October Novel Prep Challenge

Actually (mansplaining time!) what a contestant should type into that field is, as noted on the survey form:

"{item:XXXXXX} or {entry:XXXXXX}"

That means typing the brackets like you'd do if you're posting it in a forum or on the newsfeed. And it's just item or entry, not r-item or b-item or l-entry or anything else.

Will doing it wrong disqualify you? No. Only if you type the numbers themselves wrong. If you do that, it'll point to some other item or entry on the site, or generate a "not found" error. (No one messed that up in Contest Round 1, but it has happened occasionally in past years). If we can't find your item, or if it's not set to public or group access, we can't read it to judge it. But currently, all new entries start with a 1 and all new item numbers start with a 2, so it's not that big a deal for us to tell one apart from the other.

However, doing things like typing just the digits, or omitting the brackets, or using ritem or f-entry or whatever, potentially means I have to do more work to get things ready for the judges, which will not improve my mood or my assessment of humanity in general's ability to follow instructions.

One final note: If you think you messed up a Contest Round entry, you can submit it again. You can always ask us to check (as long as, you know, you didn't submit it at or just before the deadline). We'll only use the last submission before the deadline.