The Yuri Garden Writing Competition (2020) [RESULTS]

[Moonpearl]

Pride Month has finally begun and, with it, The Yuri Garden Writing Competition (2020) has now launched~!

For those who don't know us, the Yuri Garden is a dedicated yuri club over on Scribble Hub's sister site's forums, Novel Updates Forums. We run an annual short story competition for the Girls' Love genre, open to absolutely everyone. (This is our third year running it~!)

This year our competition will be completely anonymous, meaning that participants will be able to compete based only on their skill and not by the number of followers they've amassed on SH.
It's a good way to challenge yourself to write something new, receive some honest feedback, and measure yourself fairly against other authors~!

The competition will be receiving entries from the 1st of June to the 31st of July and has a minimum word count of 1500 words.


If you're interested in participating, you can read the full announcement and list of rules here: https://forum.novelupdates.com/blogs/the-yuri-garden-writing-competition-2020.3567/

If you'd like to keep up with the competition, the entries will be posted here: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/127505/the-yuri-garden-writing-competition-/


Finally, happy Pride Month~! Here's a present to brighten your first day.

Spoiler: Tagging

@binarysoap @FriendlyDragon @crimson_carnation @Ninetailed_Furball

 

[FriendlyDragon]

Can I write a confession? Or do the girls have to already be in a relationship?

 

[Yairy]

Oh, this sounds fun. I can't wait.

 

[Moonpearl]

Can I write a confession? Or do the girls have to already be in a relationship?

You're completely free to write about people falling in love, pursuing crushes, confessing, etc.

You just can't write yuribait, where nothing ever comes of the relationship.

Oh, this founds fun. I can't wait.

It's lots of fun~! I look forward to this every year.

 

[MrTiemos]

@Moonpearl
Quick question: What is the condition behind how the chapters will be released? Publishing each entry as they are submitted? All at once; if so, then how would you order them?
(haven’t seen an answer to this, but may have missed it on the NUF counterpart).

 

[Moonpearl]

@Moonpearl
Quick question: What is the condition behind how the chapters will be released? Publishing each entry as they are submitted? All at once; if so, then how would you order them?
(haven’t seen an answer to this, but may have missed it on the NUF counterpart).

I think I mentioned it in several places, but the entries will be gathered up as they're submitted and published each Saturday.

I'm considering mixing up the order throughout the voting process.

 

[MrTiemos]

I think I mentioned it in several places, but the entries will be gathered up as they're submitted and published each Saturday.

I'm considering mixing up the order throughout the voting process.

That does seem the fairest method so far, thank you for answering!

Edit: makes me wonder if there is a random number generator- or something similar- that you could use...

 

[Moonpearl]

That does seem the fairest method so far, thank you for answering!

Edit: makes me wonder if there is a random number generator- or something similar- that you could use...

I have a tool that I use to randomly re-order lists for events like these. :)

 

[Moonpearl]

ATTENTION!​

A new rule has been added to help the competition remains anonymous. It's now submission rule #5.

In addition, from this point on, to prevent hints from accidentally being given out, questions about the competition must be sent to me in a direct message. I'll publish answers that are helpful to other people as well while keeping the identity of the question-asker anonymous.

Some clarification has been added to what is now submission rule #6.

If you're planning to enter the competition, please make sure to reread the rules now: https://forum.novelupdates.com/blogs/the-yuri-garden-writing-competition-2020.3567/

 

[Moonpearl]

There's still one month remaining to join us in the Yuri Garden Writing Competition (2020)~!

Submissions will be accepted right up until midnight on the 31st of July (GMT+1).

 

[Moonpearl]

There are 2 weeks remaining to enter the competition~!

If you're interested, I strongly recommend submitting at least a few days before the end. It's common for submissions to accidentally fail to meet a rule or two and to need a bit of editing to fit before they can be resubmitted.

If your piece doesn't comply and you're not able to edit before the deadline, or if I wasn't even able to check it to tell you before the deadline, you run the risk of having your submission rejected entirely.

(On that note, if your submission does need a little editing to fit, don't worry about asking me to elaborate on the particular issues. I'm happy to work with you until we can get your submission to qualify, so long as the time is available.)

 

[Moonpearl]

There's 1 week remaining to enter the competition~!

Please do submit soon so that you have time to edit if needed.

 

[Moonpearl]

Today is the last day to submit to the competition!

Submissions will close at 23:59 GMT+1.

 

[Moonpearl]

Thank you to everyone who has entered and everyone who has been following the competition until this point~!

Submissions are now closed, so the voting stage has begun.

Although we've been hosting the entries here on SH this year due to practical concerns, the competition belongs to the Yuri Garden, and voting naturally occurs in the Garden itself.

If you would like to cast your own vote, you can join us in the Yuri Garden with a Novel Updates Forum account, and join your fellow yuri fans to discuss this year's entries~! (And discover entries from previous years, if you so wish.)

To find the Yuri Garden and read the rules surrounding voting, just follow this link: https://forum.novelupdates.com/posts/5752689/

 

[Moonpearl]

RESULTS
​

Thank you to everyone who participated, followed along, and/or voted in this year's competition~! The Yuri Garden Writing Competition (2020) is now finished.

The winners are as follows:

1st Place: "Spring-Time" by LostLibrarian
2nd Place: "The Villainess's Maid" by Ninetailed_Furball
3rd Place: "The Demon King's Secretary" by Vongrak​

The overall poll results are:

The entries have now been de-anonymised. In a few hours, the order will be rearranged to reflect our winners. I'll also be contacting the winners about their prizes soon.

Now that the competition is finished, neutrality as a referee is no longer required of me. If anyone would still like my honest opinion or feedback on their submission, whether accepted or rejected, you can ask me for it now.

 

[LostLibrarian]

Once again: Thank your so much for organizing it

Also a "Thank You" to everyone who voted for me and, of course, all the other authors!

Reading the other entries made me want to be a part of this and I enjoyed the different ideas and stories! =)
I always dismissed the announcements with "no time", but reading through the earlier entries made me want to be a part of this event. It was an entirely new experience for me and I'm glad I ignored the nagging "You should sleep" part of my brain and threw myself at it!

=)

 

[Yairy]

That was fun! Congrats to the winners and congrats to all contestants! Reading the stories laid out were a treat.

 

[thedude3445]

Spring-Time was definitely the best story of the bunch, but I am surprised my hypothesis that the votes would be more heavily weighted towards the stories submitted earlier appears to be wrong. There's no real correlation to story placement and votes, which is a good thing! I'm glad for all these fun stories.