• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Criminal Intent: A Villainous Organization One-Shot Contest

Creepychu

The horror
So long as the team plays a central role in the story, it's all good by me. So, say, a former team-member looking back on what they've done or trying to resolve something rooted in their past with the team is a-okay, but a story about a fast-food chain worker flipping burgers who was once a member of Team Rocket but whose criminal past has no impact on the story would be straying from the theme. The substitution test is a fair indicator here, I'd say; if you could substitute the evil team in your story with a different non-team entity without overhauling the plot then you're off theme, but if you can't then you should be fine.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Yeah, I'd say as long as the team plays a significant role by one means or another, it's fine if the character is a former member.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Alright, a couple of questions of my own this time.

1. I already know titles technically count towards wordcount from last year's contest, but since as I noted earlier my question of if author's notes are allowed was already answered with a "yes"... Do they count towards wordcount too? Because right now my author's notes are sitting pretty at a mere 200-ish words... But the rest of the fic is shaping up to be my longest contest entry yet (For reference what I have so far of the first draft is already longer than the "completed" first draft of Crater Dreams was and I'm not even that far into the story) and while I still doubt I'll get too close to the wordcount cap if I end up being wrong I'd like to know what to trim.

2. Is one brief mention of porn (I'm talking a character saying the word "porn" once and that's it) and a couple heavy hints at recreational drug use too R-Rated for the forum rules and thus the contest by extension, or are they fine with the required warnings in the aforementioned author's notes? (I know, a previous fic of mine had a character smoking weed and that didn't cause any problems, but the drugs hinted at in this fic are implied to be... heavier and I was wondering if that would affect anything.)
 

Dragonfree

Just me
We'll probably be looking at the word counter for the document as a whole since it's the easiest way to measure it, which would technically count author's notes if you put them there, but seeing as you could just as well not include the author's notes in the document (you could still send them to us as an introduction, but the author's notes shouldn't be necessary), I don't think you should be painstakingly trying to fit the author's notes within the limit if it becomes a problem. (As in, even if you do include them in the document and it goes over, we'll just check how long the document is without them; it's no big deal.)

Merely implying or referencing porn/drug use is fine; if it's not actually depicted, it will never warrant more than a PG-13 rating (for a reasonable definition of "depicted", obviously, but mere references or hints definitely don't qualify).
 
Last edited:

bobandbill

Winning Smile
Staff member
Super Mod
Alright, a couple of questions of my own this time.

1. I already know titles technically count towards wordcount from last year's contest, but since as I noted earlier my question of if author's notes are allowed was already answered with a "yes"... Do they count towards wordcount too? Because right now my author's notes are sitting pretty at a mere 200-ish words... But the rest of the fic is shaping up to be my longest contest entry yet (For reference what I have so far of the first draft is already longer than the "completed" first draft of Crater Dreams was and I'm not even that far into the story) and while I still doubt I'll get too close to the wordcount cap if I end up being wrong I'd like to know what to trim.

2. Is one brief mention of porn (I'm talking a character saying the word "porn" once and that's it) and a couple heavy hints at recreational drug use too R-Rated for the forum rules and thus the contest by extension, or are they fine with the required warnings in the aforementioned author's notes? (I know, a previous fic of mine had a character smoking weed and that didn't cause any problems, but the drugs hinted at in this fic are implied to be... heavier and I was wondering if that would affect anything.)
The first one may need some discussion between ourselves first, but I can say that for your second question, just mentioning the word porn and hinting at drug use is not too R-rated for here. Appropriate warnings in author notes is fine.
 

Creepychu

The horror
1. I see no reason to include author's notes in word count since they're external to the actual story and it's pretty trivial for me to just cut them out of the document for when I need to make a wordcount. By the same token, I also won't review anything you put inside author's notes or have it weigh into your score placement, so just make sure that you put the plot-important things in the story and you'll have nothing to worry about with me.

2. As the others say, reference to drugs and porn is PG-13 territory. Unless your characters are getting high off the former and re-enacting the latter in graphic detail you're unlikely to make an R and since you're not sending this out for public view yet, it'll be easy enough to just tell you if you're crossing a line and have it edited anyway.
 
Last edited:

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Alright, thanks, guys.

You guys feel free to decide amongst yourselves on the first thing; as for second thing the porn thing's already happened and the nods to drugs will only happen if I can find a way to work in a fun gag without being too shoehorn-y, so yeah.
 

Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
I sent mine in! I hope the format is good, because trying to paste it into the email eliminated the spaces between paragraphs.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
No worries, it worked fine. Thanks for entering!

Keep those entries coming, everyone!
 

Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
How many entries are there so far? And can we ask what teams they cover? Any side games?
 

Dragonfree

Just me
There are two so far, yours and a Team Rocket one.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Hmmmm... Considering we've only got two entries and nine days to the deadline, would a deadline extension be feasible? (As I said, I knew I'd be the first to ask for one.) As for why I'm asking it's because this actually has reached the point of being my longest contest entry yet and I've still got a fair bit to go, so a bit more time to finish it and get it beta read would help. It doesn't help that A. due to some really nasty RL issues and a few other things afterwards, I didn't realize this contest was even a thing until over a month after it was announced, leaving me really far behind from the start, and B. I'm working on something else on the side (though that's always been a lesser factor due to my approach writing both and that due to current factors in said something I might be better able to get away with skimping on it temporarily for the sake of this contest than I initially thought. That's a very big "might" though as said something has its own deadline I'm very worried about meeting.)

TL;DR requesting a deadline extension due to both current low number of entries vs. how close we are to current deadline and various issues on my own end. Either way I gotta get motorin' on my entry.

(Also from both talking to Blackjack Gabbiani and Dragonfree's earlier post no one's submitted the team I'm doing yet. Good sign for variety, though I kinda want at least someone to do the same team as me for the sake of compare/contrast. :p)
 
Last edited:

Dragonfree

Just me
I wouldn't be too quick to conclude that because there's not a lot of time left we won't get several more entries in that time - it's only natural for submissions to be clustered near the end of the period, because many entrants probably want to continue to polish their entries for as long as they can.

But I wouldn't be opposed to an extension if there are entrants who are pretty certain it will make the difference between entering and not entering. Is anybody else having trouble finishing who thinks they could do it with an extension?
 

ASCIInerd73

User of the Internet
I would like an extension because, while I might be able to cram in a finished one-shot within the deadline, it would be preferable if I could have enough time to proofread and put out a polished version.
 

Venia Silente

[](int x){return x;}
I am just coming out of a sickness period that all but blanked one entire week of my life in activities, this coupled with a somewhat late decision to enter the contest, so I could see use to an extension to the deadline of one is given. How much should it be, am not free to give input on that except for the same thing that I asked for last time - that it at least covers up to a weekend.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Okay, I've talked with the other judges and we're extending the deadline by two weeks, to October 14th. Good luck finishing your entries!

Those who have already submitted may also resubmit at any point before the deadline, in case they choose to use the extension to make tweaks to their entries.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Yay!

Question though, my entry is starting to veer dangerously close to the wordcount cap, so... Would you judges still read the Author's Notes and afterword I wrote even if I send them separately somehow to avoid them adding to the wordcount?

I view them both as pretty important (especially the afterword) but neither are vital to sufficiently understand the actual story aside from one teensy bit of headcanon in the author's notes, so while I desperately want the answer to be "yes", if it's "no," I can just stick the headcanony bit at the beginning of the story and publish the rest later.

Of course, you could also revisit the discussion earlier in this thread of whether such things actually count to the wordcount cap, and if the answer there is "no" i'll just slap 'em right back on as soon as I make sure the story itself doesn't go over.

Ultimately it's all your judges' call, of course; I'll find a way to work with whatever you decide.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Yeah, it's fine; just include them. We'll cut them out when checking the length.
 

Matori

THE QUEEN IS BACK
Okay, I've talked with the other judges and we're extending the deadline by two weeks, to October 14th. Good luck finishing your entries!

Those who have already submitted may also resubmit at any point before the deadline, in case they choose to use the extension to make tweaks to their entries.

THANK YOU DRAGONFREE I LOVE YOU. I fell behind a bit because of work craziness+a tumblr theme week in my other fandom, and this is GREAT. Thanks so much! (Could you update the main post to reflect this though? I nearly had a panic attack when I thought I'd seriously have to get this done by 7:59 tonight.)
 
Top