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Worlds Collide: A Real World One-Shot Contest

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
worlds%20collide%20frag%20banner%20png_zpsry9auhlx.png

Worlds Collide: A Real World One-Shot Contest

It’s been twenty years since Pokémon was first released in Japan. That’s twenty beautiful years of Pikachu, of gym battles, of all the things we’ve come to know and love about this franchise. So for this year’s contest, we’ve decided to do something a little different: we’ve decided that this year’s theme will be Pokémon and the real world.

What does this mean? A lot of things! You could write about a character from the real world being transported to the Pokémon world. You could write about Pokémon being transported to the real world. You could do a meta fic in which Pokémon has always been fiction, and the fic itself talks about the effects of the games/anime/various media on the real world. You could even write a fic about Pokémon GO! The possibilities are endless, so long as you talk about the interactions between Pokémon and something from our real world.


The Rules

- As always, all Fan Fiction rules apply.

- All entries must be one-shots written specifically for the contest. Please do not submit material you’ve written previously that happens to coincide with the theme.

- Please note that although it might be tempting to submit an essay on what Pokémon means to you to fit the whole “Pokémon interacting with the real world” theme, that’s not quite a one-shot and thus cannot be accepted. Sorry! Non-fiction narrative prose or self-insert stories/stories based on you and your friends are perfectly fine, though.

- While it’s okay (and encouraged!) to find yourself a beta reader and share your story privately with them, please do not post your story publicly before the results are up. Yes, this includes posting your fic elsewhere.

- Entries should not exceed 10,000 words. As always, we realize that different word counters will produce different results, so if you’re over by a little, we won’t mind. However, if it’s very obvious and clear that you’ve exceeded the limit by quite a lot, we’ll contact you and ask you to trim it down.

- If, at any time, you have questions about what is and isn’t kosher or if you have any concerns whatsoever, please don’t hesitate to post in this thread or shoot the judges a PM!

When your entry is ready for submission, either PM it to JX Valentine or e-mail it to the Fan Fiction’s staff email at serebiiyuletide@gmail.com before 23:59 UTC on December 1st, 2016. (Click the link to find a timezone converter. Simply set either timezone as UTC, the first option in either dropdown menu, then insert your own timezone or location in the other field.) If you make edits to your entry before the deadline passes, you may resubmit it by email or PM.


The Judging

The judges for this contest are American--Pi, Dramatic Melody, JX Valentine, and [Imaginative]:[Clockwork]. Once the deadline passes, we will each read all the entries, write reviews for them, and rank them according to our individual opinions. When everyone is done, the reviews will be compiled, the entries will be given points according to their placing with each judge, and their final ranking will go by this combined score. Note that none of us will be privy to anyone else’s reviews or rankings before the final reveal, so none of us will be influenced by each other’s opinions.

Also note that there is always a possibility that the deadline mentioned above will be extended, and judges may ask for extensions on their reviews if need be. However, the judging team will do its best to get the results up within two months. Once the results are ready, every story (or an excerpt thereof) will be posted here, from lowest- to highest-scoring, along with their rankings and reviews from each of the judges. If you would like us not to post your entry with the results, please contact us and let us know before the results are posted.


Tips

- Grammar, spelling, and other basic mechanics will most definitely be considered by each judge. Do your best to proofread before submitting, but if you have a friend who’s willing to beta for you, even better! Don’t hesitate to send your work off to your friend for a second opinion.

- As tempting as it may be with this theme to write an epic, remember that you have only so many words to do it—and that plot and execution will also be things your judges will consider. Make sure your entry is self-contained and can stand on its own as an enjoyable story. Yes, this includes fic in which you throw your poor, unfortunate protagonist from the real world into the Pokémon world.

- This year’s theme is a little more open than previous years in that it spans a vast body of different concepts and genres. Even though we’ve only mentioned a handful of plot ideas in the contest description, don’t feel that you need to limit yourself to just those! Creativity in applying the theme is also something we’re looking for, so if you feel like you’ve got a great way to showcase the relationship between Pokémon and the real world, go for it!

- Most importantly, have fun!

Good luck, trainers!


Sig Graphics
Want to help spread the word about the contest? Just want some nice swag that shows you've participated? You're in luck! Because of the super-shiny "we're doing this for the 20th anniversary" status of this particular contest, co-organizer American--Pi cooked up the following graphics to put in your sig (or blog posts)! Don't think this is the end of it, either. The first-, second-, and third-place winners of this year's contest will also receive awards in the form of shiny graphics by Pi! So do your best and get excellent swag!

The Graphics—Choose Your Flavor
(Note: Please give credit to American--Pi if you choose to use these graphics. Thank you!)

worlds%20collide%20small%20banner%20png_zpsmffwztqv.png

worlds%20collide%20large%20button_zps5ftentym.gif

worlds%20collide%20small%20button%20png_zpsafy9ui35.png

worlds%20collide%20small%20userbar%20png_zpszyb0f8r6.png

worlds%20collide%20small%20ani%20userbar%20gif_zps1zqsjgem.gif

worlds%20collide%20large%20userbar%20png_zps2k0elcxd.png

worlds%20collide%20large%20popout%20userbar%20png_zpsy24gyi52.png

worlds%20collide%20large%20ani%20userbar%20gif_zpsgj9sijzk.gif

worlds%20collide%20small%20popout%20userbar%20png_zps8az3evyt.png
 
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Phoenixsong

you taste like fear
Oooh! I have a one-shot idea that fits this pretty well—this might be the kick in the pants I need to actually write it, haha.

Question: How explicit do we need to be about the connection between the worlds, or about the "real world" bits of the story? Say for example that I'm technically writing about people playing the Pokémon video games in the real world, but I'm depicting their actions as though they're actual trainers in the game world. Or maybe an in-game character is observing people they believe to be other in-game characters even though that's not the case. As long as the context of the story makes it possible to figure out that they're actually "real people", it would fly, yeah?

...I'm not even sure whether I would be "implying" that these are real people; stating it outright would work just as well for this idea, I think. Buuuuut better to be perfectly clear about it, so I'm asking just in case! (Let me know if I wasn't clear, btw. XD)

Regardless, good luck to everyone who enters!
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Excellent question! You really don't have to be super explicit, but so long as you make it clear that there's definitely an element of the real world in your fic, it'll still count. So you don't have to say that these are real people, but we should be able to figure out that they are somewhere along the line, yep.

(Or in other words, it sounds like what you want to do is kosher. :D)
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Ooh, interesting theme! I will definitely try to cook something up for this; I don't have any very concrete ideas, but a couple of concepts are buzzing around in my head. Good luck to everyone else participating!
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
-barges in-

This is the moment I've been waiting for all year! :D

No seriously, it has been. I've been super-hyped for this year's contest for months and seeing it finally drop is magical.

And I have the most diabolical plot bunny for this one too. It's gonna take a bit of research, but in the end I feel it'll be worth it for what I'm envisioning the final product will be. Like last year, I'm gonna do a bit of genre experimentation - this entry's gonna be dark, a bit horrific, and a touch... Edgy. I'm hoping it'll be fun and an interesting take on the prompt.

EDIT: Question though, does it count if the Pokemon World character(s)' primary or sole exposure to the real world is through its Internet and dealing with the fact people on it treat them as a fictional character? Hopefully not too much of a spoiler for what I'm trying to pull, heh.
 
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JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Glad to see folks are into this theme! We're really excited to see how folks interpret it, so good luck to all y'all who've expressed interest in submitting! :D

EDIT: Question though, does it count if the Pokemon World character(s)' primary or sole exposure to the real world is through its Internet and dealing with the fact people on it treat them as a fictional character? Hopefully not too much of a spoiler for what I'm trying to pull, heh.

Sure, that'd be cool, so long as it's still clear that the internet in question is rooted in the real world.

Of course, it should also go without saying that bashing fics—including fics bashing other communities (lookin' at you, anti-Smogon folks ... as well as you, folks who want to bash shippers, anime fans, non-anime fans, GO players, competitive battlers who don't subscribe to Smogon's advice, competitive battlers who do subscribe to Smogon's advice, and pretty much any other group that has ever sparked drama and flamewars)—are still not allowed according to Fan Fic rules, which I'm sure people get, but I'm just sayin' it as a reminder to y'all.

Tl;dr, it's cool to write about the real world internet and the fandom on it. Juuuuust don't do it to bash people, and you're golden.
 

The Teller

King of Half-Truths
Of course, it should also go without saying that bashing fics—including fics bashing other communities (lookin' at you, anti-Smogon folks ... as well as you, folks who want to bash shippers, anime fans, non-anime fans, GO players, competitive battlers who don't subscribe to Smogon's advice, competitive battlers who do subscribe to Smogon's advice, and pretty much any other group that has ever sparked drama and flamewars)—are still not allowed according to Fan Fic rules, which I'm sure people get, but I'm just sayin' it as a reminder to y'all.

Tl;dr, it's cool to write about the real world internet and the fandom on it. Juuuuust don't do it to bash people, and you're golden.

Can we bash the bashers with bashing?
*just writes season 2 of Digimon, but replacing Digimon with Pokemon*
I'm so busy this semester, but I also know that if I don't stop and relax every now and then, I'll completely burn out before exam time, so I'll try to cough something up. And I promise it won't be uber-meta, with the contest theme and the nature of fanfic writing and the hey hey hey.
 

Starlight Aurate

Just a fallen star
I'll admit that my mind had absolutely no ideas when I first took a look at this thread, but now I actually have some ideas buzzing around... I've been more concerned with getting Drowning written lately, but I feel like this will be fun to work on too! :D Thanks so much for getting this up Jax, and to American--Pi, Dramatic Melody, and [Imaginative]:[Clockwork] for judging! This sounds like it'll be fun. Good luck to everyone and may the odds be ever in your favor!
 

TheCharredDragon

Tis the Hour to Reload
Oh, I am so in on this. I've been wanting to write a fic lately but have had no real motivation to. Now I do, plus, I wanna join in on a contest. I have a few ideas. Hopefully I can make them into a proper one shot. And finish it on time.

-sees Umbramatic's idea-

... I have a feeling I know what you're going to do. And I can't wait to see it.
 

Kutie Pie

"It is my destiny."
I wasn't sure if I was going to participate, but I came up with something simple last night and started writing it down, so here's to hoping I stick with it. Just gonna be writing what I know, I suppose. I'm also not too sure if I'm gonna be name-dropping the setting or the city name; hell, I'm not sure if I should put down the elementary school name lol, but it's practically the setting I'm going to use, so maybe I should name-drop it once (gotta first check to see if the school's even still open)? I dunno, I'll figure something out, I suppose.
 

DarkerShining

Well-Known Member
Ooh, new contest. I'm guessing the theme is partially inspired by Pokémon Go? Haven't played that game, though, because apparently it won't work on my Smartphone. All we accomplished by trying to get it was that my Smartphone's battery now drains much faster than before, meaning that it barely lasts a day after recharging before running out of battery again. Yay.

Anyways, as for actual Pokémon in the real world... I can't really think of anything to write on the top of my head. I do want to take part of one of these contests sometime, but I doubt it'll be this one, unless inspiration suddenly strikes. Good luck to those of you who will be taking part, though!
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Ooh, new contest. I'm guessing the theme is partially inspired by Pokémon Go? Haven't played that game, though, because apparently it won't work on my Smartphone. All we accomplished by trying to get it was that my Smartphone's battery now drains much faster than before, meaning that it barely lasts a day after recharging before running out of battery again. Yay.

Partly, yep! But worry not—the theme's open enough that you don't need to have played GO at all to participate. ;)

That said, aww. Here's hoping inspiration strikes for you? :D
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Hey, kids! Potentially inconsequential update, but thanks to American--Pi, this will be the first contest to use these shiny things called graphics. Pi's generously made our current header banner as well as some slick-lookin' banners and buttons if you want to make your sig look excellent and advertise the contest at the same time. Additionally, she'll be cooking up some excellent-looking prizes for our first-, second-, and third-place folks, juuuuuust in case you needed a little more motivation to do awesomely. We like to think of this as getting fanartists involved in the whole shebang.

But yes! Thanks, Pi, for the awesome work!
 

Mrs. Lovett

Rolling writer
Those are some nice looking user bars! (All the graphics look great, but I'm a fan of user bars in particular. I might just put one up...) I also like the theme that they have going on, with pokémon and the Earth. Hehe.

I've gotten a few vague ideas for this, some of which sound really cliché, but I think that for a prompt like this, it's sort of the point to take a wacky idea and try to make it work. At any rate, this is truly something too good to pass up, so I'll definitely submit an entry!
 

TheCharredDragon

Tis the Hour to Reload
So is using an original Mystery Dungeon world for the Pokemon side of the cross over okay?
 

Polipuff

Artisan of Words
Wow, I've been lurking for some time, and I have now only seen this? It's too late for me I guess, but for the rest of you soldiers, good luck! (Oh, and btw, nice graphics!)
 
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