OK, perhaps we should start this way: Sim Short Story Contest -- start thread in Sims 2 General Discussion, with list of rules, like these: 1) Post reply to the Contest thread ONLY when you have already published a story to the library. 2) The reply might include the title and type (genre) of the story, (for example, humor, drama, etc.) and a link to your story in the library. 3) Story length is the limit of one post (Mirelly mentioned earlier about how much you can squeeze into a post.) For a story, it's not really very much. You'll have to be careful. It's frustrating to have to cut out passages that you've worked hard to write. 4) No public discussion of the stories allowed until after the contest ends and the voting is done. 5) Deadline of _______________ confused: we have to pick a date.) Issues: A) Should there be a rule limiting the number of entries? Personally, I think writing even one story will be really tough. But for some people the words seem to flow without effort. :scratchchin: (I won't name names.) B) How will the voting be set up? C) What's the prize? Reputation points? The admiration of the audience? (I myself would be more than content with being admired, but the younger folk here might prefer something more concrete. ) Anyway, does anyone else have ideas? You won't hurt my feelings if you object to the rules I've suggested. Got better ones?
Yeah, Lynet, I liked those rules quite a lot actually!! :classic: But one thing that should most definitely should be a rule (in my opinion) is that you can't vote for yourself. Love this rule, Lyn! I think it's very important about the link, so one doesn't have to go and find the story in the library because I think that might put readers off a bit. Length is very important for me and I tend to write a lot of long stories and I think other people (not just myself) would prefer to be able to have the freedom of writing their stories without being bugged about a limit. I know, I know that this is supposed to be a short story contest, but I agree with Lynet: it's frustrating having to cut out things that you've written. But I suppose one could squeeze the story so that it fits into a post.. :winks: As for the number of stories you're allowed to enter: I think that there should be a rule about just posting one story. Other people might disagree with me, but I think that the whole point of this competition is that you should only be allowed to enter one story. If people have written more than one story that they want to post, then I say: hard cheese! Choose one of them. :winks: Vega had a nice idea of there being a poll where it says the stories that people have written (and maybe the authors as well???) and then people get to vote which one they like best. Anyways, enough of my blabbering. Tell us how you would like things to be in this competition. Go on. :classic:
humm perhaps 20 000 characters isn't enough for some people, i would sugest to extend the number to 25 000... i like the rules that Lynet mentioned they are fine for me... i think we must get a way to get the attention of everybody inthe forum
I think that a thread up in the main Sims 2 Discussion forum with Contest in the title will get plenty of attention. As to length, I suppose we might relax on that, especially as there is going to be a definite deadline. But maybe we should get some more opinions on that. If you go look at my story chapters in I, Sim you can get an idea of how long one post can be. I was copying the story from the regular forum and tried to squeeze as much as possible into each post. As Mirelly said, 20,000 characters is 3 or 4 thousand words. Pictures use up more than a few characters, too. I think that Muffin and Vega have good ideas here. Anyone else? Today is May 10. I suggest June 15 (a Friday) as a deadline. Anyone think we should have more or less time than that?
that's good for me Lynet who is going to write the definitive thread with the rules? i could do it myself but i would prefer not to do it because i have some dificulties with english and the post must be very clear and easy to undestand by everybody... we could post pictures as an atachement, that wouldn't stole characters would it?
Right you are. And the attachments look nice, too. Muffin posted pictures as attachments with her story and they look very good that way, along the margin of the story.
OK, I decided to go ahead and start the contest, even though there are a couple of unresolved issues -- like voting and a prize. Hope I didn't step on any toes. But I think the Library will benefit from this.
I think Vega can write the rules and stuff herself on the new thread since it actually was her idea to start with! :biggrin: I better get cracking with my story then!
Err...already done. But we will definitely give Vega credit for the idea. Also, Vega asked that someone else post the rules. And I thought we should get it started as soon as possible.
thanks for doing that Lynet i was concerned with the idea of write it myself i think it's very good and everyone will understand the rules thanks again
You're more than welcome, Vega. If there is anything you think I should add, or that you want to go ahead and add yourself, the contest thread is open. I didn't limit the story to one post, for instance. I hope that won't be a problem. We'll see. I also hope that you, me and Muffin aren't the only participants. I don't have a single idea yet, and will probably put a story in at the very last minute. I'm thinkin hard! Maybe some nice moderator will come along and sticky the Contest Rules so that they don't disappear off the end of the page. Either that, or we have to bump it once in a while.
yes it would be great if a lot of people enter the contest i hope so, and i also hope that some moderator do that so everybody can see the thread. I'm having lots of ideas LOL but it's confusing to start, i will have to get many new things to my sims, clothes, lots and other i'm also thinking about making my neighborhood, one with a creepy style
Done. I'm looking forward to reading all the story entries! I don't think I'll be writing a story though - story writing was never one of my strong points in life lol. Still, I love to read.
Oh, you might want to give it a try. Who knows...until you try it out. I experiment all over the place here because people are very kind. Thanks for the sticky. Later tonight or tomorrow I'm going to change my signature to advertise the contest. My signature is due for a change anyway. And I can't wait to read the stories, either. It should be a lot of fun.
Just a thought. I wondered how we could group all the stories in one place. As a stop gap I created a category for them under the genre "Drama" (all fiction is drama anyway ) The category is open for anyone. http://forums.worldsims.org/library/browsecategory.php?c=24 I'll leave it to Lynet to edit her main sticky post if she approves of this idea. Or if her edit rights have expired, I'll do it tomorrow. Oh yeah, I'm stuck on the beginning ... I can do middles and endings but beginnings are my bete noire :(
My edit rights expire about an hour and a half after I post, so yes, please, put the link in place. That's a great idea. All the entries will then be grouped in one place. I worried some about that, but didn't see a way out of it. Yup, beginnings are the roughest. I've been mulling over in my head the beginning of a story for two days now. Can't quite put my finger on it, but something along the lines of "It was a dark and stormy night..."
I couldn't remember how long edit rights remain Done now. Please let me know if I have over-edited para 6
