Well folks, if the contents of the shops haven’t already given the game away, Christmas is most definitely on the way, so it is with great pleasure that I launch the first ever Christmas Challenge. I hope you enjoy it!
The Challenge
This challenge is slightly different from the last one, in that I’m not giving you any introduction to it, and you can write about whatever you want - so long as it’s STFBE related of course! This time, it is the structure of the story which is the challenge, as this is an ‘advent calendar’ style contest, where you need to write a story with a scene taking place every day during the run up to Christmas! That doesn’t mean you have to physically post every day in December (there is no way we can all be available every day!), but it does mean that there must be a post written for each day. When you submit them is completely up to you – you can post them all at the same time if you want, and you don’t have to wait until Dec 1st to begin if you’re eager to get going!
In the last few years I’ve seen advent calendars which have started to include the 25th, rather than stopping on the 24th, so it is up to you whichever date your story ends on, so long as it follows the 2004 calendar – ie starting on Wed 1st and concluding on either Fri 24th or Sat 25th December.
To make things a little more fun, I’m creating 2 sub-categories within this challenge – advent style and journal style – and I’ll tell you more about those in just a moment. You are very welcome to enter a story in each category – in fact, I would be the first to encourage it!!! Here are the details for each:
Advent Style
Written in 3rd person style, like a normal story, with one post for each day. When submitting, please ensure day and date are clearly marked at the top of each post.
Journal style
Written in 1st person style, in the format of someone writing his or her journal at the end of the day. You do not have to write the same character’s journal throughout the story, but rather you can jump between the characters on different days (not within each day though) and write in their particular ‘voice.’ Entries must be only what the character writes in their journal – for example no flashbacks, etc. When submitting, please ensure day and date are clearly marked at the top of each post, along with name of character writing that journal entry.
How to Enter
To submit an entry simply open a new thread under this category, with the name of your story as the title, and either ‘advent’ or ‘journal’ as the subheading, along with a PG rating (max PG 17). Then just start posting away!! Just make sure that each ‘day’ is a separate post and is clearly marked with the information detailed above.
Closing Date
While it would probably make sense to fix the closing date as Christmas Day, I’m very aware that December is a crazy month for everyone so, with that in mind, I’ve decided to extend the closing date to midnight on New Year’s Eve to give you the opportunity to use the (hopefully less chaotic!) period between Christmas and New Year to finish up if you need to. Saying that, if you can finish by Christmas Day that would be wonderful – I’m sure we’d all like that last ‘tingly’ scene as a special present tucked into our stockings!!!
LEVI Awards
As in our previous challenge, you will have the opportunity to vote for some of your favourite moments in the LEVI’s which will be awarded after the challenge closes. I’ve added a list of the LEVI categories for this challenge on a separate post to follow this one, along with a brief summary of the rules, for quick and easy reference.
As before, we are running a new writer’s LEVI category with the criteria remaining the same as previously. To be eligible for the new writer award you must have previously posted no more than 2 stories/scenes on this board. We received fantastic entries from some wonderful new writers in the Halloween Challenge, and new readers and writers are appearing on the board every day. I would encourage each and every one of you to consider entering this competition – it is the ideal place to dabble your toes into writing for the first time, for I can guarantee you a warm and supportive reception!
Well, I think that’s about it for now – hopefully this all makes sense, and is slightly clearer than mud!!! If you don’t understand something, want to ask a question, need clarification, whatever, then please feel free to post on either this thread or the Challenge Q & A thread, or PM me – I’ll do what I can to help!
I hope the response to this challenge is as great, or even better than the Halloween one, and I’m already getting excited about reading all the wonderful stories I hope to see posted over the next few weeks! Hopefully many of you will ‘rise to the challenge’ and submit wonderful stories for us to immerse ourselves in – spiriting us to a world of Christmas cliffies and festive fuzzies! And readers – please offer your support in your usual warm, friendly and vocal way!!
So all that remains to be done is for me to wish you a very early Happy Christmas – may it be full of inspiration for both you and your muse!!
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