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Contest July-August 2021 Short Story Contest (Entries closed)

Scalenex
Slann

Scalenex

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The theme for our 27th seasonal short story contest is upon us. The theme brought forth from @Killer Angel is "Unusual Allegiances"

The Rules
-We would like you to try to keep your story between 500 and 2000 words. I am requiring that entries do not exceed 2400 words. This is counting title, poems, quotes, any add-ons. If I get a submission that exceeds 2400 words, I will trim it till it meets the limit, and you may not like what words I choose to cut. Even prepositions are not safe...
-Your name must appear nowhere with the story. There is no point in having an anonymous competition based on skill if we know whose entry is whose.
-You must send your story via private message to Scalenex before noon (US Central time) on August 2nd 2021
-The story must be new. No dragging up a story you wrote months or years ago.
-No plagiarism. This means no stealing a story verbatim. You are free to use characters or settings from other works including other writer's fluff pieces and past short story contest entries.
-The story must involve Lizardmen (or Seraphon or Salamanders or Saurian Ancients), at least a little.
-The story must stick roughly within the theme, at least a little.
-No comics or illustrations. This is a short story contest. Visuals are limited to fonts and text colors.
-Only one entry allowed per person.

I will do my best to providing proofreading and general advise to writers who ask for it though real life is full of many challenges for me right now. If you wish me to provide a detailed edit, please try to get your draft to me as much before the deadline as possible. You are welcome, nay encouraged, to ask anyone else you wish for help or advice.

Once again, the winner of this contest has the honor of choosing the next contest theme if they so choose. This time because I do not want to be saddled with coming up with a last minute topic. If the winner does not give me a topic, I will pass this burden honor on to the runner-up.

If you want to talk about the theme or your eagerness to write or read something. Please do so below!
 
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Scalenex said:
The theme for our 27th seasonal short story contest is upon us. The theme brought forth from @Killer Angel is "Unusual Allegiances"

The Rules
-We would like you to try to keep your story between 500 and 2000 words. I am requiring that entries do not exceed 2400 words. This is counting title, poems, quotes, any add-ons. If I get a submission that exceeds 2400 words, I will trim it till it meets the limit, and you may not like what words I choose to cut. Even prepositions are not safe...
-Your name must appear nowhere with the story. There is no point in having an anonymous competition based on skill if we know whose entry is whose.
-You must send your story via private message to Scalenex before noon (US Central time) on July 31st 2021
-The story must be new. No dragging up a story you wrote months or years ago.
-No plagiarism. This means no stealing a story verbatim. You are free to use characters or settings from other works including other writer's fluff pieces and past short story contest entries.
-The story must involve Lizardmen (or Seraphon or Salamanders or Saurian Ancients), at least a little.
-The story must stick roughly within the theme, at least a little.
-No comics or illustrations. This is a short story contest. Visuals are limited to fonts and text colors.
-Only one entry allowed per person.

I will do my best to providing proofreading and general advise to writers who ask for it though real life is full of many challenges for me right now. If you wish me to provide a detailed edit, please try to get your draft to me as much before the deadline as possible. You are welcome, nay encouraged, to ask anyone else you wish for help or advice.

Once again, the winner of this contest has the honor of choosing the next contest theme if they so choose. This time because I do not want to be saddled with coming up with a last minute topic. If the winner does not give me a topic, I will pass this burden honor on to the runner-up.

If you want to talk about the theme or your eagerness to write or read something. Please do so below!
Click to expand...

AAAAAAAAAGHG!!!!!

I need to get my skates on! I still don't have any poems and now I need to get going on a story!!!
 
I was epically pranked yesterday.

I found a private message from @Christopher

This was the message title

My 2,000 word entry for the "Unusual Allegiances" short story contest...

This was the message body

Just kidding! I'm gonna need longer than 90 minutes for this one! Hah!

And this was my response...

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ConfusedRareDoe-max-1mb.gif

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Dammit.
I am writing the story right now and as I expected I am not even halfway through and already well over 1000 words.
I might not be able to cut it properly so maybe I will post it after the contest. I'll try to squeeze it into the word limit though.
 
Aginor said:
Dammit.
I am writing the story right now and as I expected I am not even halfway through and already well over 1000 words.
I might not be able to cut it properly so maybe I will post it after the contest. I'll try to squeeze it into the word limit though.
Click to expand...

So @Killer Angel came up with this contest theme, but back in the days where I came up with all the contest themes, I toyed with making a very similar theme many times.

It's often in the back of mind during the contest. If you read my short story entries, I included this unofficial theme often.

"Chameleons in the City of Mists" had a Fimir pretending to be a Skink Priest, so in a way he had an unusual allegiance, even if it was a fake allegience.

"The Last Slann" had a Slann essentially ally with the undead.

"In Pursuit of Freedom" had a Saurus friendship with a human as a B-plot.

"His Own Hands" had humans making an unusual alliance with Chaos while kind of not really having an alliance with Seraphon.

"The Big Eaters and Little Eaters" had Lizardmen allying with humans, ogres, and halflings while the Warriors of Chaos allied with Skaven.

"A Long Journey" had Lizardmen from different strata from society showing comradeship.

"The Wendigo" had a motley crew of grizzled western heroes making a temporary alliance to take down a monster.

"Brothers to Remember" covers the Lizardmen equivalent of blended families.

"Short and Scaly on the Streets" of course was a homage to buddy cop movies where two cops with different personalities and life outlooks forge an unlikely bond.


I'm not going to make a comprehensive list but lots of other people have written past stories that would have qualified for "unusual allegiances."

Out of the roughly 200-300 entries we've gotten since we started these contests five years ago, I'd guestimate that at least 20% of these stories involve unusual allegiances in some fashion.


My holy grail has been having a Lizardmen and a Skaven forge a temporary alliance against a mutual foe.

My problem is I believe strongly that short stories should have a three act structure, exposition/introduction, conflict, resolution, and the first act should never exceed one third of the total word count (and a third is stretching it).

The way I figure it, I cannot do the prep work explaining why a Lizardmen is working with a Skaven in less than 1200-1500 words which doesn't leave much room for character arcs, interesting conflicts, or a satisfying resolution.

If you can have Lizardmen ally with Skaven (or something far out there force of Destruction) in your piece, more power to you, but you don't have to swing for the fences.

A scholarly Skink and a lumbering Kroxigor is still an unusual allegiance. You don't have to go as weird as possible. Also, the unusual allegiance could refer to an antagonist of the Lizardmen or Seraphon.
 
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I fondly remember some of those stories. It isn't a surprise that it is such a common theme given that all those armies have been meeting on the tabletop, in video games and in stories for decades now. The "usual" stuff has been told so often already (at least for the people who have been around for some time. For me it is somewhat fresh) that it is completely natural for authors to explore the more uncommon combinations, and I am pretty sure that there is no combination that hasn't been tried out already, either in official lore or in fanfiction.

The one I am writing now isn't even that weird, I just have a long-winded style. (As you know better than most. :) ). I am working on it, but it is hard. I have so many details in my head that I want to tell everyone about. :D
 
Well, I started a risky idea but life has exploded...

:( so hopefully I get time to finish it before 31 July.
 
Aginor said:
I fondly remember some of those stories. It isn't a surprise that it is such a common theme given that all those armies have been meeting on the tabletop, in video games and in stories for decades now. The "usual" stuff has been told so often already (at least for the people who have been around for some time. For me it is somewhat fresh) that it is completely natural for authors to explore the more uncommon combinations, and I am pretty sure that there is no combination that hasn't been tried out already, either in official lore or in fanfiction.

The one I am writing now isn't even that weird, I just have a long-winded style. (As you know better than most. :) ). I am working on it, but it is hard. I have so many details in my head that I want to tell everyone about. :D
Click to expand...

One thing that can probably help is trying to describe your story with only 1 or 2 sentences. Basically keep the premise of your story simplistic, but also interesting for whatever you want to write.
 
Well lots of people have talked about plans for writing, but I got two submitted drafts.

Two is enough for a contest. Huzzah. Considering most entries come in the last week, two in the first two weeks is a good sign. However, that being said...

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