Contest: Rebirth & Fallen Stars *Finished*

[Kybia]

Closed

This contest has ended. The mirror thread can be found here in the Gaian Contest Subforum.

Start Date: May 21st
End Date: July 25th
Judged by: July 31st

Winners
First Place: Maltese_Falcon91
Second Place: Sky Rhapsody
Third Place: Defaulted to Guild.  

[Kybia]

This contest is being held to revitalize When Stars Fall. It’s a beautiful guild for writers with a lot of potential. More than that, When Stars Fall is a community for those who wish to inspire creativity.

It currently has two subforums for Role Playing and one in support of Role Playing. Rather than restrict members to one central theme, members are allowed to host their own RPs without the overpopulation found in Barton Town. There's also a subforum focused purely on writing where you can ask for help and give advice. As this guild is trying to get things going again, joining now means you have the chance to influence the direction and spirit of this guild.

Story Behind the Name - When Stars Fall
Every star that falls from the sky is a god tumbling out of the heavens. They walk the Earth, powerless and as a mortal, forced to deal with the minuteness of everyday life. By chance they might run into their fallen siblings where their combined presence is enough to return a small portion of their power. With luck, they will one day regain enough to escape and return to their home in the heavens.

Rebirth
Whether you consider rebirth to be a stage in the cycle of life, a theme from mythology, or a philosophy for living - rebirth has very strong connotations in our culture. It could bring to mind anything from ashes to the green leaf of a freshly sprouted plant and generally, in our culture, is considered in a positive manner. Despite this, it is also used to inspire angst and heartache.

Your challenge is to take one of these two prompts and run with it. It should be a central theme to your entry and easily identifiable without feeling old and reused.

All critera will be judged on a 5 point scale. To receive a five would mean we couldn't think of a way for your story to be better in that category (hence, likely rare). A three would be average. Not bad, but not particularly outstanding either. A one would mean you've put in an effort but you're lacking the required skill. To receive a zero would mean that you were completely off base. A single zero in any category would mean disqualification.


This criteria is referring to whether or not you lived up to the prompts. Could we easily identify the prompt in your story? Were we impressed with how you incorporated the prompt? Did you take the easy way out and barely mention the prompts?


Creativity is a large part of this guild, and so it is a large part of this contest. Did you use the same old plot found world over or did you surprise us with an interpretation we've never seen before? Did you put a unique twist on the prompts which make us wish we had put it in the contest? Is this a story of your own creation or does it feel like a rehash of a book or movie?


Were we drawn in by your story? Did we cry when we reached the end, wishing it was twice the length, that you'd write a sequel? Did we come back to your story multiple times impressed? Was your writing smooth and flowing? Well paced?


This is very simple. Is it easily readable? Did you edit it? Are there individual paragraphs? If there is dialogue, is each new speaker it's own paragraph? Did you bother with grammar?  

[Kybia]

1. All behavior and entries must be compliant with Gaia's TOS.
2. No Plagarism. Your entry must be original work written specifically for this contest.
3. Respect all Gaians and their writings.
4. Limit of 2 entries per participant.
5. Length of Entries are recommend between 1,000 to 5,000 words.
6. Post your Entry directly in this thread or post in the "Your Writings Here" subforum and link it here.
7. When submitting your story, please include a header with your username, story title, and summary.

First Place - gaia_gaiagold 50,000
Second Place - gaia_gaiagold 25,000
Third Place - gaia_gaiagold 10,000

 

[Kybia]

Are poems allowed?
Yes. But please keep in mind that they must be able to stand up to the short story entries.