heartfelt entry piece.
And in case you write an entry, please tag it with this in the story teaser:
<div align="center"><img src="/topshelf/system/files/u1973/lights06.gif" width="480" height="22" alt="lights06.gif" /></div>
<div align="center"><font color='#3344ff'><strong><em>December 2016 Spirit of Giving Story Contest Entry</em></strong></font></div>
to display your entry:
Sephrena
p.s. I will try and do my best to reward all authors who enter this contest to the extreme of my ability! ~Sephrena.
Can you define 'near' Novel-Length?
I have some ideas, but 40,000+ words is a daunting figure... :)
HUGS!!!
Shauna
Aunt Jane
Well, I have an idea for a "Season of Giving" which will, if completed, probably exceed 200k in plain text (aunt jane defies short descriptors).
Of course, l have two key problems. My muse is still off her game since my 'retirement' and it's hard for me to self evaluate. I'm kinda used to having Brandy watching over my virtual shoulder with her sharp eyes and talent for the right plot fleur-de-lis. (And gently nagging when needed - sigh)
But I'm trying my best. I miss writing.
Warm furry hugs!
Tiggs
can an entry be a true story?
lol
my Christmas 1995 fits the theme and is what actually happened.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
Does it have to be set on or around Christmas
I've got a story coming out of me, but it isn't something happening around Christmas (it starts in May.)
Is that a problem?
I'll post it anyway, assuming I finish it, but it would be fun if I could add the December 2016 contest tag.
I think that any time of year
I think that any time of year is fine. It need not happen around Christmas. I see no requirement of it occurring around Christmas, and one sentence said that any time setting was allowed.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Spirit of Christmas story...
Can it be part of a series? When's the deadline?
TGSine --958
As stated in the contest teaser
Entry Submission Dates are from now through December 23, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time!
Also yes it can be a chapter from a series as long as it is properly tagged for the contest (and is all new written material).
In other words, the sooner, the better :)
Sephrena
I Posted Early for Christmas
To avoid the rush that I think these competitions deserve. We should all support them and the hard work behind the scenes. The kudos score or winning is irrelevant in my opinion. It generates ideas and brings out lots of the talent and some new writers ready to give it a go. Hopefully it shows a variety of acts of human kindness. Keep up the good work and Best Wishes for Christmas.