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Criminal Intent: A Villainous Organization One-Shot Contest

Dragonfree

Just me
Sure, you can feature multiple teams (or, at least, I think that's fine; I haven't talked to the other judges about it, but if they object they can say so).
 

bobandbill

Winning Smile
Staff member
Super Mod
I have no objection to multiple teams, and arguably that would make sense for various fic ideas you may have with Magma and Aqua, for example.
 

Creepychu

The horror
As long as the villains are the centerpiece of the story, you can feel free to include as many villainous teams as you think you can fit in. As bobandbill mentioned, interaction between different teams is plenty of ground for stories in itself and pretty central to Magma and Aqua in particular.
 

MerCurry

Functioning Idiot
Sweet! Thanks, guys.
 

AmericanPi

Write on
- Your entry must be about a canonical villainous organization existing in at least one installment of the Pokémon franchise.

Welp, there goes the first idea that popped into my head when I saw the title of this contest. I was going to write about a villainous team of my own creation. Now I'll have to come up with another idea, which will be difficult because it's been a while since I've touched anything Pokemon-related (besides semi-competitive battling). I may give this contest a shot, but I'm not sure.

I have a couple of random questions that may or may not relate to my potential story:
1.) Is there a limit to the number of people who can enter?
2.) Are AUs okay? If they are allowed, are they discouraged or encouraged?
3.) If the fic we want to submit is rated R, do we have to get any sort of approval? Not that I'm planning to write an R-rated entry, just wondering in case someone might want to do this.
4.) Is there a minimum story length?

This sounds like an interesting contest. Best of luck to the judges and participants! :)
 
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bobandbill

Winning Smile
Staff member
Super Mod
Welp, there goes the first idea that popped into my head when I saw the title of this contest. I was going to write about a villainous team of my own creation. Now I'll have to come up with another idea, which will be difficult because it's been a while since I've touched anything Pokemon-related (besides semi-competitive battling). I may give this contest a shot, but I'm not sure.

I have a couple of random questions that may or may not relate to my potential story:
1.) Is there a limit to the number of people who can enter?
2.) Are AUs okay? If they are allowed, are they discouraged or encouraged?
3.) If the fic we want to submit is rated R, do we have to get any sort of approval? Not that I'm planning to write an R-rated entry, just wondering in case someone might want to do this.
4.) Is there a minimum story length?

This sounds like an interesting contest. Best of luck to the judges and participants! :)
1. No, there is not.

2. They are allowed. I don't personally mind them, but they may not be easy to pull off given you're mixing canon teams with them. But if it works, it works! Not going to encourage or discourage that myself. If you have a good idea involving an AU, you might as well go for it.

3. I am not sure if this ever came up before! Given one of the rules of this contest is that standard fic rules apply, I'd say it is best to notify us if you do intend to submit a R-rated entry beforehand.

4. No, there isn't, just the maximum limit.
 

Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
I know we can't POST the fics anywhere before the judging but can we submit them anywhere else? There's a convention coming up next week and if I somehow manage to get this finished by then, I'd like to be able to enter it to their contest. It wouldn't be posted online and only the judges would read it.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
BREIF-ISH RETURN FROM HIATUS. AGAIN.

Hoo boy, am I torn.

On one hand, recent RL illness has delayed the end of an out-of-Serebii project significantly, which in turn is delaying my next big Serebii project, Heroes After All (Though how much the latter will be delayed by the former may depend on how I handle things), and... I REALLY don't want to further delay either of them.

On the other hand, I quickly got a plot bunny for this contest. Which quickly ballooned into (something resembling) an actual plot which seems like a lot of fun. So yeah, unsure what to do here.

...Though considering I responded similarly to last year's contest only to cave and do it anyway... I probably will again, and (hopefully) come up with a crazy enough plan to pull it off.
 

Venia Silente

[](int x){return x;}
[...]come up with a crazy enough plan to pull it off.

Yes please. :p I feel your pain.

I myself am torn between entering this contest and not, but that's because the rest of my writing is already going slowly enough that I shouldn't risk both this and that by trying to multitask. The creative time I don't spend on Interim and on trying to get Stars... published to the spanish Pokémarket is spent usually betareading for Spiteful Murkrow's Fledglings, and or sleeping. That said, I already have a more or less secured plot idea, and two easy weekends are coming up this month... so if I feel like torturing myself, yeah, why not.

Just in case, of course, luck to everyone who can participate.
 

Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
Hey, the deadline for the convention is coming up so I need to know if I'm able to submit this fic there. If that counts as posting it.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
I'm tentatively leaning towards yes, if the story isn't actually published and only read by the judges there (it's not like we'd ever know if you did, then), but if the other judges have any objections, please voice them.
 

Creepychu

The horror
The spirit of the rule as I understand is that a fanfic shouldn't get the unfair advantage of a massively longer writing/polish period and an established following weighing in its favor, and that's not going to be the case if it's a fresh fic read by some judges' panel somewhere we don't know of. So yeah, I'm fine with it.
 
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AmericanPi

Write on
I just got a great idea for this contest so I'll definitely enter it now. To be honest I'm pretty scared of placing last, but even if that happens writing my entry for the contest will be a fun experience.

Thanks for answering my questions bobandbill. I have one more question that any contest judge can answer: What is this contest's rules about Author's Notes? Are they allowed? If they are allowed, how long can they be, should I spoiler tag them, and should I put them at the beginning of the story or the end? Thanks. :)
 

bobandbill

Winning Smile
Staff member
Super Mod
I just got a great idea for this contest so I'll definitely enter it now. To be honest I'm pretty scared of placing last, but even if that happens writing my entry for the contest will be a fun experience.

Thanks for answering my questions bobandbill. I have one more question that any contest judge can answer: What is this contest's rules about Author's Notes? Are they allowed? If they are allowed, how long can they be, should I spoiler tag them, and should I put them at the beginning of the story or the end? Thanks. :)
Good luck with your entry then!

Author notes are allowed and they can be as long as needed (but note that if they are too long they are going to take away from the story). How you present them (spoilers, before/after the story) is up to you, and the 'better' choice will probably depend on both your story and notes. Either is fine for us.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
I just got a great idea for this contest so I'll definitely enter it now. To be honest I'm pretty scared of placing last, but even if that happens writing my entry for the contest will be a fun experience.

Thanks for answering my questions bobandbill. I have one more question that any contest judge can answer: What is this contest's rules about Author's Notes? Are they allowed? If they are allowed, how long can they be, should I spoiler tag them, and should I put them at the beginning of the story or the end? Thanks. :)

Good luck with your entry then!

Author notes are allowed and they can be as long as needed (but note that if they are too long they are going to take away from the story). How you present them (spoilers, before/after the story) is up to you, and the 'better' choice will probably depend on both your story and notes. Either is fine for us.

I was actually going to ask another judge the same question privately, so this really helps. Thanks, you two!

And yeah, I've decided I'm going to at least attempt to write an entry for this contest after I take care of something else that'll most likely be pretty much done by later today or tomorrow. Given the current date and the usual rate I write I'll probably be the first to ask for a deadline extension, but if all else fails I'm fond enough of the story idea that if actually entering it in the contest doesn't work out for whatever reason I'll probably just do what Spiteful Murkrow did with Context Switch (a fic he intended to enter in the Hoenn contest last year but ended up releasing separately later for various reasons.)
 

DarkerShining

Well-Known Member
This does seem like an interesting one, and when I first saw the concept, I thought that I might be able to come up with something for it. So far, I haven't been able to think of anything, though. I probably will participate in one of these someday, but I don't think it'll be this one. I guess I'll just keep doing my best working on new chapters of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance and other writing projects in the meantime.

Good luck to everyone who plans to participate!
 

Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
heh. I ended up not finishing it in time for the convention contest anyway so I guess that was a moot point.

I wish I could find a beta reader who was familiar enough with the canon I'm writing from.
 

Psychic

Really and truly
I've started to (finally) come up with a potential idea for this contest, but before I really pursue it, I have a question for the judges:

For this contest, would you like us to specifically explore characters who are members of an evil team during the course of the fic? That is to say, how do you feel about a fic where the main character/s may be former member/s of an evil team? There would still be some exploration of their time within the organization, and their past would heavily inform their actions during the fic, but they are currently not affiliated with that team.

Thanks!

~Psychic
 
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