Finish the Story contest - Guidelines for Purple Squirrels
Mainly the contest is an exercise to inspire you and free your creativity! You don't have to be perfect, don't worry about the competition, relax and have fun. There's no problem if you cannot participate for one week: this pub is always open and the bartender is ready to offer you a pint of grog anytime!
The spirit of this initiative can be found in the Bananafish Manifesto, a document where we describe our values and our intention to create a relaxing and friendly community.
In this contest, I reward originality and plot. Absolute priority is given to an original content with the capability of engaging the reader and entertain through a well written short story.
The 500 words limit is suggested, yet it's part of the challenge. Nothing happens if your plot requires 550 words. For the way I am and feel like this environment should be, I choose to not be strict every time I can. Notwithstanding, please note that there's a specific intent behind this word's limit: privileging a fiction idea over descriptive parts in a short story format. Most of the time, being brief is more challenging than throwing yourself in a river of words. The more you'll trespass that limit, the more the story will have to be extraordinary to compensate and keep pace with the other participants' contributions.
Trying to guess the author's final is not considered a plus. This is not a "guess my final contest".
This format aims to create short stand-alone stories. We can always play with names and referrals if we feel like winking at the old-time participants. Trying to connect a story with other previous ones is a difficult and also worthless practice from a reward perspective (plus seldom engages the reader).
Still, from a competition pov, you may take any direction suggested by your creativity as long as the final result is not forced. In other words, if any reader takes the two parts of the story, mine and the participant's, and reads them together, she/he should find the whole piece entertaining.
This is a simple collaborative writing exercise with the outcome of a nice story. Nothing more and nothing less. If you don't feel like following any of the above guidelines, please feel free to join us for the fun of it and you'll be commented, upvoted, resteemed and appreciated even if you're out of the competition!
Every comment is welcome! May the potassium deity bless you all with many fruit-fish salads!
Thank you for going over all of that. I have to admit that will help me shape my stuff to better fit in what you see for the contest. I do leave my ending open sometimes ending one part but leading to another I never write. This week I didn't do that but I didn't even count my words so I will go check how I did.
Don't worry @stever82 and congrats again for your second curie vote during the contest!
My description of #finishthestory :
A spring board for your creativity; The "hot yoga" equivalent for the writer; Introduce your work here; Win fans and influence Steemians( to enjoy Steemit); Unlocking your original creative ideas without use of psychedelic drugs.
That should do it! Time for my "psychedelic drugs"
Keep Steemin
Liked Voted and Resteemed!
This is a wonderful description! It's a multivitamin pill against the writer's block (and upvotes, resteem, visibility, community..). A very nice message to start my weekend. Thanks 👍
YOU deserve more appreciation from writers like me. Let's call it a mutual admiration club. ;-)
Thanks again bud .. see you in the 38th writing lab then 😉
I agree it's all very clear and well explained by @f3nix. We were blessed when the bananafish god chose him to be the bearer of the contest.
I don't know..I just stopped taking those pills and started listening at the voices 😂 Thank you, our beloved wise owl!
I can't help it that I'm competitive! I need help. haha
Let's see it positively, that's a great push to produce quality works!
Serious and playful is what I strive for.
If one is blowing their top and only taking things in a serious manner, I'm out because it ceases to be fun and playful.
Totally agree.. That's why these are guidelines for purple squirrels! (Pity we can't use our discord emojis here hahah)
Laughed when I read the title!
I joke around but for a serious moment, thank you, F3nix. I know that running both this contest and supporting the Bananafish Tribe requires massive effort. (Enough to move above said glacier.)
Actually thanks to you and the legendary core members that make this possible, especially by participating to the fiction contest.
I'm so happy about our new project, is going to be something.. what world would be without a purple squirrel inside us? (I let you choose between a symbolic or a literal meaning)
Ha! Get advertised on with this Cute Killing Machine!
Prepare for my post featuring that Adorable Grunt in a #FinishTheStory or @bananafish feature near yah!
Wowie! The killing machine at the end is the cherry on the Cootie-patootie cake!
Bwahahaha XD
Hey, @f3nix!
Thank you for your contribution to the crowd. We are the Steemit project dedicated to empowering The Wisdom of Crowds. You can find more about us on our official website or whitepaper and you can support us by voting for our witness and joining our curation trail on Steemauto . We are also inviting you to join Crowdmind Discord server. Don't forget to use the #crowdmind hashtag and happy crowdsourcing!
Thanks for the support!
That's a useful clarification. I think many who might write are confused about the mission. In my case, I sometimes feel like writing, but don't feel I can "finish the story". In that case, perhaps I can take inspiration from the beginning, announce that I'm sort of winging it (not entering the contest, but joining the creative effort), and just post what I can come up with. Part of my problem with some of the stories may be generational. Or maybe it's me :)
I think the mission of the contest has always been clear and explicit! We had a lot of fun through 38 editions (it's almost a year!), and everybody ever felt free to express her/his creativity in the most desired way.
The title for the contest really says everything: "finish the story". So there is a story and everyone tries to finish it. The word limit is a bonus (a well liked bonus, since @f3nix has to read 10-20 entries every week). Only if you're not finishing the story or telling another story you're out of the theme...so I think there's a very large range of action.
If someone thinks a particular story doesn't fit their style or interest, they can wait for another week, and maybe read, comment and vote for others.
Really, it's very straight and simple!
Thanks Marco 😁 I'm thinking that we could write another Shintiara based episode..
I was taking my cue from the above statement, which seemed to say that we could join in the fun and write, but be out of the competition if we didn't follow the guidelines. Perhaps I read those clear words incorrectly.
I, of course, support the other writers, whether or not I manage to come up with a story. It is a wonderful community of creative effort that exists in finish the story.
I mean every word of the statement which you quoted. We just pointed out that your assumption about others ("I think many who might write are confused about the mission") in our opinion is simply not true and also a bit unfair after the assiduous work of months, where these concepts have been constantly repeated. Now, let's be positive and continue building this awesome project together. A community in which you keep being an important member. Thanks for your constant support and good luck with this week's edition 😉
🙂
Positive, always.
Well, this is not the first time that I write these very simple concepts (content is king/500 words with some tolerance/reader's engagement.. that's it!). My concern has always been about coherence and transparence. These good sense ideas have been there from the beginning and they're part of the format's success in months of constant work behind the lines. Saying that people are confused doesn't really match with my feedback, numbers and engagement of this initiative. I'm also avoiding stiffness at any cost. This is a place for joy, friendship, a rain of rewards since it's beginning, exchange of ideas (but you know this as some months ago you published a wonderful post about the contest!). When, in the comment, you talk about your personal experience: thanks I evaluate this feedback very much. I could give more variety to the genres. As always, feel free to do what you feel like, we'll be always here commenting voting and appreciating your always excellent writing.
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