"Once Upon a Time" Writing/Art Contest.

[Cardinal Melody]

I think I got most of the kinks worked out. If you like, please take a look at the rules and tell me what you think:

Quick rundown:
Each team will be requiered to write a four chapter story during the month of October. A chapter will be due on every Sunday starting with Oct. 2nd. and ending on the 23rd. Voting will take place the following week with the winner(s) being announce on Nov. 1st. Each chapter is not to be longer than a 1000 words, and contain at least one illustration. The illustration can be in pencil, inks, color, etc. It can also be a photograph, as long as it fits the story.
The teams may consist of up to 3 people and they may switch duties between writing and illustrating. Each week, their stories will be posted and people will be allowed to read, comment and speculate on them.
The stories may not go beyond the PG-13 rating. Excessive gore or violence are not acceptable. The characters must be ponies. Original characters are a plus. The setting may be anywhere you wish as well as the time period. The theme must be horror/suspense.

Teams:
Teams may not be larger than 3 members. You can enter by yourself but keep in mind that this means doing both the writing and the illustration for your story.

Deadlines:
Each chapter and illustration will be due on a Sunday at midnight Eastern Time.

The first chapter will be due on Oct. 2nd.
The Second chapter will be due on Oct. 9th.
The Third chapter will be due on Oct. 16th.
The Fourth and final chapter will be due on Oct. 23rd.
All writings must be acompanied with an illustration. Entries that don't make it by the deadline, will be disqualified. You may get an extension of a day if you e-mail me before the deadline, letting me know.

Theme and rating:
The theme is suspense and/or horror. Dark humor is also acceptable but not as the main theme. The rating for the stories should be PG-13. Mild swearing is ok as long as it not excessive and fits the character. No gore or extreme violence please. No sexually explicit situations.
The setting may be anywhere and the time period any one you like.

Characters:
The main characters must be ponies. Non pony characters are ok as supporting cast. Original characters are a plus and may have traits not usually asocciated with MLP (i.e. dragon wings, cyber parts, etc.)

Lenght:
There's no minimum but keep it under a 1000 words, please.

*********

Registration is open as of now but I won't open the contest unless I have at least four teams/people participating.

Registration ends on Sept. 25th.

You may have notice that I made no mention of prizes. The reason being that I'm not quite sure what people would like. I'm still thinking of doing small sculpy statues of one of the main characters for each of the members of the winning team, but I would like to hear suggestions on the subject.

Official website: http://www.calicocoyote.com/onceuponatime

 

[Cardinal Melody]

<Bump for Justice>

 

[sharnofshade]

Ooooh! This sounds awesome! Do we sign up here, or at the official site? Can we send you chapters before the due date (so, for example, could a team write the final two chapters and send them to you on Oct. 16th?)

When you say 'no gore' do you literally mean no gore at *all*, or just no gore beyond the PG 13+ range?

Could a team incorporate the text and the picture into one display (for example, a picture with the text surrounding it, or a poem within the story with a piece of art behind the text... things like that), or do they have to be distinct separate (but related) pieces?

If we register here I would absolutely LOVE to sign up as one one-person team - I've been planning a series of MLP stories/comics for a while now which would fit this theme perfectly, and the deadlines will really help me get working ^.^

Also, sorry if my questions seem a bit off the wall... I just want to check to make sure nothing I consider doing will be absolutely against the rules (can we email you mid-competition to ask you about other possible ideas, to double-check they're alright?)

Eee! This is so exciting. What an awesome idea! *bounces*

 

[Cardinal Melody]

Ooooh! This sounds awesome! Do we sign up here, or at the official site? Can we send you chapters before the due date (so, for example, could a team write the final two chapters and send them to you on Oct. 16th?)

When you say 'no gore' do you literally mean no gore at *all*, or just no gore beyond the PG 13+ range?

Could a team incorporate the text and the picture into one display (for example, a picture with the text surrounding it, or a poem within the story with a piece of art behind the text... things like that), or do they have to be distinct separate (but related) pieces?

If we register here I would absolutely LOVE to sign up as one one-person team - I've been planning a series of MLP stories/comics for a while now which would fit this theme perfectly, and the deadlines will really help me get working ^.^

Also, sorry if my questions seem a bit off the wall... I just want to check to make sure nothing I consider doing will be absolutely against the rules (can we email you mid-competition to ask you about other possible ideas, to double-check they're alright?)

Eee! This is so exciting. What an awesome idea! *bounces*

Sign up here is perfectly fine. I already have a team that signed up through livejournal.

Yep, you can send me the chapters ahead of time. I would welcome it. I wouldn't post the chapters until after their deadline has passed though, so if there are any corrections to be done and the chapter hasn't been posted, you can always e-mail me an updated version.

No gore beyond the PG13 range.

A picture with the text in it, its fine. I'm pretty flexible with what constitute an illustration, that's why I'm also accepting photographs. Its going to be up to the public to decide what combination they like best.

You can e-mail me at any time of the competition.

Thank you for asking. I knew there were going to be stuff I overlooked when I wrote the rules.

 

[Dragonflitter]

Some questions on the rules, if you don't mind!

You say 'at least one' illustration for each chapter, does that mean more than one is okay? Is there a limit to how many we can do for each chapter?

Next, does every illustration have to have been done specifically for this contest, or if we have previous picture of, say, our personas we'd like to include in the contest, is that okay?

Thank you for your time!

 

[Cardinal Melody]

Some questions on the rules, if you don't mind!

You say 'at least one' illustration for each chapter, does that mean more than one is okay? Is there a limit to how many we can do for each chapter?

Next, does every illustration have to have been done specifically for this contest, or if we have previous picture of, say, our personas we'd like to include in the contest, is that okay?

Thank you for your time!

Thank you for joining!

Yep, more than one illustration is more than ok. There's no limit.

If you already have an illustration that works with the story, its perfectly fine to use that. The main thing is that it helps the story. If the chapter is about a "poo monster" (sorry I just watched Dogma again for like the 10th time) and you include a drawing of ... Baby Moondancer, well I don't think I can accept that. Unless Baby Moondancer is the poo monster ... which an entirely diferent thing then...

 

[Dragonflitter]

If you already have an illustration that works with the story, its perfectly fine to use that. The main thing is that it helps the story.

Thanks!

Oh, you know what? I didn't even think of this when I first asked...haha. But if we do use illustrations of our personas that have already been drawn, then they're not likely to have been drawn by the three people in our group. Haha. Oops. That probably is part of the rules, right? That the illustrations need to be done by at least one of the persons in the group?

 

[Dragonflitter]

Registration is open as of now but I won't open the contest unless I have at least four teams/people participating.

Registration ends on Sept. 25th.

Eek, I didn't think to ask, do you have enough teams now?? I hope you got enough to open the contest! I checked the website but the 'participants' page isn't up yet.

 

[Cardinal Melody]

I'm terribly sorry for the late reply, my time got chewed up with a couple of comissions I'm finishing. Actually I'm missing one one team, there was a fourth one but they never got back to me with the details of the members. I think I'll go ahead anyway.

As for the pictures. Yeah, I'd rather they were done by a member of your team.

 

[Dragonflitter]

*salutes* Gotcha, captain!

 

[sharnofshade]

You may have notice that I made no mention of prizes. The reason being that I'm not quite sure what people would like. I'm still thinking of doing small sculpy statues of one of the main characters for each of the members of the winning team, but I would like to hear suggestions on the subject.

Just a thought on this - maybe you could offer a custom piece of art based on the winning story? I know I've always loved your art, and I'd love to see your interpretation of anything from my story.

Maybe you could offer a choice between sculptures or art (since I'm sure many people would love a sculpture too, me included). I just thought of suggesting a drawing/piece-of-art-like-that because I came across a couple of pieces of yours saved onto my harddrive and was reminded how totally awesome they are ^-^