 Contests & Activities: January 22, 2025 Issue [#12948] |
This week: Don't Screw This Up Edited by: 🐕GeminiGem🎁  
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Hey! I am 🐕GeminiGem🎁 , one of the regular editors of the Contests & Activities Newsletter. |
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Don't Screw This Up
I've done it. Yep, I have spent time and effort to put together a contest entry, only to have it be disqualified by for a small, easily avoided mistake.
Since I am an expert at screwing up my contest entries, I feel I am also qualified to give out some sound advice. This is a classic "do as I say, not as I do" situation.
First thing to do when you are interested in entering a particular contest is to read the entire forum, start to finish. If anything seems unclear or you have a question that is not covered on the information on the forum, contact the contest owner. The best bet is to email your question, but could also post a question on the forum if that is not specifically again the rules. Yes, that is a thing.
Next, open your static item or book item that you will use to enter the contest. First thing to put here is the b-item link to the contest. If you prefer not to have this information there later, you can delete it. It is good to have the contest link right there as you work on your entry. That way, if a question comes up or you need to check on something (like the deadline, for instance), you have the link to click on without having to hunt it down.
Some people put the link to the contest along with the prompt details in a dropnote at the top or bottom of the page. Remember, there is a little button to help you create a drop note right above the text box. If you have questions about dropnotes or need some help putting one together, I would be happy to help! Just drop me an email to let me know.
Another important tip  Get in the habit of always putting the word count and/or your line count somewhere in the body of your writing. I always put it at the bottom, but you could put yours right at the top.
The vast majority of contests require this and even if they do not, it won't hurt a thing if you put it there. If this becomes a habit, you will have one less thing to be disqualified for. There is a word count function in the edit mode of static items.
As a contest owner, I would say a lack of the word count is the biggest thing people miss when entering my contests. If there is still time before the deadline, I will ask people to correct this (or any other rule violation), but not all contest owners will. I get it, it really is the entrants job to follow the rules, but I personally like to set people up for success.
If you are curious what kind of things I have been disqualified for, I can remember a couple right off the top of my head. In one instance, I missed that the item had to be a static item and I had used a book item. Another time I was disqualified because I used the wrong form of a word prompt (I used the past tense of a verb). Some contests will allow that, this one did not.
See what I mean? Such small, easily avoided mistakes cost me a contest entry. Don't be like me!
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The task is simple: Write a letter to yourself and tell you what your goals are for 2025!
An elevator pitch is a short and compelling summary of an idea that can be delivered in the time it would normally take to ride an elevator.
January Prompt:
Genre: Science Fiction
Characters: a starship mechanic who believes aliens have abducted their dog and a former child prodigy now working as an intergalactic delivery driver
Plot Modifiers: rescue, black hole, snowcone
Your poem must be a minimum of 40 lines or 250 words, whichever you meet first. No prompt for this contest.
January Prompt: Choose ONE of the prompts for your story. This round's prompts are:
Genre Prompt: Horror/Supernatural. There's something scary or spooky going on.
Words Prompt: Write a story using the words ethereal , numinous, and glimmer.
Character prompt: The protagonist has at least some symptoms of either a dissociative or delusional disorder.
January Prompt: The storm
Your poem needs to be inspired by this prompt. Take it in whatever direction you like. You don't need to use the exact words, but you can if you want to.
January PROMPT: Creature Horror! The attacking animal must be a Kangaroo, Wallaby or other Macropod.
Banned items: Koalas, drop bears, quokkas!
January Prompt - New Years's Eve
Has drawn to a close. How did the night end? |
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Feedback from my last Contests & Activities Newsletter, "Chaos Coordination"
StephBee 
Great advice to help manage the chaos. December was very challenging for me. I think things will smooth out going forward. Gotta give a shout out to my bestie Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ 2025   who is the heartbeat behind the Bard's Hall.
It is fantastic to have a trusted bestie to work on projects like that together!
I asked on Newsfeed: If you run a contest or activity, what are the things that have gone wrong despite all your planning? Here are the responses:
from S 🤦 
I've had 2 things go wrong
1, people completely misreading what was expected (my horror writing contest; it's there in the title - HORROR - and mentioned in the rules and yet I still get things that are in no way horror).
2, when I started running activities, using my time and not WdC time. That's one me. I was so worried about everything else, I forgot I am 15.5 hours ahead of WdC... *Facepalm*
Fifteen and...a half hours? That seems so random. I occasionally forget time differences between our Mountain Time and the midwest and eastern part of the country, and that is only one to two hours.
from Jeff 
Lack of interest. I've come up with specific prompts — and sometimes even entire activities/contests themselves! — that I've been super excited about, only to realize that the only person who was actually super excited about participating was me.
I have absolutely done this. And conversely, I have tossed an idea out that I am sure people will find rather dumb and people jump on it. |
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