True Path: Valentine's Day 2019 Writing Competition

True Path: Valentine's Day 2019 Writing Competition Feb 13, 2019 17:02:15 GMT -4 Jisatsu Keiko, Dessen, and 1 more like this

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Post by Kelolon on Feb 13, 2019 17:02:15 GMT -4

It's Valentine's Day!

Je t'aime! Ich liebe dich!
Ik hou van jou! Minä rakastan sinua!
Ti amo! Te quiero!
Dw i'n dy garu di! Ta me i ngra leat!
Ai shiteru yo! Wo ai ni!
I love you!

Every year, in various ways, humanity celebrates in feverish colours the beautiful traditions of their Valentine's Day. Decorations, sweets, fireworks, noodles. Each culture is unique and wonderful in the ways they show their devotion for those they love. So, of course, True Path has brought to you our own tradition! I (Great Plant King Kelolon) think it's fair to say the vast majority of people here are at least slightly interested in the practice of using writing as a way to convoke emotion and thought in others; we use crafted words and interact with worlds that, in their own way, exist in our hearts.
Valentine's is celebrated on many different days in many different ways; the Japanese make chocolate for their loved one and expect gifts in return on White Day; the Danes give Snowdrops and Lover's Cards and enjoy the odd tradition of gaekkebrev and single people in Korea eat noodles dyed black! Happy days!!
Here at TP we celebrate another way. By shoving a competition into your laps and telling you "I-It's not like we want to read your amazing writing, b-baka!"

In line with this philosophy, we'd like to present to you the first official True Path Writing Competition!
It will be a simple affair, though you may argue that no such thing exists.

Now, without further ado, we'd like to introduce you to True Path: Valentine's 2019 Writing Competition!

"And for them, stars crossed the lines of their married name."

Of course, the prompt for this year's Valentine's Writing Competition is:

"True Love"

From this, and the above picture, your task is as follows:
Create either a short piece of prose or a small poem or both!
To celebrate the birth of this fun little activity, we'd like to keep it as simple as possible!
This will help us test the waters and see how everyone likes this kind of thing!
The competition is separated into the two medium, a Prose Competition and a Poetry Competition, thus we will have two winners!

Prizes:

Obviously, we cannot ask you to put fingertip to key for the charitable act of love for your staff and admin team.
By entering the competition with an eligible piece, you guarantee yourself a Prize Placement in one of three tiers!
The tiers, their expected yield of submissions and their prizes are as follows:
Tier 1 (10%) - 30 EXP
Tier 2 (30%) - 20 EXP
Tier 3 (60%) - 10 EXP

As long as an entry is eligible, it will be placed unto one of those tiers and EXP will be granted to an account you own of your choice.
Those who come in 1st Place as our winners will be given a Role in Discord and an additional prize!
For instance, for this competition, the winners of both categories will be given a choice of THREE prizes on top of their EXP reward.

This month's 1st Place prizes are:

+ Choice of a new Server Emote/Animated Emote.
+ An additional 20 EXP (Rounding the prize to 50 EXP instead of 30).
+ A third mystery prize!!
A winner will be DM'd by one of the Judges after the competition ends, wherein they decide their prize!
Stay tuned, the mystery prize MIGHT be revealed in the future!

Rules and Eligibility:

By applying and submitting to this competition, you understand and agree to the following terms:

+ "Any and all decisions made by the judge(s) regarding winners, placements and eligibility are final."

+ "After submission, entries cannot be edited or added to in any way. Your submission is the final product."

+ "Any and all rewards bestowed are non-negotiable."

+ "Your work may be publicly published, commented on and annotated as seen fit by competition Judges."

+ "If you come 1st Place in one category, you become ineligible for 1st Place in another category."

With that sorted, we have some rules to discuss. To be eligible for any prizes, you must meet the following conditions:
+ You must have been a member of True Path for over 10 days.
+ You must have at least 1 character approved.
+ You must have posted for at least 1 character in the last 30 days.
+ You must be a member of True Path's Discord server.
+ All of these conditions must be met before or during the submission period.

Submission Rules:

+ Troll/Shitposts will be immediately rejected. If you submit a shitpost, you will be indefinitely banned from future competitions.
+ Submissions must be PG-13, no exceptions.
+ Please keep swearing, Non-English language and the like to a reasonable minimum.
+ There is no restriction to what setting/subject you tackle (It does not have to be written in True Path's character universe).
+ Please use Microsoft Word or something similar.
+ Please do not include visual/audio media (ie: Pictures, Youtube videos).
+ If you do write using TP's universe, regardless of whether it's canon, ask permission from the owners of any characters you mention.
+ Submissions must NOT be plagiarised or works that have been published on True Path or the searchable internet prior to this competition. Plagiarism will be met with severe punishment.
+ PLEASE PUT YOUR NAME SOMEWHERE IN THE TITLE OF YOUR SUBMISSION.

If you're choosing to write some prose:
You may have up to 500 words. 600 at a maximum.
You have an absolute minimum of 50 words.
When you submit, please put "[PROSE]" in the title of your entry.

If you're choosing to write a poem:
You have an absolute maximum of 150 words.
There's no word minimum.
When you submit, please put "[POETRY]" in the title of your entry.

How to Submit:

Submitting is a simple process.
When your submission is ready, just send the file to Kelolon#5378 on Discord via DM and make sure to mention the character whom you want to give any EXP you earn.

From there it will be looked over and critiqued and assigned one of the Reward Tiers based on ~~how much Kelo cries when he reads it~~ the criteria above.
For now, Kelo will be the only judge.
If the amount of submissions surpasses a certain amount, he may bring in help from other Staff Members, which will be added to this thread. If you want to be helpful and volunteer as Judge for this competition, DM Kelo and he'll ask some questions. Please make sure you have ample experience with judging works before applying.

You have until February 28th | 00:00 GMT to submit your entry.

Judges:
Kelolon - Kelolon#5278

If you have any questions/concerns, ask Kelo!

True Path: Valentine's Day 2019 Writing Competition May 16, 2019 2:23:26 GMT -4 Ryuusei Igarashi likes this

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Post by Kelolon on May 16, 2019 2:23:26 GMT -4

Ladies and Gentlemen.
Allow me to begin with a swift apology for the abysmal time it took to get this out! The next competition, when set-up, will be handled far better, take my word~

I am proud beyond proud to see the amazing turnout this silly idea got. I loved reading your entries and mulling them over with some tea and snazzy biscuits, contemplating the inner workings of amour!
Honestly, the works submitted were gorgeously inventive in their own ways, but no one enters a competition just so everyone can win. There must be a winner.
And my dearest, sweetest lovers, I am happy to announce our winner for the Valentine's Writing Competition...

SPOILER: Click to show

CHARY!

I'm sure everyone knows our sweet little sourdough, always a voice of positivity (unless she's voicing Heidi)!
Her piece was uniquely inspired in its delivery, neologisms and consistent imagery to put forth the intertwining connections found in the intertwining connection that is Love!

Without further adieu, I present to you, the winning entry of True Path's 1st Writing Competition written by Chary:

The surface ran dark and adrift with uncertainties, obscuring the depth in which we'd find ourselves. Though not overpowering, the water did flow. Mindlessly, timelessly, almost carelessly it flowed. Hoots and hollers burst from bubbles, from stones slapped to roundness by persistence alone. Between you and me flowed a stream of consciousness and questions and preemptive regrets. Still, I wanted to cross.

So I, to the creek giving neither dam nor damn, creaked a toe into modest, muddied waters, while you stood opposite on silted shores. After all, someone had to do it. The first move, as they say.

Tension is what keeps a leaf afloat as it swirls downstream. How funny, I noted, that if the surface stretched as tightly as the knot in my gut, I too might have been swept toward the sea. And as chills rippled across skin and streamwater, I might have gladly let it.

You stared into ambling currents, too cloudy to offer mirrors, so instead you mirrored me. To my unprecedented relief. Toe first, then ankle deep. How shallow, these edges. And such security in knowing where we stood came at the cost of distance unclosed and untraversed.

Rather than fall, we waded slowly into a word we no longer stutter. Each step operated by a life's worth of caution and a shared anxiety the next will be our last. Hidden drop-offs riddling the floor. Upriver forest debris washing by.

Careful. Let's be careful. Or so we chanted in our heads. Our minds held back but our hands reached out, and our strides, once a whisper, now roared with the rapids. Like two celestial bodies hurtling into each other's pull, our gravities grew stronger, more reckless, unhesitant.

And as I stay anchored in your arms and you hold true to mine, we occasionally look down at our feet in the riverbed and wonder if the water had always been this clear.

Chary, the sweet dear, shall be awarded the Tier 1 prize, a Role on our True Path Discord Server and one of our three additional prizes for such a wonderful little piece!
Though of course, Chary was not alone in joining our competition! As there weren't enough people doing either thing, the Prose/Poetry category was merged, but that wasn't an issue at all.
Please find below: the names of our remaining participants and their reward tiers!

Tier 1 - 30 EXP:
- khaozz
- Yumi
- Dessen

Tier 2 - 20 EXP:
- Aim
- Ziengale
- Narlivion
- Smiley J Pajamas
- Rosey
- Jingles
- Perry

Thank you each and everyone who came to join in on this marvellous little adventure. One that took faaaarrr too long to come to its conclusion. In fact, with that awful business in mind, I'd like to offer a more tangible apology.
All entrants will be awarded an additional 20 EXP on top of their original prize!
Tier 1 rewards 50 EXP.
Tier 2 rewards 40 EXP.

And with that, the True Path Valentine's Day 2019 Writing Competition fades into a softly-spoken close!
We look forward to seeing you again for the next one, whenever that'll be~
<3
Je t'aime! Au revoir!

True Path: Valentine's Day 2019 Writing Competition

Post by Kelolon on Feb 13, 2019 17:02:15 GMT -4

Post by Kelolon on May 16, 2019 2:23:26 GMT -4

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