OFFICIAL Writing Challenge 2020

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

For this year, following along with the themes of the recent newly released series of Star Trek: Picard, and the current situation many of us are facing at home, the chosen theme is one of Star Trek's most beloved storytelling mechanics — Echoes of the Past.

"The view screen snaps into focus on an impossible sight,
and a voice from your past speaks to you and you alone..."

How would your character react in this situation? What's going through their mind? What scene immediately pops into your head? Is there a word-fire kindling? Does it transport you somewhere? If so, bust out the virtual pen and paper, brew that Earl Grey and get cracking! 

One judge will be chosen from each ship to help select the winner. 

Rules & Guidelines: 

• Word count should be a minimum of 300 and maximum of 3000.
• Members are welcome to submit solo stories, or team up with a buddy to submit a collaborative epic.
• Your submission should be in the format of a short story. Prose, not sim formatting. (See here for examples.)
• All members are welcome to submit entries for the community to read, but only those from active simmers will be reviewed by the judging panel for the final winners selection.
• Submissions are, by default, non-canon – if you find a way to shoehorn this into your own backstory, you're free to use it if you wish, but certainly not a requirement.
  • To that end, you can create whatever characters make sense for the story. You don't have to use or reference any of your current characters.
  • Also, rank is not an issue here – write as an Ensign or a Captain, civilian, whatever makes sense for your story!
  • And you're free to use characters that you've already written for in sim, but please don't include anyone else's.
• Submit your story directly into the first post of a new thread. Use the following format for the thread title: 
  • [Primary Character Name(s) of author(s)]: "My Story's Interesting Title"
  • Tristan Wolf: "Five Ways to End Your Starfleet Career"

All stories must be submitted by Sunday, May 17 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. Good luck!

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Also, just to make sure it's not missed in all this: Big ups to @Jo Marshall who helped push all the content creation forward to get the challenge over the starting line!

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

Resounding congratulations to Brian, the writer behind Geoffrey Teller, for smashing the Writing Challenge 2020 with a superb win!

Not only the first entry the challenge received but also a beautifully written story “Lullaby” of an officer facing a difficult situation and a heartwarming encounter to leave a tear in the eye. This is the first Writing Challenge done since 2014, so this is a special congratulations extended to him!

Matt, the writer behind Addison MacKenzie, had this to say about the piece:

“I’ve served with Teller in various capacities for my entire length of service – as colleagues on the Veritas, as acting first officer on the Diligent, and now as senior officers on the Thor. In that time, I’ve gotten to know the Teller character quite intimately as well as his background – the presumed loss of his parents was initially a small detail to Brian, but it played a major role in one of our missions together on the Veritas when it was actually discovered that his father had survived.

Getting to watch Teller work through that realization and then explain it to his sister Sarah (whom I wrote for) made for quite remarkable characterization. Now, in this piece of short writing, its interesting to see how Teller transformed into a wide-eyed, innocent projection of his childhood-self as he interacts with his mother. This piece was a compelling demonstration of the Teller’s humanity as we watch him confront [what he thinks is] his mother, their interactions and attempted reconciliation.”

Our runner-up is Quinten, writer for Pholin Duyzer, recently returned to our community following a brief absence and scoops up this badge for his story “Time to Move On”, which sees the Denobulan officer return to his family home and battle through rough waters. A most excellent story and a compelling narrative glimpse into Pholin’s life at home and how his career has faired in between the time away. Well done, Quinten!

All entries into the challenge were excellent, and each one deserves a slice of the praise! Thank you for submitting your entries, letting us into the worlds of your characters brought into the spotlight, and for giving us a glimpse of what goes on behind the characters we see.

For the winner, runner-up and judges, they are in receipt of one of the following badges!

Considering the wild success of this challenge, we plan to continue the tradition in yearly challenges. We look forward to more amazing entries next spring!