Form and Genre Challenge 2012: Information Page

Form and Genre Challenge 2012: Information Page

Form and Genre Challenge 2012 (#FGC2012)

In January Write Anything named the Year of the Dragon (2012), The Year of Writing Dangerously, calling for writers to work out what ‘writing dangerously’ meant to them… to step outside their comfort zone for the next 12 months.

The Form and Genre Challenge (2012) is Write Anything’s platform for writing dangerously; a free writing and publishing programme for writers of all stages, genres and ages. It consists of a schedule of 52 form and genre prompts, designed to emulate a professional writing practice* and submission process coupled with real publishing opportunities.

One challenge is allocated per week, for 52 weeks. The schedule encourages writers experiment, try something new and most of all, to enjoy writing.

Submissions are eligible for a weekly Judge’s Choice Award each week and inclusion in an annual anthology. Stories will be read and judged by a small panel from Write Anything staff and a collection of guest judges.

*In the second quarter, the FGC2012 will be supported by private beta reading forums on site at Write Anything.

Key Objectives
Schedule
Submission Guidelines
Genre, Form and Word Count
Social Media
Reading
Judging
Annual Write Anything Anthology
Full Year Participation
Form
Genre
Challenge Details & Submission Deadlines

Key Objectives

challenge writers to write in a variety of genres, lengths and forms—both prose and poetry.
challenge writers to write ‘dangerously’ ie. outside their comfort zone (whether the comfort zone be genre, form, length, providing work for critiquing, critiquing others work or publicly sharing work).
encourage writers to write to submission standard where possible.
emulate a professional submission process—goal setting, submission selection, first drafts, beta reading, redrafting, proof reading.
to encourage writers to manage their time by creating submission deadlines across a 12 month period.
provide an opportunity for writers to write, share and grow together in a professional and supportive environment.
to provide inclusive publishing opportunities.

Schedule
Every week a post will go live on Sunday with the challenge for the forthcoming week. They will be numbered #1-#52 and include information regarding the form, genre and word count for the week.

A full schedule of challenges will be available from the Write Anything ‘Writing Prompts’ tab.

Submissions Guidelines

Submission are open for a 24 hours period every Sunday starting GMT(UCT) 00:01.
Submissions are via link in the Mr Linky widget in a dedicated blog post on the Write Anything story every Sunday. Any stories linked via the comments section will be consider ineligible.
All stories must be freely available on a blog or website for reading and commenting. For longer pieces writers may consider in addition to publishing the story in a blog post, to also linking to a downloadable PDF version of the story (this is not compulsary though).
Stories must be clearly labelled ‘FGC’ and the challenge number in the heading line of your blog post, along with the story name: ie [FGC #1] The Greatest Story on Earth
Stories must adhere to the challenge guidelines for the week (form, genre & word count). Any stories not adhering to the challenge guidelines (especially word count) will be ineligible for judging. Any stories submitted using challenge guidelines from previous weeks will also be ineligible.
Write Anything staff are eligible to submit, but will be considered ineligible from the judge’s award on any week where they sit as part of the judging panel.
By submitting a story participants are also committing to read a minimum of three other stories.

Genre, Form and Word Count
On the weeks where the form is assigned, writers are welcome to write in any genre they feel best showcases their work and the designated form.

On the weeks where the genre is assigned, writers are welcome to write in any form or style they feel would best show case their work and the designated form.

Please check each week’s word count (most challenges will have one). Any submissions OVER the word count will be considered ineligible for judging.

Social Media
We encourage all participants to utilise their social networks to maximise the number of readers enjoying their work. The # for the challenge will be #FGC2012. Using #FGC2012 will help direct readers not only to your work, but to the work of others in the challenge.

Reading
Part of the submission process is the understanding that submitting authors will take the time to read the stories of other participants, comment and provide feed back where they feel it is appropriate. The process of reciprocal reading and providing feedback helps to connect writers, build writing partnerships and a larger community, as well assisting writers to build their confidence and improve their writing. There is no expectation for writers read every single story submitted in a week. We do however recommend three stories a week.

If you like a story, share it with your network. #fridayreads and #sundayreads are two popular hashtags to help direct people to stories you enjoy.

Judging
The judge’s choice each week will be given automatic inclusion* in an annual anthology to be published in the second quarter of 2012 by eMergent Publishing.

A poll will run weekly for readers to vote for a their choice for the week, in a reader’s choice award. The winner of the reader’s choice will be presented with an internet badge saying their story was people’s choice in that particular category for 2012.

Annual Write Anything Anthology
An anthology will be produced in the second quarter of 2013. All Judges’ Choice stories will be eligible for inclusion in the print version of the anthology.

* All stories awarded the Judge’s Choice Award will be included in an eBook which will be sold as a stand alone product as well a part of a print/ebook bundle. Where an author has been awarded the judges’ prize multiple times, the author, in conjunction with the anthology editors, will chose one story for the print edition.

Writers may request (in writing) for their story to be omitted from either the print or electronic version of anthology, where circumstances prohibit the story from inclusion.

Contributors will be eligible to purchase the print anthology at wholesale price and will be given a contributor’s eBook prior to the anthology’s launch.

Profits from the sale of the anthology will provide funds for Write Anything associated competitions and prizes in 2013. Any additional funds will go toward covering the running costs of the Write Anything site.

Full Year Participation
For those stalwarts who participate 52 times… we will gift you up a collection of eMergent Publishing eBooks and an internet badge to acknowledge the achievement.

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