This is a thread to link any writing challenges you wish to advertise or recommend. If the challenge is not something created by you, please ask the person who is running it if it is okay for you to post its link here.

Rowena DeVandal's One Thousand Words or Less Challenge for April:

Information and participation:

http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/28244/5403208/1/

The theme for April is kinda borrowed from Rhea Silverkeys' challenge at her "Writer's Anonymous" forum, but a bit more difficult:

Thinking Outside the Box

For this challenge, you must write about a character or pairing in whatever fandom you choose that you would NOT normally write about. Also, you must write a genre you have never seriously explored. So, for example, if you normally write romance fics about Ron and Hermione, you should try your hand at mystery with Draco Malfoy. Lastly, and this is NOT a requirement, you might even try your hand at a fandom you're familiar with, but have never written for.

The Rules:

-Any fandom is acceptable.

-Any character/pairing EXCEPT the character/pairing you are most comfortable with.

-Any genre EXCEPT the genre you normally use.

-NO OC'S (this means YOU, MLC!)

-Any rating is fine.

-Spell and grammar check are a MUST.

Any questions regarding this challenge may be posted in this thread. I purposely didn't use a plot point this time because I understand how easy it is to stay with certain characters out of comfort. But very few fandoms only have one or two characters as their main focus and those characters deserve our attention. It can be very helpful to see a fandom from a POV you don't normally use, especially if you're having trouble with whatever larger stories you're currently writing.

Once your story is finished, post a link in this thread and I will edit this post to include those links to make it easier for people to find them. Please consider reading and reviewing the stories your fellow writers post for this challenge.

Have fun!

The Fireplace's Writing Challenge #3: The Butterfly Effect:

Information and participation:

http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/28244/5318447/1/

As suggested by Mexicano an requested by several others:

How about a challenge where a significant event in canon history is altered, reversed, etc., changing the future? An extremely overused fanfiction element, but the challenge would specifically require the changes to be unexpected or unforseeable. Butterfly Effect type of thing.

The butterfly effect explained through Wiki:

[It] is a phrase which encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditionsin chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a nonlinear dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. So this is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.

The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.

The Fireplace Writing Challenge #3: The Butterfly Effect

Sign-up for the contest closes at 11:59 pm (PST) on Friday, April 4, 2008.

PLEASE DO NOT ASK ANY QUESTIONS OR CHAT/SPAM IN THIS THREAD. THE POSTS SHOULD ONLY SAY “ENTERING”. ONCE POSTING IS OPEN, YOU MAY GO BACK AND EDIT YOUR POST TO GIVE THE STORY LINK.

There is a thread open now to ask questions, discuss the contest, advertise for a beta, etc. Please use that one for those purposes. This thread is for entering only, and all other posts will be removed.

Guidelines:

☺ Any person who is not banned from my forums is free to participate, regardless if you post here or not

☺ If you wish to enter, please make a post saying “ENTERING”. I will begin making a list of participants as people officially enter.

☺ Your story must be posted under (one of) your account(s) and not in the forum.

☺ Beginning Saturday, April 5, 2008, you may begin to officially post and enter your story. You need to do this by EDITING YOUR POST WHICH SAYS “ENTER” with your story's name, its fandom, its genre, a brief summary, and its link.

☺ The challenge winner will be determined by using a blind poll, which will open on Tuesday, April 22, 2008.

Please do not feel as if you are committed to this once you sign-up. If you need to withdraw because of time constraints or any other issue, just tell me, and I'll cross your name off of the list. If this goes well, I will continue it each month, and if you could not participate in this, then we can catch you in the next one.

Feel free to post any questions that you might have here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/28244/5318550/1/

CRITERIA

Length :Minimum 1000 words

Type :One-shot only (must be a completed one shot and not part of a larger story)

Genre :Your choice

Fandom :Your choice

Characters :Canon and/or OC's

Prompt :Write a story exploring how an event in canon is either slightly or significantly altered and the consequences that come from it.

Deadline :11:59 pm PST Monday, April 21, 2008 (Pacific Standard Time is the time the site follows. Your post with your story's link must be on or before the given deadline.) Your story cannot be posted to the site until April 5, 2008. Stories posted before that date or after the deadline of April 21, 2008, will be disqualified.

Contestants to date (highlighted names have their entries posted and linked):

Taken from Fandom Sanctuary and posted with greeneyeswhitedragon's permission:

Sign up for the First Ever Fandom Sanctuary Fanfiction challenge!:)

Link to page: http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/43414/4786104/1/#5423237

The challenge at hand it to create a "short story" in the fandom of your choice.

Rules:

* Must be no longer than 1500 words

* Can involve canon and own characters if the author(ess) wishes, but please no Mary Sues or OOC

* Any fandom may be used, but the fanfiction must start out or end with:

Welcome to [Insert your Fandom City here]

* Contest will officially start April 1st 2008. This does not mean you can start working on your fanfiction entry before hand, but no entries will be submitted before April 1st. All entries must be submitted to "Challenge 1" thread by 11:59pm EST on April the 15th.

As seen on my own forum:

Link to page: Character Trait Writing Contest

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Welcome to the first ever Writing Contest for my forum! And since this is a fairly momentous occasion (for me, anyway), I figure we should stick with the forum theme - characters and characterization!

Contest Title: Trait Selection

Every character has a few basic characteristics that define them. Some have quite a lot, and not all of them combine in a way that makes sense. Mary Sues and Gary Stus have 'em by the bucketload. Therefore, I will present a list of traits! You must pick exactly three traits, no more no less, and write up a character that shows all these traits. You can make your own character, OR you can try writing a canon character that possesses the three traits you picked!

Rules:

(#) The story must be brand-new; no recycling old stories!

(#) You can either write fanfiction or original fiction for this contest. If you write original fiction, just provide the link to your story on whichever site you post on.

(#) Minimum length is 1000 words, but the story should be a one-shot.

(#) If you are interested, please make a post in this thread indicating so. Edit that post with a link to your story when you finish the story, or edit the post to show you're withdrawing if you find you can't make it - whichever is accurate.

(#) Stories should be submitted no later than May 26th at 11:59 PM site time. After that point we will stop accepting new entries.

(#) Judging will be done via blind poll. The poll will run until noon on June 2nd, after which time we will announce the winner.

Winning Prize: Unfortunately, all we can offer is bragging rights. Then again, who doesn't like bragging rights? ^_^

Questions should be submitted to the Chat thread. All right, ready?

List of Traits: PICK NO MORE AND NO LESS THAN THREE

Whiny

Mean-spirited

Clever

Jealous

Nervous

Ethusiastic

Charismatic

Somber

Reckless

Compassionate

Calm

Introspective

Curious

Patient

Short-tempered

1. Forums are not to be used to post stories.
2. All discussions, language and content, must be suitable for teens.
3. The owner/moderator(s) of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
4. All forum abuse must be reported to the moderator(s).

1. Forum admin/moderator
2. Fanatic (on site for more than 2 years)
3. Fan (on site for more than a year)
4. Regular (on site for more than 6 months)
5. Camper (on site for more than a month)
6. Apprentice (on site for more than a week)
7. Newbie (on site for less than a week)