The Ultimate Contest - Labor Day Weekend

Puma · Aug 10, 2008

http://www.3daynovel.com/rules.html

The 31st Annual International 3-Day Novel Contest will take place August 30 - September 1, 2008. Registration Forms are available here. Entrants must get their paid registration in the mail by the day before the contest (Aug. 29, 2008). Group registration rates are available: click here for details.

Pricey, unless there's a group registration (but everyone still writes his or her own "novel") Go to the link above and check it out.

san_remo_ave · Aug 11, 2008

Hm. Sounds interesting but $50 seems a bit steep.

Anyone interested in doing an AWHistGenre version? No cost, but fun prizes for the participants? I might be game if I have others to play with...

Puma · Aug 11, 2008

That would be a possibility - we need something to get the spark going again. If you're thinking history, you might want to see whether anyone in western or romance or heck, about any genre except contemporary is interested in a Labor Day weekend blowout.

I'd also thought about creating a set-up, location, a few characters, bit of a situation (like mining town, Ellis Island, etc.) and letting anyone interested write a chapter. We need something. Puma

san_remo_ave · Aug 11, 2008

Absolutely, we can cross post and let other folks know what we're doing here in the forum. It'd be fun!

Why don't we try both? One's short term and the other could be longer term. I'm game!

Some things to think about:
3 Day Historical Genre Novel
The one linked above is a contest with judging. Would we want to try to find 3 volunteers to judge them all and dub a winner, or is the completion of the story just 'bragging rights' and winning is honor-system finish like NaNo?

Round Robin Historical Novel
I like the idea of the round robin story!
Everyone who wants to play can sign up for a chapter, vote on the era, then participants have up to a week to pick up where the last one chapter left off when it's their turn? Or did you imagine everyone writing and submitting their chapter at the same time?

Puma · Aug 12, 2008

I think the contests get more attention if there are winners - it could be judged by non-participants or it could be judged by poll (vote for your first choice, second choice, third choice - give 5 points for 1st. 3 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd and tally up the total).

I like the idea of everyone writing a composite story independently instead of a round robin where the next one starts when the prior one stops. One of the guys who used to be on the forums did that for a western collection he submitted somewhere (it obviously didn't win). He created a fictional town in one of the Wyoming gold areas (fairly well locatable on a map), set the year, gave everyone the name of the sheriff and a couple other characters (whom you couldn't kill off), gave names for two saloons, one of the mines, the livery, and sort of described the town - and then let everyone write their own story. I did one and had fun doing it. Puma

san_remo_ave · Aug 12, 2008

Puma said:
I like the idea of everyone writing a composite story independently instead of a round robin where the next one starts when the prior one stops. One of the guys who used to be on the forums did that for a western collection he submitted somewhere (it obviously didn't win). He created a fictional town in one of the Wyoming gold areas (fairly well locatable on a map), set the year, gave everyone the name of the sheriff and a couple other characters (whom you couldn't kill off), gave names for two saloons, one of the mines, the livery, and sort of described the town - and then let everyone write their own story. I did one and had fun doing it. Puma

Oh, I see --that might work well for a poll voting contest. I like that a lot. It's a good way to challenge and push oneself without a huge time commitment to a topic outside one's normal era by doing it as a 3-day contest.

We'll have to ask Jen to check and see if they can post the contest entries as attachments since these are likely to be larger than we'd want to post as text. We're talking about pieces that are likely novella length, right?

alleycat said:
I have way too much on hand I need to finish and submit for me to enter this contest (the AW one, I mean).

However . . . I would be willing to chip in some money for a prize. Say, $100 for the winner.

If you were going to make it a novel contest, I might think about making it a month long contest. Just an idea.

alleycat,

Thanks for the support and encouragement! I hope we can count on you for the judging.

I'll put together a contribution for the winner's pool as well --this will be great fun!

Melissa

ishtar'sgate · Aug 12, 2008

I entered B.C.'s 3-day novel contest several years ago. I drank gallons of coffee and stayed awake the whole time. I didn't win but I received a nice certificate commemorating my completion of the novel. I framed it, hung it over my writing desk and used it as a spur to keep writing.
Linnea

Puma · Aug 13, 2008

Have to ask Linnea - how many words/pages did you crank out in the three days, and did you finish up the novel later or was what you put together the whole thing? I guess I'm still not totally clear on whether what you do over the weekend is a start of a longer work or the whole work. Puma

ishtar'sgate · Aug 13, 2008

Puma said:
Have to ask Linnea - how many words/pages did you crank out in the three days, and did you finish up the novel later or was what you put together the whole thing? I guess I'm still not totally clear on whether what you do over the weekend is a start of a longer work or the whole work. Puma

To be honest I don't remember how many words/pages I wrote but according to the rules it had to be a completed story, not the start of a longer piece. I didn't do anything with it afterward. I'm one of those people who can't outline a story because if I do I feel like I've written it already and I lose interest. It was the same with this manuscript. I went on to other things.
Linnea

san_remo_ave · Aug 19, 2008

UPDATE

Work's gotten a little kooky so I won't be able to finish putting the contest together and promoting it for the holiday weekend. I will try to revisit it in a little while and put some time in to get it right.

I do, however, plan on writing all of that weekend in a blitz. I'm planning on writing a historical short story --10-15k words. I'll post it in the weekend report as a goal. If anyone would like to join in for a weekened writing blitz, let me know and we can root each other on.

My apologies for not being more organized and getting this done!

The Ultimate Contest - Labor Day Weekend

Puma

Retired and loving it!

san_remo_ave

Back at it

Puma

Retired and loving it!

san_remo_ave

Back at it

Puma

Retired and loving it!

san_remo_ave

Back at it

ishtar'sgate

living in the past

Puma

Retired and loving it!

ishtar'sgate

living in the past

san_remo_ave

Back at it