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?
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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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