Important - Rule Change and Explanation of Challenges!!
Hey, all! I'm posting an explanation of challenges to all my fic comms because I've had several questions from various users regarding how to make a challenge and what they can expect from it once it's completed. So, here are the rules, and I'll be updating the userinfo page with a link to this post. There are a lot of explanations which will hopefully be somewhat useful to you.
I would recommend that everyone read these, even if you have been a member of wincest_fic for a while and you believe you know. Just to be sure. ^_^*
A challenge should be submitted in the following format:
Username:
Keywords:
Dialogue:
This is the same format we have always used.
I'm separating the rules into what to do as a challenger and what to do as an author. Yes, every member is both an author and a challenger in this comm. However, there are different concerns depending on whether you're submitting a challenge or writing a fic, and the rules are split up accordingly.
Challenger:
Before the rules, one overall idea to keep in mind is that this is not a fic request community. If you submit a challenge and are expecting one type of fic but get something else that you don't like, as long as the fic fulfills the challenge there is no problem. You are submitting a challenge that the author can write in any way s/he wants to. If, however, you believe the fic written for your challenge did not fulfill the challenge, please message me, kowaiyoukai, with the author's name, title of the fic, the comm it's posted to, and the problem you have with it. I'll read it and get back to you as soon as I can. If the fic did not meet the challenge, I'll message the author. This happens incredibly rarely, but please let me know if you feel this is the case.
1- The first line is your username. Please spell this exactly how it appears on LJ. Even if you have a nickname you go by, or you're signing up on one account for another, please make sure the username you write down matches the one you're posting the challenge for. If you're logged in as kowaiyoukai, for example, you can't have the username as some kind of nickname (such as "kowai," "koyou," "Fangirl Extraordinaire," etc.) or any real life name (such as Barbara, Steven, etc.) or any other LJ user name. Simple enough, right?
2- The second line is three keywords that you'd like your fic to be based off of. There must be three words or objects/items. Some correct keywords are as follows: love, hate, sex, princess, evil, earwax, bomb, gun, mouse pad, action figure, assault rifle, sliding door, massage therapist, good, angel, demons, broken pencil, novel-length text message, shredded pile of posters, enormous Lego collection, musty old books, glasses with tape on the nose holding them together, computer speakers, AIM conversation. There are thousands and thousands of great keywords that are completely acceptable. Now, I'm going to give you some examples of incorrect keywords.
"bread baking in the oven" - This is an item in the process of an activity. The problem here is that an action is being assumed. Generally, you should avoid verbs in your keywords and stick with nouns and adjectives. Similar problems come up with the phrase "taping glasses together," as opposed to the correct keyword "glasses with tape on the nose holding them together." This might be confusing, but the idea is that you're not meant to force the author into any kind of situation. You're leaving the keywords open for the author to interpret and do with as s/he sees fit. So, "taping glasses together" means at some point in the fic, someone would have to tape glasses together. "Glasses with tape on the nose holding them together" could simply be a pair of broken glasses lying on a table somewhere. Other examples of keywords which imply activities and are therefore not acceptable: "polishing a ring," "forfeiting a poker game," and "sleeping on a bed."
"Castiel" - Any proper name of any character or place is not allowed as a keyword. For instance, "Bobby," "Anna," "Agent Henrickson," "Paris," "Nevada," "Australia," and "Saturn" are all not allowed. This is because the use of these as keywords forces the author into including a specific character, or at least having other characters discussing that character, and using a place really binds the author into a setting. Also, "Stanford," "Lawrence," "Kansas," "Heaven," and "Hell" are allowed, however they count as two keywords instead of one. This is because the use of any of them really forces the author into a certain situation or story, and it seems only fair to even things out by only allowing one other keyword.
"jet," "company," "icon" - or any other word that has more than one meaning. These are all okay to use as keywords, but please realize that multiple meanings indicate that the author might interpret this a different way than you did. "Jet" can mean an airplane, or it can indicate to move quickly ("Let's jet"), or it can mean a stream of water. "Company" can mean a business or corporation, or it can mean a group people you know, or a group of people who have come to a house to socialize, or it can mean a military group of soldiers. "Icon" can mean a computer icon found on LJ and other online groups, or it can mean a very famous person like a rock star, or it can mean a religious artifact. Please be as specific as possible if you wish to avoid alternate meanings in words. For instance, in this example, "airplane," "corporation," and "religious artifact" have an entirely different feel than "fast movement," "group of soldiers," and "rock star." On the other hand, it can be interesting to leave meanings open for the author to interpret.
"I love the city at night like this." - That's a wonderful line of dialogue. Please put it in the line of dialogue section because it’s not a keyword.
"Castiel/Anna" - Keywords are not a way of getting a pairing you want into a fic. Don't do this.
Sam has to get drunk! - This is not a keyword. You cannot indicate what you want to happen in the fic in the keywords section. You can have the keyword "drunk," but you have no control over who gets drunk or even if a character will get drunk at all.
I don't care. Whatever they want is fine. - No. It's not. You need to submit three keywords as part of the challenge. It's a short challenge, and it really is necessary that you write down three keywords.
3- The third line is one line of dialogue. This means you have one, single line of dialogue that you would like a character to say. This is not a line of narration. You cannot tell the author who will say this line. It also must be one line. For example, some examples I made up of incorrect lines of dialogue are the following:
"The moon was reflected in the water's ripples. How pleasant it looked, how serene and uncomplicated. Ah, if only all of life could be as this was." - I don't care if it's a pretty quote that you love. If it's more than one line, I'll cut out everything but the first line if you don't get back to me with a revision to your challenge. Quotes are allowed, but remember that a character will be saying it.
"Dean walked closer, holding his breath and waiting for a sign that this would work." - That's a great piece of narration, but do you really want Sam (or any other character, including Dean himself) to say it?
"…" - Ellipses are not a line of dialogue. It's a marker used to indicate silence. They don't count.
"BOOM!" or "Moo!" or "Crash!" - Unless you want a character to say a sound effect, please don't write it as the line of dialogue.
"Snort" or "Laugh" or "Yawn" - Unless you want a character to say a noise a human can make, please don't write it as the line of dialogue.
Sam has to say "beer" and get drunk! - Look, that's not actually a dialogue line. You can have your dialogue line be "Beer!" but you can't state who says it or how it's used.
I don't care. Whatever they want is fine. - Again, no, it's not. You need to submit a line of dialogue as part of the challenge. It's a short challenge, and it really is necessary that you write down a dialogue line.
Those are all examples I came up with on the spot, but they're reflections of some of the challenges that I've been letting slide because of confusion. Well, now we all know and there will be no more confusion. So, please, follow the rules for one line of dialogue.
If there are any errors in the challenge, I will message you with the problem and ask you to edit the challenge accordingly.
Author:
Before the rules, you should know that the challenge must be fulfilled exactly how it is. Simply put, if you don't include a keyword, or change the dialogue line, or anything else that doesn't match the challenge, you might need to re-write or edit the fic. If the challenger messages me and states that they don't believe the challenge was met, then I need to look over the fic and determine the situation. This sounds dramatic, but usually all of the challenges are met and there are never really any problems. However, there have been instances of people changing the challenges and I would strongly recommend against doing that. If you believe you need to change the challenge, message the challenger before the end of the month and ask if it's all right. If they say yes, there's no problem. Just make sure both you and the challenger message me with the change. If they say no, you have to stick to the original challenge. Also, if you change the challenge under the radar and don't ask at all, if you get caught then the fic will be considered to not have met the challenge. In that case, you'll still owe a fic for that particular challenge and you won't be able to sign up for another one until that challenge is met. I highly doubt this will happen, but now it's on the comm rules so there's no confusion for anyone.
1- The first line is the challenger's username. Please copy this, exactly as it is written in the challenge you are given, in your fic's header, even if you know the person IRL and want to use a nickname or their real name. We only use the full LJ usernames in the headers, for clarity's sake.
2- The second line is the keywords. These three words must be included in the fic. The objective is to either have the words be the focus of the fic, or to have them be in some way important, or to have them written in the fic. You must have the three keywords in the fic as they are written. Exceptions are allowed, as always. One example is if a keyword is an emotion, like joy, love, sadness, or hate. Showing the emotion as opposed to just including the word is probably preferable in that instance. Keywords have the largest area to maneuver in, as most of you already know, but they should all be in the fic in some way. Also, you guys already know that you don't have to follow the challenger's lead. For instance, the keywords "dinner," "candlelight," and "romance" lead to one obvious interpretation, but feel free to include them and write your fic however you want to.
3- The third line is the line of dialogue. This is one line of dialogue that you must write exactly as you receive it in your fic. One character must say it. However, the character who says it is up to you. It doesn't have to be the character requested in the fic. Also, the line of dialogue must be a line of dialogue, not of narration. If you get a really strange line that sounds like it should be narration, that sucks but sorry, it still needs to be a dialogue line. There are always exceptions, but you should be aware that the dialogue line is probably the easiest thing to complete in the challenge. For instance, if your line is "I just can't believe she said that" your sentence could be: "I just can't believe she said that," Dean said. Simple.
One thing to remember for the line of dialogue is that re-phrasing is not allowed. If the line is “I do not even believe you,” you cannot write “I don’t even believe you” or “I do not believe you.” You can’t add or take out any words and you can’t abbreviate words. One thing that is allowed is that underline, bold, italics, and all caps all can be interchanged. This is because if, for instance, you usually indicate emphasis by italicizing words, but the challenger put them in all caps or bolded them, you can change them to be italics. However, you can’t change commas, exclamation points, question marks, or any other form or punctuation. If you believe the sentence is incorrectly punctuated, ask the challenger if it’s all right to change it. I normally try to catch those things ahead of time, but I do miss them.
Also, everyone should remember that for this comm, wincest means Dean and Sam in a romantic relationship. It does not include Mary and John. So, pairings like Mary/Sam or John/Dean are NOT allowed. However, the extent of Dean and Sam's relationship and how they interact is entirely up to you. It can be one-sided, non-con, just sex, they're both secretly in love with each other-whatever you can think of is fair game. If you’re looking to write a fic that’s not wincest, please visit our sister comm spn_monthlyfic.
If you have any questions, concerns, comments, suggestions, flames, praises, bribes, or anything else you'd like to throw my way, please feel free to contact me by either commenting to this post, commenting to my personal LJ at kowaiyoukai, or else messaging me. I'll respond as soon as I can.
These rules are going to take effect starting the February 2009 round, which means that everybody who’s participating in the January 2009 round (along with all of the late challenges from earlier rounds) don’t necessarily have to follow these, even though they should.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this! Hopefully these rules will clarify some problems that have been going around for a while. If there's anything else you need clarification on or are confused about, please let me know. Thanks again! ^_^*
I would recommend that everyone read these, even if you have been a member of wincest_fic for a while and you believe you know. Just to be sure. ^_^*
A challenge should be submitted in the following format:
Username:
Keywords:
Dialogue:
This is the same format we have always used.
I'm separating the rules into what to do as a challenger and what to do as an author. Yes, every member is both an author and a challenger in this comm. However, there are different concerns depending on whether you're submitting a challenge or writing a fic, and the rules are split up accordingly.
Challenger:
Before the rules, one overall idea to keep in mind is that this is not a fic request community. If you submit a challenge and are expecting one type of fic but get something else that you don't like, as long as the fic fulfills the challenge there is no problem. You are submitting a challenge that the author can write in any way s/he wants to. If, however, you believe the fic written for your challenge did not fulfill the challenge, please message me, kowaiyoukai, with the author's name, title of the fic, the comm it's posted to, and the problem you have with it. I'll read it and get back to you as soon as I can. If the fic did not meet the challenge, I'll message the author. This happens incredibly rarely, but please let me know if you feel this is the case.
1- The first line is your username. Please spell this exactly how it appears on LJ. Even if you have a nickname you go by, or you're signing up on one account for another, please make sure the username you write down matches the one you're posting the challenge for. If you're logged in as kowaiyoukai, for example, you can't have the username as some kind of nickname (such as "kowai," "koyou," "Fangirl Extraordinaire," etc.) or any real life name (such as Barbara, Steven, etc.) or any other LJ user name. Simple enough, right?
2- The second line is three keywords that you'd like your fic to be based off of. There must be three words or objects/items. Some correct keywords are as follows: love, hate, sex, princess, evil, earwax, bomb, gun, mouse pad, action figure, assault rifle, sliding door, massage therapist, good, angel, demons, broken pencil, novel-length text message, shredded pile of posters, enormous Lego collection, musty old books, glasses with tape on the nose holding them together, computer speakers, AIM conversation. There are thousands and thousands of great keywords that are completely acceptable. Now, I'm going to give you some examples of incorrect keywords.
"bread baking in the oven" - This is an item in the process of an activity. The problem here is that an action is being assumed. Generally, you should avoid verbs in your keywords and stick with nouns and adjectives. Similar problems come up with the phrase "taping glasses together," as opposed to the correct keyword "glasses with tape on the nose holding them together." This might be confusing, but the idea is that you're not meant to force the author into any kind of situation. You're leaving the keywords open for the author to interpret and do with as s/he sees fit. So, "taping glasses together" means at some point in the fic, someone would have to tape glasses together. "Glasses with tape on the nose holding them together" could simply be a pair of broken glasses lying on a table somewhere. Other examples of keywords which imply activities and are therefore not acceptable: "polishing a ring," "forfeiting a poker game," and "sleeping on a bed."
"Castiel" - Any proper name of any character or place is not allowed as a keyword. For instance, "Bobby," "Anna," "Agent Henrickson," "Paris," "Nevada," "Australia," and "Saturn" are all not allowed. This is because the use of these as keywords forces the author into including a specific character, or at least having other characters discussing that character, and using a place really binds the author into a setting. Also, "Stanford," "Lawrence," "Kansas," "Heaven," and "Hell" are allowed, however they count as two keywords instead of one. This is because the use of any of them really forces the author into a certain situation or story, and it seems only fair to even things out by only allowing one other keyword.
"jet," "company," "icon" - or any other word that has more than one meaning. These are all okay to use as keywords, but please realize that multiple meanings indicate that the author might interpret this a different way than you did. "Jet" can mean an airplane, or it can indicate to move quickly ("Let's jet"), or it can mean a stream of water. "Company" can mean a business or corporation, or it can mean a group people you know, or a group of people who have come to a house to socialize, or it can mean a military group of soldiers. "Icon" can mean a computer icon found on LJ and other online groups, or it can mean a very famous person like a rock star, or it can mean a religious artifact. Please be as specific as possible if you wish to avoid alternate meanings in words. For instance, in this example, "airplane," "corporation," and "religious artifact" have an entirely different feel than "fast movement," "group of soldiers," and "rock star." On the other hand, it can be interesting to leave meanings open for the author to interpret.
"I love the city at night like this." - That's a wonderful line of dialogue. Please put it in the line of dialogue section because it’s not a keyword.
"Castiel/Anna" - Keywords are not a way of getting a pairing you want into a fic. Don't do this.
Sam has to get drunk! - This is not a keyword. You cannot indicate what you want to happen in the fic in the keywords section. You can have the keyword "drunk," but you have no control over who gets drunk or even if a character will get drunk at all.
I don't care. Whatever they want is fine. - No. It's not. You need to submit three keywords as part of the challenge. It's a short challenge, and it really is necessary that you write down three keywords.
3- The third line is one line of dialogue. This means you have one, single line of dialogue that you would like a character to say. This is not a line of narration. You cannot tell the author who will say this line. It also must be one line. For example, some examples I made up of incorrect lines of dialogue are the following:
"The moon was reflected in the water's ripples. How pleasant it looked, how serene and uncomplicated. Ah, if only all of life could be as this was." - I don't care if it's a pretty quote that you love. If it's more than one line, I'll cut out everything but the first line if you don't get back to me with a revision to your challenge. Quotes are allowed, but remember that a character will be saying it.
"Dean walked closer, holding his breath and waiting for a sign that this would work." - That's a great piece of narration, but do you really want Sam (or any other character, including Dean himself) to say it?
"…" - Ellipses are not a line of dialogue. It's a marker used to indicate silence. They don't count.
"BOOM!" or "Moo!" or "Crash!" - Unless you want a character to say a sound effect, please don't write it as the line of dialogue.
"Snort" or "Laugh" or "Yawn" - Unless you want a character to say a noise a human can make, please don't write it as the line of dialogue.
Sam has to say "beer" and get drunk! - Look, that's not actually a dialogue line. You can have your dialogue line be "Beer!" but you can't state who says it or how it's used.
I don't care. Whatever they want is fine. - Again, no, it's not. You need to submit a line of dialogue as part of the challenge. It's a short challenge, and it really is necessary that you write down a dialogue line.
Those are all examples I came up with on the spot, but they're reflections of some of the challenges that I've been letting slide because of confusion. Well, now we all know and there will be no more confusion. So, please, follow the rules for one line of dialogue.
If there are any errors in the challenge, I will message you with the problem and ask you to edit the challenge accordingly.
Author:
Before the rules, you should know that the challenge must be fulfilled exactly how it is. Simply put, if you don't include a keyword, or change the dialogue line, or anything else that doesn't match the challenge, you might need to re-write or edit the fic. If the challenger messages me and states that they don't believe the challenge was met, then I need to look over the fic and determine the situation. This sounds dramatic, but usually all of the challenges are met and there are never really any problems. However, there have been instances of people changing the challenges and I would strongly recommend against doing that. If you believe you need to change the challenge, message the challenger before the end of the month and ask if it's all right. If they say yes, there's no problem. Just make sure both you and the challenger message me with the change. If they say no, you have to stick to the original challenge. Also, if you change the challenge under the radar and don't ask at all, if you get caught then the fic will be considered to not have met the challenge. In that case, you'll still owe a fic for that particular challenge and you won't be able to sign up for another one until that challenge is met. I highly doubt this will happen, but now it's on the comm rules so there's no confusion for anyone.
1- The first line is the challenger's username. Please copy this, exactly as it is written in the challenge you are given, in your fic's header, even if you know the person IRL and want to use a nickname or their real name. We only use the full LJ usernames in the headers, for clarity's sake.
2- The second line is the keywords. These three words must be included in the fic. The objective is to either have the words be the focus of the fic, or to have them be in some way important, or to have them written in the fic. You must have the three keywords in the fic as they are written. Exceptions are allowed, as always. One example is if a keyword is an emotion, like joy, love, sadness, or hate. Showing the emotion as opposed to just including the word is probably preferable in that instance. Keywords have the largest area to maneuver in, as most of you already know, but they should all be in the fic in some way. Also, you guys already know that you don't have to follow the challenger's lead. For instance, the keywords "dinner," "candlelight," and "romance" lead to one obvious interpretation, but feel free to include them and write your fic however you want to.
3- The third line is the line of dialogue. This is one line of dialogue that you must write exactly as you receive it in your fic. One character must say it. However, the character who says it is up to you. It doesn't have to be the character requested in the fic. Also, the line of dialogue must be a line of dialogue, not of narration. If you get a really strange line that sounds like it should be narration, that sucks but sorry, it still needs to be a dialogue line. There are always exceptions, but you should be aware that the dialogue line is probably the easiest thing to complete in the challenge. For instance, if your line is "I just can't believe she said that" your sentence could be: "I just can't believe she said that," Dean said. Simple.
One thing to remember for the line of dialogue is that re-phrasing is not allowed. If the line is “I do not even believe you,” you cannot write “I don’t even believe you” or “I do not believe you.” You can’t add or take out any words and you can’t abbreviate words. One thing that is allowed is that underline, bold, italics, and all caps all can be interchanged. This is because if, for instance, you usually indicate emphasis by italicizing words, but the challenger put them in all caps or bolded them, you can change them to be italics. However, you can’t change commas, exclamation points, question marks, or any other form or punctuation. If you believe the sentence is incorrectly punctuated, ask the challenger if it’s all right to change it. I normally try to catch those things ahead of time, but I do miss them.
Also, everyone should remember that for this comm, wincest means Dean and Sam in a romantic relationship. It does not include Mary and John. So, pairings like Mary/Sam or John/Dean are NOT allowed. However, the extent of Dean and Sam's relationship and how they interact is entirely up to you. It can be one-sided, non-con, just sex, they're both secretly in love with each other-whatever you can think of is fair game. If you’re looking to write a fic that’s not wincest, please visit our sister comm spn_monthlyfic.
If you have any questions, concerns, comments, suggestions, flames, praises, bribes, or anything else you'd like to throw my way, please feel free to contact me by either commenting to this post, commenting to my personal LJ at kowaiyoukai, or else messaging me. I'll respond as soon as I can.
These rules are going to take effect starting the February 2009 round, which means that everybody who’s participating in the January 2009 round (along with all of the late challenges from earlier rounds) don’t necessarily have to follow these, even though they should.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this! Hopefully these rules will clarify some problems that have been going around for a while. If there's anything else you need clarification on or are confused about, please let me know. Thanks again! ^_^*