Journal created:
on 23 July 2009 (#21263745)
Updated:
on 15 July 2010
Name:
Will you be the lucky one to survive?
Location:
Seattle, Washington, United States
Membership:
Open
Posting Access:
Select Members
Description:
Star Trek Last Fiction Writer Standing
Welcome to the U.S.S. Redshirt!
| I'm Captain Redshirt and I will be your captain for this mission. If you survive to the end, you'll be reassigned to one of the premiere ships in the Fleet. I hope you're prepared cause this isn't going to be like anything you've experienced before. That said, welcome aboard, cadets! This is a challenge community for all styles of Star Trek fanfic - all pairings (slash and het) and gen writers are welcome. |
Operating Procedures
| Situation Briefing (How This Works) Every week during the challenge a prompt will be given. These prompts will allow het, slash, and gen writers to write as they see fit. For example, a challenge could be to write about mailing three items (cabbage, cookies, and a dvd). Using the prompt in innovative ways is encouraged! In this case, the 'cabbage' could be an actual cabbage or a 'cabbage patch doll'. A word limit will also be given. At least in the beginning, when many people are writing, no story will be allowed to exceed 1000 words. People have to be able to write in a short time frame and then people will need to be able to read all the submissions in a reasonable amount of time in order to vote. Writers may come as far under the maximum as they like. If you can do your best work in 50 words, then that's fine. Deadlines for making submissions will be given in each challenge post. If it's not stated, all times are Pacific Standard Time (Seattle). (GMT - 8) Once all submissions are sent to the moderator, they will be posted anonymously and in random order. Writers and the public at large will then vote for the story they like the best and the one they like the least. The story with the most positive votes will win for the week and the writer will get immunity from elimination for the next challenge until we are down to five writers. At that point, no one will get immunity. The writer(s) with the most negative votes will be involved in a mission that goes wrong, crossed off the duty roster, will be out of the current round of competition. They're welcome to come back for the next round if they like, however. We'll continue through until there is only one writer still on the roster. |
| Regulations for Cadets 1. Stories must fit under the word limit. I'll be putting them into Word to check so that's the counter I'll be using. You might want to give yourself a few words lee-way if you're using another counter. Many word counters don't calculate words the same way as Word. Use this word counter if you have any doubt: http://www.wordcounttool.com/ . This one matches the Word counter so you'll be within bounds no matter what program you use to write in. If I see that your story seems to have a significant word count problem I'll try to send it back to you, but on top of going to school full time and having a part time job, I may not be able to do that. So if you're worried about the count, give me some time to check it and get back to you. Stories that do not fit the word limit at the end of the submission period will not be posted and the author will be stricken from the roster. Headers and titles do not count against your word count. 2. Stories must clearly reflect the prompt in some way. Again, thinking outside the box is encouraged, but please don't be so vague as to appear to have not followed the prompt. 3. Stories must be emailed to ussredshirt@gmail.com with your user name, challenge number, and which side you're writing on as the subject line (i.e. Captainredshirt, 1.08, TNG) so that my filter will catch them all. They also need to be in by the time and date listed in each challenge. The moderator will not 'chase down' authors. 4. Stories must come pre-formatted. If you need to show italics or other html formatting, you need to have coded that in before you email it. My copy/paste will not preserve the formatting of the story you send. Please make sure the < /i> type tags are showing. 5. Stories should include the following header information and only this information: Series: Rating: Warnings: Spoilers will be dealt with as the time line for new movies draw nearer. If necessary, a spoiler line can be added to the headers. What do we warn for? Descriptions of rape, extreme violence, child abuse or sexual acts that might be viewed as 'extreme'. We don't 'warn' for slash (or het for that matter). Warnings for things like Mpreg are not necessary either, especially as they can spoil the plot of the story. 6. Self-beta or find a beta who won't be voting. Remember, anonymity is the name of the game. The moderator, in the interest of fairness, will not beta entries. 7. Challenge specific rules will be listed in the challenge post. Be sure to take note of them. 8. This may seem obvious, but, do not post your story anywhere else until the challenge has closed. Once we've voted and the winner and unlucky cadet have been announced, your stories are yours to do with as you please. 9. Encourage your friends to vote. Do not encourage your friends to vote for your story. Okay: Hey friendslist! The next batch of stories is up at  redshirt_roster. Please go read and vote!Not Okay: Hey friendslist! The next batch of stories is up at redshirt_roster. There's a fabulous little Enterprise/Kelvin story I'm sure you'll love!"10. The nitpicky stuff. In general, anything goes. Any rating, any pairing, any genre including AUs. Crossovers; however, are not acceptable. This is a Star Trek community. The only exception would be Star Trek's extensive canon and series. RPS/RPF is not allowed here either though there may be an RPS only round run later. We're focusing on the characters and events of the many Star Trek series. 11. When the deadline arrives, if your story has not been received, you will be stricken from the roster. There are no skips or passes at redshirt_roster. |
| Voting Regulations 1. Unless there is a hard and fast reason to not read a story (i.e. there's a warning for rape and you have personal reasons for not going there) read all submissions before you vote. 2. Vote for the winning story that is a.) the best written and b.) most clearly utilizes the challenge prompt in a clever and engaging way. When you vote for stories that will potentially strike their writer from the roster, give clear, concrete reasons for voting a story down. 3. Do not vote for or against a story simply because it is/is not of a certain pairing. This isn't a 'Which relationship is most popular?' contest. Bad characterization is certainly a reason for voting against a story, but please don't vote against a piece just because the central character is someone who is not your favorite. When you vote you'll need to give a brief justification of your vote. Okay: I vote for [insert story here] as best story because the characterization of Kirk was spot on and the dialogue sounded like it came right out of the show. I vote for [insert story here] as the one that strikes a writer from the roster because it clearly ignores the canon from "Star Trek 2009", without establishing in any way that the story is an AU. Not Okay: I vote for [insert story here] as best story because Chapel/Spock is just the cutest pairing ever. I vote for [insert story here] to strike a writer from the roster because who could possibly think that Kirk would hook up with Pike? Feedback can be as detailed as you like, but must have at least one solid reason for voting the story up or down. 4. Writers still on the roster, you may vote. You may not vote for yourself as best or worst. 5. Writers stricken from the roster are absolutely encouraged to continue voting from your place among the fallen. 6. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT discuss your vote with anyone until after voting has ended. If there is evidence that votes were discussed and that either/both parties' votes were swayed, or there seems to be some kind of collusion, the votes WILL NOT COUNT. If the author/s of said comments are still writing, they will be stricken from the roster. (Authors, to show that you've read the rules carefully, please put the following phrase in your comment - The U.S.S. Redshirt is a Prometheus class starship built Stardate 2427.) Now, you might think, "But if there's a given problem with a story, won't everyone pick up on it?" Sure. But as an example, a story that seemed to go great guns at the beginning and then peter off might get the following comments: 1. Seemed like the led in to a longer story. Lacked resolution. 2. Didn't seem to go anywhere for me and the ending was a bit weak. 3. This one just doesn't work for me. The concept of [story details] isn't bad at all, but it doesn't go anywhere. I think we can all see that all of these make the same general point. The story in question needed a stronger ending in order to be highly successful. But the particular way this is expressed is unique. Even saying that someone's grammar and punctuation is weak can be said in a thousand different ways. We write and vote anonymously so that no one's voting or writing is influenced by another person. That really is the core of making this challenge work. So please, keep your votes and opinions to yourself until after the results are posted. After that, of course you're free to discuss whatever you'd like. 7. Voting end times and dates will be posted in each story-post. Those are the regulations, cadets. Make sure you understand them. If you don't, don't hesitate to ask questions. |
Commendations
Profile Text by
thefannishwaldo from writerinadrawer
Layout and layout graphics bylayout_lounge
Small icons from the official movie site.
Mood theme by
wickedground
Profile Text by
thefannishwaldo from writerinadrawerLayout and layout graphics by
layout_loungeSmall icons from the official movie site.
Mood theme by
wickedground