A romance/erotica contest from The Talent Pond. |
A very special THANK YOU to Annette for the fabulous ribbon currently gracing our banner! Welcome to ... The Paradise Cove Writing Challenge is a romance AND erotica contest and open to all authors on Writing.Com. Each round, a new prompt (or prompts) will be posted. Write a romantic and/or erotic short story that the prompt inspires in you. Let's discover what you have hidden from everyone in your very own Paradise Cove. Don't be shy... share it! General Rules: Rounds will begin the 1st of each month and end on the last day of that month at 11:59pm Wdc time. All entries must be short stories of no more than 5,000 words. No poetry please! Make sure to post your word count within your story either at the beginning or the end. There must be at least three entries in order for First Place to be awarded. There must be at least five entries in order to award First and Second Place, and at least seven entries in order for all three places to be awarded. In the event there is only one entry, that participant will receive a small sum of GPs in lieu of any prizes being awarded. Only one entry per person is allowed each round. All valid entries will receive a public review. This is a writing challenge, so the stories must be newly-written for this contest (i.e. the creation date of the item must be between the start and end of the current round). Simultaneous submission to other contests or from other contests is fine as long as your entry for this contest follows the prompt and all appropriate rules of this contest. The winner(s) will be notified within a couple weeks of the close of the round. Content Rules: This is a contest for romance and erotic stories. As such, the quality of story and character elements will be factor into the judges' decision just as much as the quality of the erotic content and technical proficiency. A sizzling, graphic story with no plot and/or stock characters will not cut it here. Judges reserve the right to disqualify entries that lack meaningful narrative, character development, or a polished presentation (i.e., they will not count toward the entry count for prize distribution). Please note that this is absolutely not an attempt to avoid awarding prizes; it's an attempt to ensure that prizes are not awarded to underwhelming items simply by default. Because of the nature of the contest, content ratings up to and including XGC are acceptable. While all ratings are accepted, all content is not. Please note the following content is not acceptable and will cause your entry to be disqualified - Incest, rape (any non-consensual sex is rape), underage sex (under 18 romance is acceptable without actual sex), bestiality and scat/potty stories. There are other contests/groups available if you should have interest in these subjects. Technical Rules: All entries must be posted in bitem format (or entry format if part of a book item) in the forum below. Please do not copy and paste your story into your forum post. See "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor if you're unsure how to post your entry. There are no edits allowed after your entry is posted, so make sure it's ready for judging when you post in the forum. Please contact Bikerider or Brooke if you have ANY questions regarding this contest. Added Incentive: Any winning story that receives a 5.0 star rating and qualifies for one of the prize packages below will receive an exclusive Talent Pond Merit Badge as their "appropriate Merit Badge." The judge(s) do not give 5.0 ratings easily, so your entry really needs to impress if you want to get one of these: First Place will receive a 25K Awardicon, an appropriate MB, and 15,000 GPs. Second Place will receive a 10K Awardicon, an appropriate MB, and 5,000 GPs. Third Place will receive a 10K Awardicon OR an appropriate MB OR 10,000 GPs (judges' choice unless specified in entry post). Honorable Mentions (if any) will receive 5,000 GPs each. ROUND 33 This month I decided to leave the prompt open. Let's start the new year off with whatever you want! Show me what a creative writer you are. I look forward to reading your stories. Good luck, and happy writing. Have fun!. Any questions? Just holler! JUDGE(S) Brooke Bikerider is on hiatus. Jeff is on hiatus. Best of luck to all! "Paradise Cove: Previous Rounds" Donation Information ▼ As always, there are no entry fees for any Talent Pond contests. Interested in joining our group? Click here "Talent Pond Membership Survey" [E]. Interested in other Erotica Groups or Contests? ▼ |