RotR 2020 Valentine's Day Short Story Contest
Dec 30, 2019 22:19:35 GMT -8
Post by flipz on Dec 30, 2019 22:19:35 GMT -8
In the spirit of the holidays… here’s a contest for a different upcoming holiday! xD
Presenting:Dr. Fritz Frizzle’s Secret Shipfic Folder The Rise of the Rockets Valentine’s Short Story Shipping Spectacular!
For this contest, the theme is (of course) shipping! Below are Four Trope Categories; fics should include at least three listed tropes minimum from at least two out of the four categories (i.e. Arranged Marriage/Opposing Factions/Pure x Ex-Playboy, Sharing A Bed/Unexpected Rule 63/Hanahaki Disease, Chat Fic/Coffee Shop AU/Darkness x Sunshine/Slick x Oblivious [i.e. a polyamorous and/or multi-ship fic], etc.).
Rules:
The categories and tropes are:
Individual Plot/Scene Tropes:
Sharing A Bed — For some (usually contrived) reason or another, two or more characters with Unresolved Relationship Tension (URT) are forced to share a bed for the night.
Fake Relationship — For some reason or another, a character must pretend to be in a relationship with someone they’re not in a relationship with; shenanigans ensue.
Arranged Marriage — For some (usually contrived) reason or another (usually involving political tensions and/or “The Greater Good”), two or more characters must enter into an arranged marriage and deal with the ensuing consequences.
Runaway Baby Mama — Without warning, one member of a relationship runs away and vanishes/is kidnapped/is thought dead. Some time later, the other member(s) of the relationship run into their lost partner… along with their partner’s (usually infant or toddler) child.
Unexpected Rule 63 — One or more characters suddenly find themselves genderbent. Depending on whether or not others recognize them, various relationship shenanigans may or may not ensue; for added comedy and/or drama, one or more characters may have Realizations about themselves as a result.
Worldbuilding Element Tropes:
Hanahaki Disease — A slightly complicated trope that is best described by TV Tropes: [LINK] (if I can get the link to work)
Soulmates: Writing on Skin — Whenever (one of) a person’s soulmate(s) write on their skin, the same marks appear in the same place on their soulmate(s).
Soulmates: First Meeting Words — At some point, the first words that a character’s soulmate(s) will say to them appears on their wrist (or some other easily-hidden place).
Soulmates: Other — (There are a lot of different takes on unusual ways for soulmates to find each other, from matching symbolic soulmarks to an upwards-counting timer that stops when the soulmates meet to only seeing in color after one has met their soulmate, etc. This is a catch-all category for these sorts of soulmate shenanigans.)
Secret Identities — One or more of the characters in the ship have a secret identity; usually, the person without the secret identity is attracted to the disguise but has no interest in the secret identity (who, by contrast, is usually very much into said individual). There is also a variant where multiple characters in the ship have a secret identity but mismatched crushes; see Miraculous Ladybug for examples.
Opposing Factions/Forbidden Love — Exactly What It Says On The Tin; the most well-known example is Romeo and Juliet, but this does not necessarily have to result in tragedy.
Ship Dynamic Tropes:
Story Style/Genre Categories:
Coffee Shop AU — The perennial classic, often crossed with a college student AU. For more information, see TV Tropes.
Florist/Tattoo Artist AU — One member of the ship owns a flower shop, while another is a tattoo artist who just opened a tattoo parlor next door (or vice versa); this is a fairly new fic style, so variations on the formula are still under development.
Text fic/Group Chat fic — A significant portion of the fic is expressed through text logs and/or logs of a group chat. Some fics limit themselves to a single channel (fostering a sense of mystery and requiring readers to piece things together from context when things happen in DMs or other chats or in-person conversations), while others include multiple subgroups and individual DMs. Timestamps are very much unnecessary, and I fully admit I’m a lunatic for using them in my chat fics.
Groundhog Day Loop fic — One or more characters are caught in a time loop, a la the movie Groundhog Day. The specific rules and timeframe of the loop vary from fic to fic, with the most common timeframes being 1 hour, 1 day, and 1 week.
Time Travel Fix-it — In the future, something terrible happened (note: definition of “terrible” is subjective and may only apply to certain characters’ interpretations). One or more characters travel back in time to prevent the catastrophe and Set Right What Once Went Wrong, usually while trying to hide their future knowledge from those around them.
The deadline for this contest will be February 13th, 2020, at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time, with a reading of the entries tentatively scheduled for February 14th. If the reading is delayed, the submission deadline will be extended until the day prior to the reading.
Prizes:
1st: 2 free Megas or 3 free Z-Moves
2nd: 1 free Mega or 2 free Z-Moves
3rd: Free Z-Move
Presenting:
For this contest, the theme is (of course) shipping! Below are Four Trope Categories; fics should include at least three listed tropes minimum from at least two out of the four categories (i.e. Arranged Marriage/Opposing Factions/Pure x Ex-Playboy, Sharing A Bed/Unexpected Rule 63/Hanahaki Disease, Chat Fic/Coffee Shop AU/Darkness x Sunshine/Slick x Oblivious [i.e. a polyamorous and/or multi-ship fic], etc.).
Rules:
- Stories must be at least 500 words in length.
- You must use characters related to RotR, but are not limited to your own. (New characters created for the contest are OK.)
- No Plagiarism.
- Follow all RotR rules.
- Spelling/Grammar/Punctuation/etc. aren’t a judging criteria, but the story must be readable.
- No bashing, but comedic Flanderization in a full-on comedy fic/dream sequence/etc. Is fine. Characters being heavily OOC for the sake of a genre or series parody is also acceptable.
- If your fic is explicit, please note it as such in a note at the start of the fic.
- The primary judging criteria is how well you integrate the multiple chosen tropes into a cohesive whole, with a secondary focus on believably selling me on the ship (bonus points for extra chosen tropes from the list and/or successfully selling me on unusual pairings).
- Have fun! ^_^
The categories and tropes are:
Individual Plot/Scene Tropes:
Sharing A Bed — For some (usually contrived) reason or another, two or more characters with Unresolved Relationship Tension (URT) are forced to share a bed for the night.
Fake Relationship — For some reason or another, a character must pretend to be in a relationship with someone they’re not in a relationship with; shenanigans ensue.
Arranged Marriage — For some (usually contrived) reason or another (usually involving political tensions and/or “The Greater Good”), two or more characters must enter into an arranged marriage and deal with the ensuing consequences.
Runaway Baby Mama — Without warning, one member of a relationship runs away and vanishes/is kidnapped/is thought dead. Some time later, the other member(s) of the relationship run into their lost partner… along with their partner’s (usually infant or toddler) child.
Unexpected Rule 63 — One or more characters suddenly find themselves genderbent. Depending on whether or not others recognize them, various relationship shenanigans may or may not ensue; for added comedy and/or drama, one or more characters may have Realizations about themselves as a result.
Worldbuilding Element Tropes:
Hanahaki Disease — A slightly complicated trope that is best described by TV Tropes: [LINK] (if I can get the link to work)
Soulmates: Writing on Skin — Whenever (one of) a person’s soulmate(s) write on their skin, the same marks appear in the same place on their soulmate(s).
Soulmates: First Meeting Words — At some point, the first words that a character’s soulmate(s) will say to them appears on their wrist (or some other easily-hidden place).
Soulmates: Other — (There are a lot of different takes on unusual ways for soulmates to find each other, from matching symbolic soulmarks to an upwards-counting timer that stops when the soulmates meet to only seeing in color after one has met their soulmate, etc. This is a catch-all category for these sorts of soulmate shenanigans.)
Secret Identities — One or more of the characters in the ship have a secret identity; usually, the person without the secret identity is attracted to the disguise but has no interest in the secret identity (who, by contrast, is usually very much into said individual). There is also a variant where multiple characters in the ship have a secret identity but mismatched crushes; see Miraculous Ladybug for examples.
Opposing Factions/Forbidden Love — Exactly What It Says On The Tin; the most well-known example is Romeo and Juliet, but this does not necessarily have to result in tragedy.
Ship Dynamic Tropes:
- Mutual Pining
- Idiot x ”Fuck, that’s MY Idiot!”
- Slick x Oblivious
- Darkness x Sunshine
- Cinnamon Roll x Must Protecc
- Tsundere x Tsundere
- Pure x Ex-Playboy/girl
- 2 idiots, 1 brain cell
- Chaos Incarnate x Indifferent
- Free Spirit x Control Freak
Story Style/Genre Categories:
Coffee Shop AU — The perennial classic, often crossed with a college student AU. For more information, see TV Tropes.
Florist/Tattoo Artist AU — One member of the ship owns a flower shop, while another is a tattoo artist who just opened a tattoo parlor next door (or vice versa); this is a fairly new fic style, so variations on the formula are still under development.
Text fic/Group Chat fic — A significant portion of the fic is expressed through text logs and/or logs of a group chat. Some fics limit themselves to a single channel (fostering a sense of mystery and requiring readers to piece things together from context when things happen in DMs or other chats or in-person conversations), while others include multiple subgroups and individual DMs. Timestamps are very much unnecessary, and I fully admit I’m a lunatic for using them in my chat fics.
Groundhog Day Loop fic — One or more characters are caught in a time loop, a la the movie Groundhog Day. The specific rules and timeframe of the loop vary from fic to fic, with the most common timeframes being 1 hour, 1 day, and 1 week.
Time Travel Fix-it — In the future, something terrible happened (note: definition of “terrible” is subjective and may only apply to certain characters’ interpretations). One or more characters travel back in time to prevent the catastrophe and Set Right What Once Went Wrong, usually while trying to hide their future knowledge from those around them.
The deadline for this contest will be February 13th, 2020, at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time, with a reading of the entries tentatively scheduled for February 14th. If the reading is delayed, the submission deadline will be extended until the day prior to the reading.
Prizes:
1st: 2 free Megas or 3 free Z-Moves
2nd: 1 free Mega or 2 free Z-Moves
3rd: Free Z-Move
