#asks:contest

[sugaurora]

Question, what do you mean by spooky folklore and urban legends? Do you mean a fic written around an old legend correct? Or something related in some way to spooky folklore or an urban legend? I'm planning to write a fic possibly either about a vampire or ghost but I'm not for sure if it would fit into the theme. Thank you for answering!

Hi! I know this may sound stupid 🙈 but could you elaborate a little more on the theme. It can’t just be Halloween related right?

Folklore is just popular myths and stories that every society, culture, country passes down throughout generations. Urban legends are modern folklore.

Here are examples of popular urban legends

Here are examples of popular spooky folktales

So for your story, you’ll want to draw inspiration from an urban legend or folktale. There’s probably a billion out there spread among thousands of cultures, so the possibilities are really endless.

Try not to overthink it, guys! The theme is meant to give you a guideline for your story, but you’re free to use your creativity in the interpretation. I keep things intentionally vague so as not to box in your imagination. Just have fun with it!

[sugaurora]

I really hope you do a Halloween and/or a winter themed writing contest! I feel like those two time periods have the opportunity to produce some really creative writing and a lot of people will participate!

Well, you’re in luck because those are the remaining two writing contests I’ll be doing this year! Sometime next month I’ll start one for Halloween. And in November I’ll be doing a repeat my first ever writing contest, Bangtan Winter Wonderland. I haven’t decided on themes yet, but definitely look forward to those! :)

[sugaurora]

Hey! How many submissions do you have for the writing contest? I’m excited to see who wins!🙈

Final count looks like 14 submissions total! Thank you so much to everyone who entered. Reading your creativity in these contests is always a lot of fun for me. Good luck!!

[sugaurora]

Hi about the writing contest! I’m not pairing a BTS member with a member from another group but I want to throw some angst in there, so would it be ok if I included a diff group member in my fic (and he briefly dates one of the bts members)? Or would you not appreciate that?

I don’t mind at all if members from other groups are included, as long as the main focus of the fic is around a BTS member(s).

[sugaurora]

Hi! I was just wondering on what basis/criteria will the winner be chosen. Do the number to notes or reblogs play an important role? Because I'm actually posting my work for the first time for this contest and hence am not an established or well known blog like many others.

Ahhh, don’t worry. Notes are not a factor when judging stories. There are plenty of amazing stories that have very few notes, and plenty of not so well written stories that have thousands of notes. A blogger’s popularity isn’t always a reliable gauge for the quality of their story telling, so it is not considered.

As for the criteria, I’ll tell you about how stories are judged. Once the deadline has passed, me and whoever is helping me as my judges will read the submissions and give each entry a score, usually a number out of 10.

Scores are based on the quality of writing, the engagement of the story, the enjoyment of the story, how well the story fits the contest theme, and general feel. None of the judges are ever harsh on a reasonable amount of misspellings or grammar issues. The focus is on the storytelling.

Once all the stories have been scored by all judges, we discuss those with the highest scores and make our final decisions from there.

I hope this helps you feel comfortable in entering your submission. I look forward to reading your work! 😊

[sugaurora]

My entry for the contest is more than 2k but I feel like it’s still too less :( I hope you will consider the shorter entries too

I’ve talked about this a little bit before here, but I only increased the word limit to 20k because I got feedback from writers who write longfics or series wanting to participate. But that shouldn’t discourage any writers who are more comfortable writing shorter works.

You really have nothing to worry about, friend. Word count doesn’t affect the quality of a good story. It’s what the writer makes of it that matters. Be confident in your writing and you’ll be just fine! Good luck to you :)

[sugaurora]

Will my fic still be counted if it’s a mini series? It’s still less that 20k words

Ah, I didn’t even have your entry on my list so I’m glad you reached out. Yes, series, mini-series, chaptered fics, standalone fics; these are all allowed so you’re just fine! Just make sure you’ve reblogged the main contest post and you’re good to go. Thanks for participating!

[sugaurora]

I seemed to notice that when you host the writing contests people tend to be busy because of school. So maybe you could just do this during christmas break, spring break and summer break. And you could always add say a supernatural twist for that halloween vibe even if it's during summer. I just really enjoy your giveaways and since this will be my first time entering I really look forward to future giveaways. And I just wanted to say thank you for doing these because it pushes me to write!!!

Of the four contests I’ve held, one was during Christmas and another was during summer. Also, all my writing contests have had 8 weeks between announcement and due date, save for one which I think I had 6 weeks. So I’ll have to disagree about the timing of school being the main issue. It really does seem that no time is a good time.

I’ve enjoyed doing the writing contests until now, but this Halloween contest has just taken something out of me. I for sure will no longer be having a Christmas writing contest. I’ll just wait and see what next year feels like to see if I’m inspired to hold them again.

But I’m happy to have at least had the desired effect this time around and inspired you to get some writing done! That’s all I’ve really wanted to accomplish in the end. Good luck to you! :)