Jo Marshall Posted April 22, 2021 Posted April 22, 2021 As our winner of last year’s challenge, Commander @Geoffrey Teller has come up with the prompt for our community this time around. A throwback to flashbacks for everyone, this calls to mind themes of the little things which can affect characters in those huge ways. Maybe your character will venture on a voyage on discovery about themselves, or explore themes of finality and endings, retribution and redemption, even a bit of mortality thrown in? Star Trek has consistently shown us these small, focused moments can be at the very heart of the human (and alien!) experience. You could go anywhere with this one! "I always loved the wind… ...until that mission on Telstrus 3." How would your character react to 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 a maximum of 3000. Members are welcome to submit solo stories, or team up with a buddy to submit a collaborative epic, but only one story per person, please! 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 winner 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. You can create whatever characters make sense for the story. You don't have to use or reference any of your current characters. 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 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" If you want to submit a story but don't want to enter it into the challenge, prefix the forum post with "showcase" and let us read your good stuff! All stories must be submitted by Sunday, May 23 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. Good luck! 3 1
Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf Posted April 22, 2021 Posted April 22, 2021 If you need inspiration, you can read previous Writing Challenge entries in our contest archive! 1
Popular Post Jo Marshall Posted May 28, 2021 Author Popular Post Posted May 28, 2021 (edited) Resounding congratulations to Jacob, the writer behind Wes Greaves, for smashing the Writing Challenge 2021 with a superb win! Carving out a beautifully written and presented entry, "Insidious Whispers" shows the delve into the inner self following a traumatic experience, and is definitely worth a read for anyone looking for some top-class inspiration in how to convey deep and meaningful characterisation. Well done to Jacob! Brian, the writer behind Geoffrey Teller, and our 2020 winner gave us these kind words: Quote "Marine Captain Wes Greaves, aka Jacob, has been an invaluable member of the Thor's crew since our launch last year. Through strong writing, clever humor and the application of his real-world experience Jacob has redefined what it means to be part of the SFMC. I'm thrilled the rest of the fleet has recognized his ability and creativity, especially when the competition this year was replete with so many excellent entries! To Jacob I offer my sincerest congratulations and to the rest of the fleet I offer my sincerest thanks!" Our runner-up is Hutch, the writer behind Loxley, a long-time member of the group and winner of several Writing Challenges through the years preceding this one. He scoops up this badge for his story "Cries on the Wind", elegantly and heart-breakingly showing the plight of a Maquis during the Dominion War. Wonderfully done, Hutch! For this year, we've also got a special mention for Ikaia Wong's entry, Klingon Space Shanty, delivering a sea shanty while keeping to the premise of the theme! Well done, Ikaia! It was beloved by all! All entries submitted to the challenge are excellent, thoughtfully put together, and beautifully written! It's been a privilege to read every one of them, and each 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. The winner, runner-up and judges, are in receipt of one of the following badges! Thank you again for making this year's challenge wildly successful and so much fun! We look forward to more amazing entries next spring! Please drop by the forums to offer these writers, and all our entrants, your congratulations! Edited May 28, 2021 by Jo Marshall 4 2
Recommended Posts