Tall Tales, Fish Stories, and Whoppers: a Pokémon One-Shot contest
Start Date: 3/1/12
Deadline: 6/1/12
Hello, and welcome to another Serebii Fanfiction contest! Have you ever been playing a Pokémon game and experienced something that was exciting, funny, or nerve-wracking? The kind of thing that had you on the edge of your seat or laughing straight out of it? It’s a great thing when that happens. But when you get online and post about this awesome experience, other posters ignore you, roll their eyes, say ‘learn to play better’, or claim their experience was better/worse/funnier. Well maybe you could fib a little and exaggerate the circumstances to make them more exciting.
Or, since most people around here would call you on it and I shouldn’t be supporting the art of lying, maybe you can write a story about it instead.
A tall tale, a fish story, and a whopper are all various names for an interesting little genre of storytelling that we’ll be exploring this time. This is when a story starts with a piece of the truth. The storyteller exaggerates the points, makes the circumstances wilder than they really were, and outright fabricates bits to make a plot, all in order to make a much more interesting story.
So that is what you’ll be doing. Take an instance that can happen within the game; it should be something that is reproducible without cheating, even if it is unlikely. Your source can be a personal experience, a game mechanic, a Pokedex entry, and/or even NPC chatter. Then turn it into an exciting and thrilling story that will make everyone’s jaw drop in awe. Exaggerations, hyperboles, and explosions are all very welcome.
Not only that, but this contest has something else different to it. One thing that can happen with online contests is that potential entrants see who’s entering and think, “That person is entering? There’s no way I could win! *gives up*”. Or they think “Geez, there’s so many new usernames here; better give them a chance *declines*”.
I don’t want that to happen here. So, there will be two different tiers to this contest. If you’re relatively new to the fanfic writing scene or don't have a lot of writing experience, you’ll want to enter the Larvesta tier. On the other hand, if you’ve been posting stories for a while, you’ll want to enter the Volcarona tier. There will be winners in both tiers and for winning you get, erm, internet boasting rights and the ability to post ‘this won an awesome contest’ when you post your story for the whole internet to see. And that is awesome.
Rules of the fan fiction forum apply, plus these contest specific ones.
1. A contest entry will have two parts. The first part shall be the tall tale itself. The second part shall be an explanation of the true circumstances and what mechanics make it possible.
2. The second part can include personal experiences in a game, as long as the important parts of what makes the truth work are there. The second part cannot include use of a cheat device; use of a cheat within an unmodified game is fine.
3. Any Pokémon game, main or spin-off, may be used for this contest as long as it has been released for sale as of March 1st 2012. This is so judges can do fact checking. Be sure to mention which game(s) is being used in the second part.
4. The entry’s first part must be original to this contest and cannot be posted on this site or others until judging results are released.
5. Entries must be sent to Ysavvryl by PM by the deadline of midnight CST on June 1st. One entry per person. Label the PM ‘Tall Tale Contest Entry’ and place your desired tier in the message before the story itself.
6. There is no minimum or maximum limit, but this is meant to be a one-shot short story contest. If it's more than one post or PM, you may want to consider if it needs all that length (and if it does, that's fine). However, the second part should not be longer than the first.
Also looking for a couple other willing judges; please only apply if you think you will have good free time in June to judge.
Some things that the judges will be looking for:
Entertainment: This is a huge factor for tall tales. They need to be exciting to read. Obviously this is subjective, but this will also count writing style as a major factor.
Correlation: How well the truth matches up with the whopper. Is the truth a core part of how the story works, or is it a mere decoration? The latter will get points deducted.
Probability: As mentioned earlier, the circumstances of the second part should be reproducible, even if unlikely. Use of a cheat device is not allowed, but use of a cheat within an unmodified game is. This will be an all or nothing score.
Grammar: How well the story is written and constructed. The genre is more forgiving of informal styles, but the errors and inconsistency should not distract the reader. Getting a proofreader would be helpful.
If you’d like a physical example of a Pokémon tall tale and how entries should be set up, check out this story, one of my older ones. It’s not the most exciting tall tale, but it demonstrates what I’m asking for. Except the 'dex entries at top; they should be in the bottom, the second part.
Questions, comments, feedback, and conversation in this thread are welcome! I hope y'all have fun with this.
Start Date: 3/1/12
Deadline: 6/1/12
Hello, and welcome to another Serebii Fanfiction contest! Have you ever been playing a Pokémon game and experienced something that was exciting, funny, or nerve-wracking? The kind of thing that had you on the edge of your seat or laughing straight out of it? It’s a great thing when that happens. But when you get online and post about this awesome experience, other posters ignore you, roll their eyes, say ‘learn to play better’, or claim their experience was better/worse/funnier. Well maybe you could fib a little and exaggerate the circumstances to make them more exciting.
Or, since most people around here would call you on it and I shouldn’t be supporting the art of lying, maybe you can write a story about it instead.
A tall tale, a fish story, and a whopper are all various names for an interesting little genre of storytelling that we’ll be exploring this time. This is when a story starts with a piece of the truth. The storyteller exaggerates the points, makes the circumstances wilder than they really were, and outright fabricates bits to make a plot, all in order to make a much more interesting story.
So that is what you’ll be doing. Take an instance that can happen within the game; it should be something that is reproducible without cheating, even if it is unlikely. Your source can be a personal experience, a game mechanic, a Pokedex entry, and/or even NPC chatter. Then turn it into an exciting and thrilling story that will make everyone’s jaw drop in awe. Exaggerations, hyperboles, and explosions are all very welcome.
Not only that, but this contest has something else different to it. One thing that can happen with online contests is that potential entrants see who’s entering and think, “That person is entering? There’s no way I could win! *gives up*”. Or they think “Geez, there’s so many new usernames here; better give them a chance *declines*”.
I don’t want that to happen here. So, there will be two different tiers to this contest. If you’re relatively new to the fanfic writing scene or don't have a lot of writing experience, you’ll want to enter the Larvesta tier. On the other hand, if you’ve been posting stories for a while, you’ll want to enter the Volcarona tier. There will be winners in both tiers and for winning you get, erm, internet boasting rights and the ability to post ‘this won an awesome contest’ when you post your story for the whole internet to see. And that is awesome.
Rules of the fan fiction forum apply, plus these contest specific ones.
1. A contest entry will have two parts. The first part shall be the tall tale itself. The second part shall be an explanation of the true circumstances and what mechanics make it possible.
2. The second part can include personal experiences in a game, as long as the important parts of what makes the truth work are there. The second part cannot include use of a cheat device; use of a cheat within an unmodified game is fine.
3. Any Pokémon game, main or spin-off, may be used for this contest as long as it has been released for sale as of March 1st 2012. This is so judges can do fact checking. Be sure to mention which game(s) is being used in the second part.
4. The entry’s first part must be original to this contest and cannot be posted on this site or others until judging results are released.
5. Entries must be sent to Ysavvryl by PM by the deadline of midnight CST on June 1st. One entry per person. Label the PM ‘Tall Tale Contest Entry’ and place your desired tier in the message before the story itself.
6. There is no minimum or maximum limit, but this is meant to be a one-shot short story contest. If it's more than one post or PM, you may want to consider if it needs all that length (and if it does, that's fine). However, the second part should not be longer than the first.
Also looking for a couple other willing judges; please only apply if you think you will have good free time in June to judge.
Some things that the judges will be looking for:
Entertainment: This is a huge factor for tall tales. They need to be exciting to read. Obviously this is subjective, but this will also count writing style as a major factor.
Correlation: How well the truth matches up with the whopper. Is the truth a core part of how the story works, or is it a mere decoration? The latter will get points deducted.
Probability: As mentioned earlier, the circumstances of the second part should be reproducible, even if unlikely. Use of a cheat device is not allowed, but use of a cheat within an unmodified game is. This will be an all or nothing score.
Grammar: How well the story is written and constructed. The genre is more forgiving of informal styles, but the errors and inconsistency should not distract the reader. Getting a proofreader would be helpful.
If you’d like a physical example of a Pokémon tall tale and how entries should be set up, check out this story, one of my older ones. It’s not the most exciting tall tale, but it demonstrates what I’m asking for. Except the 'dex entries at top; they should be in the bottom, the second part.
Questions, comments, feedback, and conversation in this thread are welcome! I hope y'all have fun with this.