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2016 KuroFai Olympics Sign Up Post: WRITERS!
Sound the alarms! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. Sign ups for 2016 KuroFai Olympics, Dark vs Light edition is officially open!
Welcome newcomers, and welcome back veterans! All are encouraged to participate in our annual shenanigans. Please note this sign up post is only for writers, including pinch-hitters. What’s a pinch-hitter? Glad you asked. Find out in this guide we compiled of the nuts and bolts for this competitive event, plus the schedule, after the cut.
How does this all work?
Interested writers sign up for the team of their choice. Some say they have no preference, and work with the moderators to fill out the roster of either team! After enough people have signed up, the roster list will be finalized, including pinch-hitters. Next, the list for prompts, aka themes goes up. Within each team, teammates choose the one they like. There’ll be enough prompts so that each participant has an unique one. Writers will have 3-4 weeks to work on their entries.
A posting schedule will be made so that each prompt has a day. So, for example, if Faren and I signed up for the prompt “apples and bananas” for our respective teams, we’ll post our entries on that Tuesday of posting week.
And that’s only half the fun!
Who’s needed to make this successful?
Oh let me list you all the important players!
For writing teams, there needs to be the same amount on each team. If there are extras in one team, we’d kindly ask someone to volunteer as pinch-hitters or bow out for the time being. In terms of size, we are aiming for 12-14 total writers; 6-7 per team. This has been the most successful size to work with in the past. Traditionally, sign ups are first come, first serve, and we count on our writers to communicate with each other to settle the final roster. This fandom is full of friendly negotiators!
Pinch-hitters, aka understudies or back up, are important! So important they are the MVPs. Life is not thoughtful and things come up, so if a writer needs to bow out, the pinch-hitter will takethe bat their spot. The schedule will change so that the prompt is moved to the last day, to give the pinch-hitter maximum time to write. This means the other team with the same prompt will post on the last day as well, while others will move a day ahead.
Which is why it is important to let us know ASAP if you need to bow out of the olympics! Please tell your coach or one of the mods so we can reschedule and notify all participants of schedule changes. We want to emphasize that there is no shame for leaving due to personal reasons. The Olympics is all about having fun in the community, not an obligatory, additional stress eating away in your own personal life!
Otherwise, if you fail to let us know and nothing is posted by your deadline, you will be penalized!
Penalized? That sounds awful!
Sorry, but that’s part of the competition’s rules. The olympics have penalties in place for late entries and incomplete stories. If you posted past the deadline, your scores will be halved. If you submit an entry on time, but claim it as incomplete, two points will be deducted from your average score. If you fail to post and no one else has it covered, it will be a flat zero. This will affect your team’s overall score.
Don’t worry though, it’s not the end of the world. So let’s make sure you and your team-mates have minimal losses! This is what the pinch-hitting system is for in the first place, and why we are implementing coaches for the first time so that you stay on track. They and us, your friendly organizers, are always willing to support you.
But I’m not a writer!
Guess what, this where you come in for the other half of the fun! Your important role will be the readers. As readers you will rate each entry on a scale of 1-10, which we will average before tallying up individuals and teams’ scores. We need all the readers we can because participants AND coaches cannot score. We will provide scoring etiquettes and guides in the future.
Do I need a DreamWidth account to participate?
For writers, yes, in order to post info on your entry and have a venue for official scores. For readers, no. We welcome “anonymous” scores! Again, more info on that in the future.
Is there a minimum and maximum word limit?
No, you can write as little or as much as you like. A good advice to write something that is complete is to make sure you resolve everything you had in mind. A very short fic is likely to score lower because readers may feel it is incomplete. A very long fic (about 20K words or more) will take longer for readers to go through and score. But again, write what you believe you are capable of and feel is right for your story. If you feel ambitious, strive to complete it so you won’t get penalties for an incomplete entry. Again, this is something you can talk to your coach about!
Can a buddy help me write? My coach?
This is a team bonding event, but no, you’re writing solo. We want to keep the competition fair. Plus it quite wouldn’t be fair to make coaches have co-writing expectations!
Are we going by a timezone for the schedules and deadlines?
Yes! As usual we’ll be going by Los Angeles time, aka PDT. All fics must be posted by 11:59PM PDT on your assigned date.
If you wanna know why, this ensures participants who live in this timezone have the maximum amount of time possible to write. For example, if it was set by Australian time zones (no offense you all down under), everyone else has lost time. PDT folks like good ol’ Zelinxia would be screwed because they lose nearly 24 hours of precious writing time.
Timezones are hella tricky. This timezone converter can help you figure out what time in your area is your deadline. If you post like an hour or two late, we’d be lenient and you won’t be docked points.
I’m from Juneau/Honolulu/Pacific Islands/UTC-11/UTC-12 time zone, this is still not fair ):
Well then, it’s nice to have representatives from these super late time zones for the first time! Even so 3-4 hours late is not too significant, so we won’t hold it against you. That said, those in time zones on the other side of the globe will still be docked for lateness if they don’t make it in by 11:59 PDT.
So where’s the schedule?
We’re happy to unveil a more cohesive schedule!
Sunday 26th June
Sign ups
Thursday 30th June
Prompts available, writers claim prompts
Monday 4th July
Final roster is announced, and the writing period begins
Monday 11th July
First mandatory check-in with the coaches
Monday 18th July
Second mandatory check-in with the coaches
Monday 25th July
Cut-off for submitting a draft to a coach for beta-reading. After this point, it is completely up to the coaches’ discretion whether they are ok and have time to beta a draft.
Friday 29th July
Mandatory check-in date on the DW forum. There will be a 'Mandatory Check-In for Writers' post
made by one of the moderators on this day, and any writer that does not sound off and reply that they are ready (or nearly ready) for their posting day, will be replaced by a pinch-hitter. If a coach is available to work with pinch-hitter this late in the game, they can say so, otherwise one of the moderators will help the pinch-hitter stay on track for their posting date.
Monday 1st August – Saturday 7th August
Posting period for stories
Sunday 14th August
Voting cut-off
Monday 15th August
Contest results announced!
I have more questions!
Post in the comment sections! Or you can PM Faren or Zelinxia over DW or at Tumblr.
Hopefully with all of these questions out of the way, you’re ready to join in the fun!
Please indicate if you are signing up for Team Dark, Team Light, Both/Either, or the very important pinch-hitters position. Important to note: if you like to sign up as a pinch-hitter AND coach, please comment ONLY in the coaches sign up post.
UPDATE: As of Mon. June 27 morning the writers roster is FULL. Thank you for your steadfast interest! Sign ups are still open for pinch-hitting, coaching, or both.
(Want more information about coaching, or interested in signing up to be one? Click here)
Team Dark
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sotongsotong
k_n
animangod
flypaw
aquariusgaluxy
aithilin
pontasensei
Team Light
arisprite
silverservererror
mindlessadri
robinauts
guety
pokechan
bkaykoii
Pinch-hitters
mikkeneko (either)
ereshkigali (either)
thecicada
Welcome newcomers, and welcome back veterans! All are encouraged to participate in our annual shenanigans. Please note this sign up post is only for writers, including pinch-hitters. What’s a pinch-hitter? Glad you asked. Find out in this guide we compiled of the nuts and bolts for this competitive event, plus the schedule, after the cut.
How does this all work?
Interested writers sign up for the team of their choice. Some say they have no preference, and work with the moderators to fill out the roster of either team! After enough people have signed up, the roster list will be finalized, including pinch-hitters. Next, the list for prompts, aka themes goes up. Within each team, teammates choose the one they like. There’ll be enough prompts so that each participant has an unique one. Writers will have 3-4 weeks to work on their entries.
A posting schedule will be made so that each prompt has a day. So, for example, if Faren and I signed up for the prompt “apples and bananas” for our respective teams, we’ll post our entries on that Tuesday of posting week.
And that’s only half the fun!
Who’s needed to make this successful?
Oh let me list you all the important players!
For writing teams, there needs to be the same amount on each team. If there are extras in one team, we’d kindly ask someone to volunteer as pinch-hitters or bow out for the time being. In terms of size, we are aiming for 12-14 total writers; 6-7 per team. This has been the most successful size to work with in the past. Traditionally, sign ups are first come, first serve, and we count on our writers to communicate with each other to settle the final roster. This fandom is full of friendly negotiators!
Pinch-hitters, aka understudies or back up, are important! So important they are the MVPs. Life is not thoughtful and things come up, so if a writer needs to bow out, the pinch-hitter will take
Which is why it is important to let us know ASAP if you need to bow out of the olympics! Please tell your coach or one of the mods so we can reschedule and notify all participants of schedule changes. We want to emphasize that there is no shame for leaving due to personal reasons. The Olympics is all about having fun in the community, not an obligatory, additional stress eating away in your own personal life!
Otherwise, if you fail to let us know and nothing is posted by your deadline, you will be penalized!
Penalized? That sounds awful!
Sorry, but that’s part of the competition’s rules. The olympics have penalties in place for late entries and incomplete stories. If you posted past the deadline, your scores will be halved. If you submit an entry on time, but claim it as incomplete, two points will be deducted from your average score. If you fail to post and no one else has it covered, it will be a flat zero. This will affect your team’s overall score.
Don’t worry though, it’s not the end of the world. So let’s make sure you and your team-mates have minimal losses! This is what the pinch-hitting system is for in the first place, and why we are implementing coaches for the first time so that you stay on track. They and us, your friendly organizers, are always willing to support you.
But I’m not a writer!
Guess what, this where you come in for the other half of the fun! Your important role will be the readers. As readers you will rate each entry on a scale of 1-10, which we will average before tallying up individuals and teams’ scores. We need all the readers we can because participants AND coaches cannot score. We will provide scoring etiquettes and guides in the future.
Do I need a DreamWidth account to participate?
For writers, yes, in order to post info on your entry and have a venue for official scores. For readers, no. We welcome “anonymous” scores! Again, more info on that in the future.
Is there a minimum and maximum word limit?
No, you can write as little or as much as you like. A good advice to write something that is complete is to make sure you resolve everything you had in mind. A very short fic is likely to score lower because readers may feel it is incomplete. A very long fic (about 20K words or more) will take longer for readers to go through and score. But again, write what you believe you are capable of and feel is right for your story. If you feel ambitious, strive to complete it so you won’t get penalties for an incomplete entry. Again, this is something you can talk to your coach about!
Can a buddy help me write? My coach?
This is a team bonding event, but no, you’re writing solo. We want to keep the competition fair. Plus it quite wouldn’t be fair to make coaches have co-writing expectations!
Are we going by a timezone for the schedules and deadlines?
Yes! As usual we’ll be going by Los Angeles time, aka PDT. All fics must be posted by 11:59PM PDT on your assigned date.
If you wanna know why, this ensures participants who live in this timezone have the maximum amount of time possible to write. For example, if it was set by Australian time zones (no offense you all down under), everyone else has lost time. PDT folks like good ol’ Zelinxia would be screwed because they lose nearly 24 hours of precious writing time.
Timezones are hella tricky. This timezone converter can help you figure out what time in your area is your deadline. If you post like an hour or two late, we’d be lenient and you won’t be docked points.
I’m from Juneau/Honolulu/Pacific Islands/UTC-11/UTC-12 time zone, this is still not fair ):
Well then, it’s nice to have representatives from these super late time zones for the first time! Even so 3-4 hours late is not too significant, so we won’t hold it against you. That said, those in time zones on the other side of the globe will still be docked for lateness if they don’t make it in by 11:59 PDT.
So where’s the schedule?
We’re happy to unveil a more cohesive schedule!
Sunday 26th June
Sign ups
Thursday 30th June
Prompts available, writers claim prompts
Monday 4th July
Final roster is announced, and the writing period begins
Monday 11th July
First mandatory check-in with the coaches
Monday 18th July
Second mandatory check-in with the coaches
Monday 25th July
Cut-off for submitting a draft to a coach for beta-reading. After this point, it is completely up to the coaches’ discretion whether they are ok and have time to beta a draft.
Friday 29th July
Mandatory check-in date on the DW forum. There will be a 'Mandatory Check-In for Writers' post
made by one of the moderators on this day, and any writer that does not sound off and reply that they are ready (or nearly ready) for their posting day, will be replaced by a pinch-hitter. If a coach is available to work with pinch-hitter this late in the game, they can say so, otherwise one of the moderators will help the pinch-hitter stay on track for their posting date.
Monday 1st August – Saturday 7th August
Posting period for stories
Sunday 14th August
Voting cut-off
Monday 15th August
Contest results announced!
I have more questions!
Post in the comment sections! Or you can PM Faren or Zelinxia over DW or at Tumblr.
Hopefully with all of these questions out of the way, you’re ready to join in the fun!
Please indicate if you are signing up for Team Dark, Team Light, Both/Either, or the very important pinch-hitters position. Important to note: if you like to sign up as a pinch-hitter AND coach, please comment ONLY in the coaches sign up post.
UPDATE: As of Mon. June 27 morning the writers roster is FULL. Thank you for your steadfast interest! Sign ups are still open for pinch-hitting, coaching, or both.
(Want more information about coaching, or interested in signing up to be one? Click here)
Team Dark
sotongsotongk_nanimangodflypawaquariusgaluxyaithilinpontasenseiTeam Light
arispritesilverservererrormindlessadrirobinautsguetypokechanbkaykoiiPinch-hitters
mikkeneko (either)ereshkigali (either)thecicada
no subject
//hurries to bake browniesSure thing, you're up on Team Dark!
no subject
Goes over to sit patiently for brownies and Prompt Day. :3