Overview and Rules
Welcome to Fanfiction Stadium!
This all started with counterfeitcoin and dragonessasmith watching far too many episodes of Iron Chef. counterfeitcoin decided that a fanfiction equivalent would be awesome, only to discover that someone else already thought of that over at the now-dead iron_author, however in a format that was not quite what she had in mind. After much discussion with dragonessasmith and simmysim, a different format was decided upon, a plan put into action.
Thus, fiction_stadium was created.
Overview:
Should you decide to participate in the challenge, you will sign up for one of two formats, multifandom or fandom specific, then you will be assigned a challenger (unless you and another person request to battle each other), at which point you will be given a secret ingredient or theme and four (4) weeks to write four (4) fics of 100-1,000 words each. Each challenger will then email her or his submission to the mods (fictionstadiummods AT gmail DOT com). When all submissions are received, all fics will be posted by the mods for a voting period of two (2) weeks. The philosophy behind the anonymous posting is an attempt to curb bias in the voting. After voting closes, we will reveal the authors and winners.
Because we want voting to be as unbiased as possible, please don't repost your stories anywhere until after the reveal, however feel free to pimp the fact that you are participating in the current round of battles and/or that your fandoms are being featured. And, obviously, please refrain from shouting to the rooftops which stories are yours.
And now, the specifics:
This all started with counterfeitcoin and dragonessasmith watching far too many episodes of Iron Chef. counterfeitcoin decided that a fanfiction equivalent would be awesome, only to discover that someone else already thought of that over at the now-dead iron_author, however in a format that was not quite what she had in mind. After much discussion with dragonessasmith and simmysim, a different format was decided upon, a plan put into action.
Thus, fiction_stadium was created.
Overview:
Should you decide to participate in the challenge, you will sign up for one of two formats, multifandom or fandom specific, then you will be assigned a challenger (unless you and another person request to battle each other), at which point you will be given a secret ingredient or theme and four (4) weeks to write four (4) fics of 100-1,000 words each. Each challenger will then email her or his submission to the mods (fictionstadiummods AT gmail DOT com). When all submissions are received, all fics will be posted by the mods for a voting period of two (2) weeks. The philosophy behind the anonymous posting is an attempt to curb bias in the voting. After voting closes, we will reveal the authors and winners.
Because we want voting to be as unbiased as possible, please don't repost your stories anywhere until after the reveal, however feel free to pimp the fact that you are participating in the current round of battles and/or that your fandoms are being featured. And, obviously, please refrain from shouting to the rooftops which stories are yours.
And now, the specifics:
- Sign ups: There are three formats you can sign up under, multifandom, fandom specific, or upping the ante. In multifandom mode, you and your challenger can decide to either coordinate fandoms or each write in whatever fandoms you wish whether they match or not. In fandom specific mode you sign up under a specific fandom and are matched with someone else also signed up to write that fandom. This could become problematic in instances when there isn't anyone else signed up in that fandom. This is why you should encourage others to sign up in your fandom. However, if we can't match you up with a challenger, you have the option of either being matched up in multifandom mode or letting your entry float to the next battle. We'll really try our hardest to make sure that doesn't happen, I promise. Should you choose to up the ante you'll be given one hour to write each fic--you will start writing at specific times and you will email each fic to the mod account individually, if you don't get in each fic within an hour of starting each, you'll be disqualified. It's a little more like the Iron Chef format, except four fics in one hour is pretty crazy. Obviously we can't keep you under our thumbs to know for sure when you started, so we'll be working on the honor system. Just remember that if you choose to challenge yourself like this, it'll probably be more fun to win honestly.
- Timeline: Sign ups for the battles will be opened for a period of one week. Within a week of the closing of sign-ups you will be emailed your challenger's information. Hopefully if any problems arise, a week will be long enough to sort things out. On the first of the month by midnight CST, the secret ingredient will be posted and the battles will begin. you have until the end of the month to submit four (4) fics for judging by the readers. Voting will be opened for two (2) weeks, after which the authors and winners will be revealed. After that point, feel free to post your fics anywhere. Pimp the comm while you do! Once the reveal happens, sign ups for the next round will open. Whether you win or lose, anyone can sign up for any round.
- Voting: Rather than a judging panel, voting will be by the readers. There are four criteria which readers will be asked to consider: Use of Ingredient, Originality, Presentation, and Quality of Writing. Readers are also encouraged to leave comments on the fics, but writers are encouraged to refrain from answering them until after the reveal. We ask that writers please do not vote in their own battles, but feel free (and encouraged) to vote in others.