For a while now, I've been thinking about hosting a Veeky Forums short story contest...

3000 words is a short story. To my knowledge it's anything up to 7500 or 7501 words at which point it's a novelette.

OH GOD PLEASE LET US NOT START WITH SUCH NITPICKING

There are no fucking hard borders!

I fucking hate those contests where I'm told that I cannot contribute because my story is actually a short book. Nearly a sbad as thoseopen only to brownish women aged 22-37 living in a suburban area with an income not higher than thirteenthousand and three-hundred-seventy-four quid

deffo think a theme should be put in place. don't want anons submitting prior work.

I for one would be interested.
I agree with that we need some sort of constraints/guidelines, as well as a prompt or themes to write on. I would also not be opposed to having to put in a dollar or whatever to enter.
I think it would be nice if we could write about a theme that is vague and timeless. Or maybe something more contemporary and cancerous?

The less government, the better. No theme, no age limit, maybe limit it to between 2000 - 10000 words.

The catchy name is a good idea

If there is going to be a collection, a theme would render it pretty boring. Easier to reject submissions than to force talented people on a track they aren't meant to ride on.

Alright guys, I'm back and I really like the response I've gotten.
Here's how I saw it going, at least for the first contest: no theme, new work encouraged, only fiction, and a soft word count of 2,000-20,000. Right now I figure the prize will be $100 for first place, but if we get enough submissions, I have thought about adding prizes of $50 for second place, $25 for third, and an additional $25 prize to give to work that is not in the top three but was unique or thought-provoking or something silly like that. I figure a judge's committee will consist of myself plus two others, and we'll work through discerning the talent. Also, we can vote on what to call this project, but that can certainly wait.
I'm very excited to get started on this project, so I've made a Discord to get it off the ground, although I have obligations for the rest of the week so I won't really be able to get anything done, feel free to join me:
discord.gg/ErBAkDy

yeah senpai i'm in

That would be cool. I would definitely try to write something up to submit. Not sure if a fee is necessary, not that many people browse Veeky Forums and it should be easy to identify "joke" submissions quickly.

If it's literally impossible for you to keep your ramblings in moderation and under a very generous limit, then you deserve to get rejected, I'm sorry.

A very generous limit is something else than a saying 5000 is a Short Story, 5001 a novella

Is there no way to involve all Anons in the judging process somehow?
Maybe have a panel and then add a public poll as a vote equal to one person on the panel.

Sounds good, doesn't work. No way to know if eveyone is just shitvoting or if they have actually read the stuff.

Just post links to the shortstories that have been submitted in a thread dedicated to the contest and let anons discuss it. That way OP can still decide on the winners, but he'll get our input along the way.

Something like 3 judges plus this would be good, I think. No offense to OP, but if it's just one guy judging, it feels kinda arbitrary no matter what.

If you really want to publish it, I think a theme is necessary. I suggest Veeky Forums itself, since anons writing about the neet lifestyle sounds like something marketable towards r9k, teenagers and japanese people.

Go for it, user

OP already said a small panel. and as long as the panel takes itself somewhat seriously then that's all we'll need.

*gags*
Limiting themes to Veeky Forums culture is probably one of the most degrading things you can do to creative thinking and literature.

I advocate for a more strict word count (2000-3000 words, or 8000-10000) as it would level the playing field and make it easier to judge.

I'm in and would be happy to suppoit this however I can.

I'll submit for sure. Obviously can't judge because of conflict-of-interest. Don't do a strawpoll like some anons are suggesting, just put together a panel of 3-5 judges.

Before you let someone on the panel, though, you should present them with a small pool of stories (some good, some bad) and ask them to choose their favorites then explain why. If they have shit taste, kick them. If they can't explain their preferences well, kick them. Can't be too discerning.

t. guy who organized some writing contests at his uni

You need to draw the line somewhere. I'm sure your 5,001 word story can find a single word to remove.

Have a poll but make it have no consequence. If people want to shit-vote (and they always do!) they can and it won't affect anything. Than we can all have a laugh at their shit-vote.

I would do it. Please hit me up if you're going to do this.

How would the prize money be sent?

Hey OP in case I'm not here when you figure this out please contact me I'm interested in joining the contest!
[email protected]

I'm down

Preferably in unmarked non sequential bills

just join the discord bro

Absolutely.

Bitcoin, paypal, anything online, probably

That's what I was thinking you'd have to buy in and that contributes to the pot. Perhaps even compensate the panel.

I'm dumb pls sent link

Isn't it 3000 characters?

I uh... yeah... I just derped pretty hard. Thanks for pointing that out. We might need to use images to post stories rather than just text.

This isn't going to work if we don't get more educated people managing it, and by what I've seen, there's very few already. Figure out a theme, like a proper writing competition (seeing how creative one can get under subject), get Judges who know what the fuck they're doing and are educated on literature, and for god's sake build construction. This is like watching monkeys juggle.

>This isn't going to work if we don't get more educated people managing it
Completely untrue. The only thing that will really matter is that there's a prize and the panel doesn't backbite

I meant the judgement is going to suck if they don't know how to judge. A litterateur judge who can't recognize basic Thomas C. Foster-tier literary analysis would be absolutely disgusting to have in a competition.

Cool idea

is right about the judges though, I mean, OP must obviously be one even if he sucks but how would he choose the others?

Who do we send the story to?

I don't do discord or facebook or any of this shit.

Get discord, it's anonymous

I'm not a good writer but I'd love to write something for it.

Why Arrimadas

Yeah this is a nice idea.

Not sure weather to join or not. I think I could have an advantage at winning because I'm more studied on literature seeming than others in here. However, that could also be a disadvantage if the judges don't have that knowledge. It would really suck to have say, a grand motif go completely over the judges heads of a good writer in the competition. Maybe I should judge so it's more fair to the competitors that someone will analyze their works and point it out to the other judges.
Should I judge or try the competition? I'm really at a conflicting point right now.

*whether
Fucking end my suffering

Alright, you little scamp. Do you have the lube?

Gives me 100 dollas for story and then takes mine and others and publishes them and earns 10 000 dollas.

Naw dawg