The 2018 (First Ever!) Sequel Solstice: A Midsummer Night's Game!

J. A. Rama

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Summer (or winter, if you live in the future, that is, Australia) is right around the corner. NaNo is over. Sisyphus is (nearly) over. Camp ain't for all of us. What ARE we going to do in the dead times?

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Well!

INTRODUCING...


THE FIRST ANNUAL SEQUEL SISYPHUS - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S GAME!

What is it?

The Sequel Sisyphus - A Midsummer Night's Game is a fun game run by Jaymz Connelly (Jay) and J. A. Rama (also Jay), where everyone provides a prompt and then votes on their top 3 favorite prompts of all those submitted. The three prompts with the most votes will be revealed. Participants will then have a couple of months to write a story of any length based on at least one of those prompts, and then submit it to one of the two Jays along with a short excerpt of about 200 words. After the deadline, we will create a Guessing Thread (Sisyphus style), where we all try to guess who wrote which stories.

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What you get:

- A chance to stretch your short story writing muscles in a low key, low pressure environment.
- A chance to get that productivity flowing without getting eaten by the Dead Times.
- A chance to continue hanging out with your awesome AW peoples!
- A chance to write as badly as you want with no pressure. Let the typo-stricken, plot hole-riddled, genre-bending chaos drafts fly free!

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Rulez 'N' Shit:

1. Post in the sign-up thread with your prompts., For this challenge, you may post up to 3 prompts. In addition, you must ALSO rep one of the Jays with your written promise to provide a story and your email address. You will NOT be counted as a participant unless you have done all of these things!

2. Please do not submit overly long, specific, or detailed prompts. Different people work differently, so it is courteous to leave wiggle room to allow for differences of genre and style.

3. You can only vote on a prompt if you are a participant.

4. Signing up with a prompt and a rep with your email, and then voting on a prompt, is a commitment to participate. The Jays Will Frown Sternly Upon You For Voting And Then Not Participating.

5. You may only vote once, but you can select up to 3 favorite prompts, and you may change your vote at any time during the voting window. You will vote by repping either Jay or Jay. (Hah!) The top 3 will be selected for the competition. We won't be counting until the window closes, so if you want to change your vote, you may again rep one of us up until the due date for voting. You may only vote for up to (1) of your own prompts. Please do not use all 3 of your votes on your own prompts.

6. PLEASE COMMUNICATE if something comes up. We realize that life gets busy/crazy/stressful. We're certainly willing to work with you in that case, but please don't make us hunt you down. If you ghost without a word, it delays the guessing thread for everyone, and we don't want that, do we?

7. You will submit your story by emailing it to BOTH Jays. Please provide a Google Docs link (it is up to you whether you allow comments or make it read-only). If you can't do Google Docs, you may also provide a doc in PDF, .DOC, or .DOCX format - with the understanding that we will still copy and paste your story into a Google Doc for you, simply for ease of sharing. All content will still belong to you. Along with your story, please provide an excerpt of about 200 words for the Guessing Thread, and please indicate whether you are okay with us sharing your story with the other participants. If you have overly foul language, erotica, excessive gore or violence, potential triggers (like abuse), potentially phobia-inducing material (like bugs...shudder...) or basically anything R rated or above, etc. - it's allowed, BUT you MUST let us know so we can slap a content warning on the spreadsheet.

8. Once every story has been guessed, the spreadsheet of links will be EMAILED to everyone so that only participants have access. Sharing a link means that people can download your doc to their Kindle or other e-reader to read offline, which is allowed for ease of reading, especially for those without constant internet access. However, all content belongs​ to the original writer! No sharing with anyone outside of this group without the written permission of the author. If a lurker wants to read someone's story and emails them, it's up to that individual whether they want to share with someone who isn't playing. Please let us know if you are not comfortable sharing your story, and we will not include it in our spreadsheet.

9. If you beta a story, or are otherwise aware of who wrote what story before the guessing opens, you are not allowed to guess that story.

10. We know you guys are all Mature Adults (TM), but please play nice. Hatred, flaming, bigotry, and intolerance will not be tolerated.

11. Special Request: Please do NOT write about bugs. Both Jays will be reading all of your stories, and we are bug-phobic to varying degrees. Shudder. Thank you.

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Schedule

April 1[SUP]st[/SUP] – April 30[SUP]th[/SUP]: Sign ups. Everyone posts prompts.
May 1[SUP]st[/SUP] – May 15[SUP]th[/SUP]: We'll post the full list of prompts. Rep either Jay or Jay with your vote for up to 3 of your favorite prompts. You may only vote for 1 of your own prompts.
May 15[SUP]th[/SUP]: We will post the top 3 prompts.
May 15[SUP]th[/SUP] – July 31[SUP]st[/SUP]: You guys write a story based on at least one of the prompts. Or write one story combining all three prompts – or if you’re a real over-achiever, write a story for each prompt separately.

Jay the Jay Ay's email: bobtheexistentialistmongoose (at) gmail (DOT) com
Jay the Jaymz's email: liriel1810 (AT) gmail (DOT) com

What are you waiting for? Join us!

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Another Special Note: Your input is valuable to us, as this challenge is for you guys, and we want you to have the MOST BEST, MOST FUN experience we can create! Therefore, if you have any input or suggestions to change or improve this challenge, you are most welcome to share them.


Edit:

The winning prompts are here.

Stories are due July 31st. You may write just one prompt, write two or more, or combine two or more.

Also, if another prompt that didn't win caught your eye, feel free to go ahead and write it! The more the merrier!

Full prompt list.

Guessing will begin on August 1st.
 
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Kjbartolotta

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So many memes. That is why...

PROMPT: Something with an 'accursed meme'. It can be whatever you want, as long as it involves some kind of evil meme that produces unfortunate results when people see it.

PROMPT: Space Pirates!

PROMPT: A SFF setting where color of clothing is used as a status indicator.

(might edit/add clarity to the last two at some point)
 
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J. A. Rama

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PROMPT 1: Show me something amazing, horrific, strange, and/or alien that emerges from the depths of the ocean. It can be anything you like in any genre you like. Bonus points for (OPTIONALLY) including a character who Macgyvers amazing solutions together using ridiculous objects like duct tape, a Q-tip, a post-it note, etc.

PROMPT 2: Inspired by this tweet. Write a story cramming in as many bad/cliched/hilarious/cheesy/overused tropes as you can! Bonus points if you turn them on their head.

PROMPT 3: I want a depressed necromancer as the protagonist. Optional bonus points if it's SFF set in a fantastical non-Earth location.
 
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Jaymz Connelly

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Woo hoo!

Prompt1: Lizard people. Are they good or bad? How much do they look like and/or behave like lizards? Are they visiting Earth, or are we going to read about something that happens on their own planet?


Prompt2: A spaceship finds something unexpected on a routine flight. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to reveal how the crew deals with this break in their routine.

Prompt3: a wizard with a cold, and every magic spell he tries goes awry somehow. It's up to you if the problem becomes permanent, or if it corrects itself once he's recovered from the cold.
 
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Sue77

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3 good prompts already!

I will not be using google docs, does that mean I can't participate?
 
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Sage

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My life's been taken over by work & chorus (& I'll prolly run the Beta Project before this is over), so I think I'll skip this one. Besides, I'd totally be prompting "Bugs" :p
 

Jaymz Connelly

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3 good prompts already!

I will not be using google docs, does that mean I can't participate?

I can't speak for the other Jay, but as long as you're willing for us to put your story into a google docs once you submit it, I'd think that would be okay.
 

J. A. Rama

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3 good prompts already!

I will not be using google docs, does that mean I can't participate?

That's fine. As long as you're okay with--

I can't speak for the other Jay, but as long as you're willing for us to put your story into a google docs once you submit it, I'd think that would be okay.

Well, what Jay said. That.

It's just for ease of sharing. All of your work will still belong to you and you will of course be credited.
 

aliwood

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3 good prompts already!

I will not be using google docs, does that mean I can't participate?

I can't speak for the other Jay, but as long as you're willing for us to put your story into a google docs once you submit it, I'd think that would be okay.

I had the same problem, so thank you for the clarification.

I'd better go and think of a prompt then.
 

BryanT

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Prompt 1:
Ten years in the future, a cataclysm occurs.
  1. What is it
  2. How does it change the human race?
  3. Is it a blessing in disguise or an all out curse?
  4. Can the human race be saved?
  5. Does the human race WANT to be saved?

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Prompt 2:

A person discovers they can stop time. How do they discover this? What does it cost them to stop time? Do they encounter any problems? What do they do with this ability?
 
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KateSmash

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:idea:

PROMPT 1: We're all familiar with the trope of "secret royalty" (y'know, where the protagonist was the lost prince/ss all along) - but I want you to flip it on it's head. Take a king/queen/princess/princess/other person of royal station and have it be revealed that they are not royal at all. Do they struggle to keep their secret or go off and attempt to be a common person?

PROMPT 2: Stealing from my own SSSFFSS '16-'17 prompt: Elves, of the Tolkien variety (so ... tall, pretty, wise, immortal) in genres where they don't belong. Examples: Gothic Horror, cyberpunk, post apocalyptic. Whatever you want, as long as it's not high fantasy.

PROMPT 3: The Seven Dwarves have gone on strike - and have closed the mines for their sit-in!
 
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Kate879

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Prompt: A story where a character who works a mundane job and has a quiet, unassuming life suddenly discovers that they're the unaware star of a smash hit alien reality tv show. How they discover this is entirely up to you.
 

Justobuddies

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*paces back and forth near the signup queue*

*Looks at WIP wordcount, then at his list of prompts he keeps handy when he needs ideas*

*considers signing up*
 

Jaymz Connelly

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*paces back and forth near the signup queue*

*Looks at WIP wordcount, then at his list of prompts he keeps handy when he needs ideas*

*considers signing up*

Commmme to the dark side.

Embrace your inner evil author.

*cackles evilly*
 

Kitkitdizzi

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Cookies? I'm in.

Since I'm still currently on a pirate kick *side-eyes Tiddlywinks* my prompt is: Pirates that travel through time to save the world -- for example; from cyborgs, giant squid, vikings, ninjas. Or, yanno, from giant cyborg viking ninja squid.

And if you need some musical inspiration, here ya go.
 

J. A. Rama

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Just a reminder to everyone - after posting a prompt, please be sure to rep one of us with your intent to provide a story as well as your email, per the RULEZ. Can't count you as a participant otherwise.

*takes off admin hat*

Let the insanity commence.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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Just a reminder to everyone - after posting a prompt, please be sure to rep one of us with your intent to provide a story as well as your email, per the RULEZ. Can't count you as a participant otherwise.

*takes off admin hat*

Let the insanity commence.

*2nd admin hat*

Kev and Bry, get your reps in. Don't make me get out my cricket bat!
 

J. A. Rama

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Thank you Kev and Bry!

Any other takers? This is going to be fun, guys!

If you have expressed interest in this and intend to participate, please be sure you post a prompt AND rep us with your email and promise to provide a story!
 

shortstorymachinist

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Prompt 1: The MC goes to sleep every Saturday night and wakes up on Monday morning, without fail. Family and friends make references to Sunday's events like nothing is amiss, but the MC remembers none of it. Where have the Sundays been going?

Prompt 2: Courtesy of magical realism bot on Twitter: [FONT=&quot]A time travelling woman from the year 2100 materializes in front of you. She says: "I am here to give you a hospital."[/FONT]

Prompt 3: A memory greets her each morning, embraces her in-dream each night--a washed out recollection of Aunt Clara and the man who murdered her. But as a child, her mother made it quite clear: "Sweetie, you don't have an Aunt Clara." Now she still wonders: Whose memory is this?
 
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J. A. Rama

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Okay! So far, we have 8 participants:

Jaymz
J. A.
Kjbartolotta
BryanT
KateSmash
Kate879
Kitkitdizzi
shortstorymachinist

If you signed up/want to participate but are not on this list, please be sure you have 1) posted a prompt and 2) repped one of us with your sworn intent to provide a story and your email!
 

Sue77

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Prompt: You find a hat. A very special hat. Does the hat have a special ability? Is it from a different dimension? Does it belong to someone inherently evil/good? I'm sure you get the idea..... :D
 

Justobuddies

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*checks his list of writing prompts again*

*looks at line of sign ups*


*checks WIP*

Alright, I'm going to say tentatively that I'm gonna tackle this Siamang prompt. I've got a few on deck that I'll never make time for, yet may get some votes.

BUT, it will depend on where I end up finishing with CampNoWriMo. So I'll submit reps and prompts closer to the end of the month. If I fall way short on my novel word count then I may say sorry can't take on another story (Although, I probably do need to learn to do short story form). I'm going to be positive and say that if I don't monkey around (yes I know Siamang are apes, but I'm in it for the puns) I will make my camp target which will mean I'll be ready for another break by mid May.

Now I've gotta make decisions on which prompt to sub. :gaah