Writing Tournament Update!!

[Askun]

This is a writing tournament organized by DS Studio.

The competition will be a round-robin-style tournament with six consecutive rounds. Each round will have six different scenarios. The said scenario will be Announced at the start of the round. The short story will be a continuous story, meaning the story must have the same world and same main character throughout the competition. Each chapter will have a minimum of two thousand words and a maximum of ten thousand words. When the five days deadline end, each competitor will submit their story. After that, there will be a rest day before the next round started. During the rest days, three-judge will review the story. The rest day could even take weeks or more depending on how long the judge reviews the competitor's work. The judge will not know which competitor they are judging to avoid biased evaluation. Each judge has five points to give. This point either will be given to you or your opponent. When all six rounds end, the one with the most point will be the number one winner.

As for the prize. It will be a free illustration from DS Studio artist. There will be three artists with three different styles. This means there will be three winners in this competition.

First place will be given the privilege to choose one between the three artists.

The second place will be given the privilege to choose one of the two artists that the first place did not choose.

Lastly, the third place will have the remaining artist the first and second places did not choose. The artist that had been chosen will provide the illustration prize.

The artist that had been chosen will provide the illustration prize. The type of illustration you got will depend on your request and the artist's ability.

The theme will be Fantasy. So if you believe Fantasy is your forte, consider joining. Even if Fantasy is not your forte, still consider it as a challenge for you and join.

The start of the competition will be on 8/Aug/2022. Registration will close on 5/Aug/2022. If you are interested in joining the tournament, join our discord channel by clicking HERE

This tournament is a ploy for promoting illustration commissions from our artists here in DS Studio.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

Whose’s ds studio

 

[Anon2024]

Whose’s ds studio

Askun's creative studio.

 

[LostLibrarian]

It sounds fun and I might have even entered if I had a little bit less stress right now.

But so, just my thoughts as an outsider about the rules and the tournament itself:
(1) The word count seems unbalanced as hell. We are talking five times between the minimum and maximum. Especially if this is meant to be a continuous story, this means that someone with more writing time could also add a lot more story. Besides style and ideas, this also makes "has time" a big part of the competition, as a 3k word build-up for an event can make it a lot more impactful than a 300 word intro.

So yeah, as a rather slow writer, that point alone would push me away from the tournament even though the format sounds kinda fun.

(2) What will the judges look at during each break? The overall story or just that chapter? Because both options seem a bit off. If each round is only about a chapter, the author can more or less just "reset" the story between each topic, it is about the entire story so far, authors with long chapters and the time for worldbuilding/side-stories/etc will get an even bigger edge in the later rounds.

(3) Adding prices to the tournament is always nice. But you should display works of the three artists. Because at this point, I don't know whether they are at the $500 or $25 level. Even if writing tournaments should be fun for the sake of it, without clear prices, you won't also generate no extra motivation for people who are on the fences.

Either way, it sounds fun and I'm looking forward to see how/if this works.
All the best! =)

 

[Aaqil]

 

[Anon2024]

It sounds fun and I might have even entered if I had a little bit less stress right now.

But so, just my thoughts as an outsider about the rules and the tournament itself:
(1) The word count seems unbalanced as hell. We are talking five times between the minimum and maximum. Especially if this is meant to be a continuous story, this means that someone with more writing time could also add a lot more story. Besides style and ideas, this also makes "has time" a big part of the competition, as a 3k word build-up for an event can make it a lot more impactful than a 300 word intro.

So yeah, as a rather slow writer, that point alone would push me away from the tournament even though the format sounds kinda fun.

(2) What will the judges look at during each break? The overall story or just that chapter? Because both options seem a bit off. If each round is only about a chapter, the author can more or less just "reset" the story between each topic, it is about the entire story so far, authors with long chapters and the time for worldbuilding/side-stories/etc will get an even bigger edge in the later rounds.

(3) Adding prices to the tournament is always nice. But you should display works of the three artists. Because at this point, I don't know whether they are at the $500 or $25 level. Even if writing tournaments should be fun for the sake of it, without clear prices, you won't also generate no extra motivation for people who are on the fences.

Either way, it sounds fun and I'm looking forward to see how/if this works.
All the best! =)

1. It's a time based writing event. Everyone has the same amount of time, it will definitely benefit fast writers over slower ones.

2. Judges are individual and will each look for different things. I'm not sure what Askun's idea of whether judges will post what they look for will be posted. Just remember, all writing competitions are subjective just like all writing is subjective barring grammar. As for how the judges will be assigning points it hasn't fully stated. Also note that there are about 10 entries at this point, so it's not going to be a full round robin either.

3. The Discord has an illustration channel, but if you look at Askun's covers for his stories here on SH, I think some of those artists drew them.

This is basically the first run to see how it will work. Not everything is going to be perfect. I'm certain there will be a lot of issues that will come up as the competition goes on so there is no guarantee that everything will go smoothly. With that said the prizes will still be offered to the winners. If there is more interest then perhaps there will be more competitions in the future, but we'll see if Askun is still motivated after this trial run. lol.

As for the "price of art" that's another subjective matter. :). Price of art is dependent on how much someone would be willing to pay.

 

[LostLibrarian]

1. It's a time based writing event. Everyone has the same amount of time, it will definitely benefit fast writers over slower ones.

Which is fine. I just gave my thoughts on it. If you have such a wide range, you generally have to write stuff that is at least in the upper third of the length to have any chance. Which would make this a 7k words/week event... that's a length a lot of authors - especially those with ongoing stories - won't be able to do.

If "free time" should be judged as one of the things, than that is also totally valid and fine :)

2. Judges are individual and will each look for different things. I'm not sure what Askun's idea of whether judges will post what they look for will be posted. Just remember, all writing competitions are subjective just like all writing is subjective barring grammar. As for how the judges will be assigning points it hasn't fully stated. Also note that there are about 10 entries at this point, so it's not going to be a full round robin either.

This doesn't really answer the question. And it's not about "the judge likes what he likes" but whether the entire story up to Y will be jugded or just a single chapter makes a massive difference in how you should approach your story and the contest overall. It's just a thing that interests me as it wasn't clearly stated in the post above.

3. The Discord has an illustration channel, but if you look at Askun's covers for his stories here on SH, I think some of those artists drew them.

As I said, I sadly don't have the free time to take part in this (I just changed my daytime job and that's a massive amount of stress), but if you want people to be excited and take part, you should display those prices in the thread. Most people - especially "on the fence" - won't go into a small discord just to look at what "might be the price". Especially, if artists can have a wide range of quality depending on the job/payment...


But as said in the last post: this isn't meant to be against this contest. It's just some points that would deter me from taking part. It's good to see it already has a lot of entries and I'm looking forward to how this plays out.

 

[Anon2024]

Which is fine. I just gave my thoughts on it. If you have such a wide range, you generally have to write stuff that is at least in the upper third of the length to have any chance. Which would make this a 7k words/week event... that's a length a lot of authors - especially those with ongoing stories - won't be able to do.

If "free time" should be judged as one of the things, than that is also totally valid and fine :)


This doesn't really answer the question. And it's not about "the judge likes what he likes" but whether the entire story up to Y will be jugded or just a single chapter makes a massive difference in how you should approach your story and the contest overall. It's just a thing that interests me as it wasn't clearly stated in the post above.


As I said, I sadly don't have the free time to take part in this (I just changed my daytime job and that's a massive amount of stress), but if you want people to be excited and take part, you should display those prices in the thread. Most people - especially "on the fence" - won't go into a small discord just to look at what "might be the price". Especially, if artists can have a wide range of quality depending on the job/payment...


But as said in the last post: this isn't meant to be against this contest. It's just some points that would deter me from taking part. It's good to see it already has a lot of entries and I'm looking forward to how this plays out.

Yeah I was just answering questions. The fact is there is still a bit up in the air as organizing goes.

Askun would need to give the definitive answer if it needs to be addressed. I am part of the organizers on discord but I don’t really have much skin in the game, so I can’t speak for Askun.

What I stated is only what I know and may be subject to change.

 

[Askun]

(3) Adding prices to the tournament is always nice. But you should display works of the three artists. Because at this point, I don't know whether they are at the $500 or $25 level. Even if writing tournaments should be fun for the sake of it, without clear prices, you won't also generate no extra motivation for people who are on the fences.

That is certainly a good point. This could be blamed on me for not providing their portfolio. As I am still waiting for the third artist before giving their portfolio. But at this point, I will give you what I currently got. As for the other point, I think Anon already sums it up well enough.

 

[SakeVision]

Askun's creative studio.

ah, so his discord server

 

[BenJepheneT]

ah, so his discord server

It's a discord server in name only. It's mostly used for comp purposes. Most social engagements are relegated to #general with not much going on aside from greetings and FAQ.