The G*M*S Magazine Writing Competition has started!

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Competition logoCalling all short-story writers out there!

G*M*S Magazine, in partnership with The Creativity Hub, is calling on writers to submit short stories for their first fiction-writing charity competition.

The competition is open to writers of any age, experience or part of the world, and entries will be accepted between the 21st of July and 31st October 2013.

So what do you have to do?

This is the magic formula:

Rory Story Cubes + Lovecraft + Strange places = Your short story.

Take any and/or every set of Rory Story Cubes, whether the physical dice or the apps, and roll them a many times as you need to get the inspiration for your story. Take a photograph, or a screen-grab of the roll you’ll be using, without that photo or screen grab, we can’t accept your entry!

Then write a story with Lovecraftian tones and a weird place. It can be a horror story, an adventure, a romance, set in the past, in the present, in the future… Your story!

Make it short! No more than 2000 words.

Submit your story and the photograph with a pseudonym. This competition is open to writers of any experience level, so professionals are just as welcome as first times. However, to make things levelled for everyone, the panel of judges (still to be announced) will not know who’s who, so their assessment will be impartial. We also need your name so we know who’s submitted what, but your name will not be disclosed until the winner is declared. So remember to send both, your name and your pseudonym!

Your story will be uploaded to the G*M*S Magazine website where people will be able to vote for it. The stories that gather the most votes will be the finalists. You can rally your friends and family to vote if you wish.

At the start of December, the voting will stop and the 25 entries with the most votes will become the finalists. The panel of judges will then select the winner.

So what is the charity thing?

The stories selected as finalists will be turned into a book that will go to Kickstarter to be funded for layout, printing and artwork. It will be a one-off. The overall winner, as selected by the judges, will choose a charity. All the profit made from the Kickstarter project will go to that charity.

That is correct. None of the organisers or judges get paid to do this. The only people who will get paid will be the artists and the layout professional and the charity will receive all the profit. Transparency will be the norm for where the money goes at any and every stage.

Any more rules?

Just a few.

By submitting your story you grant G*M*S Magazine and The Creativity Hub permission to display your story on both websites on perpetuity and use extracts to promote future competitions. Permission is also given to include the stories in future charity projects. The copy-right, as well as the exploitation right to use the story anywhere else remain with the author and neither organiser will use the stories for profit in the future without written consent from the authors.

The work submitted must be original and written for the competition. You cannot use anyone else’s work in any capacity or use work you’ve done in the past. You can’t use work that you’ve submitted to other competitions, that has been published before or that has won any other awards. It has to be new and original to you and for this competition.

Do I have to use Rory Story Cubes and why? Yes. That is compulsory. The reason to use the Cubes is to put everyone on a level field in terms of inspiration. The entries can come from anyone, so giving everybody a set of rules for inspiration brings everyone closer. You can use as many of the different sets as you wish, though!

But I could cheat. Yes, you could, but would you? I mean, it’d be pretty pathetic if you did, but we won’t have a way to know. However if we did, your story would be taken out of the competition immediately.

What if I disagree with the judges’ decision? That could happen, I suppose, but their decision will be final. If this works, you’ll have another chance in the future to get another story in a future competition and hopefully win.

Can I withdraw my story from the competition if I change my mind? Sure. I think it’d be pointless, but no one will stop you.

What’s this “permission to display, blah blah blah” thing? We need permission to display work from anyone. Displaying or using work without permission is theft and we don’t want to do it. On perpetuity is because we’d like people to be able to enjoy the stories, for free, once the competition is over. And the use in future projects is so, if the initial Kickstarter doesn’t succeed, we can make another one at a later date, with the same conditions.

Look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy the show!

 
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