August Fanfiction Challenge - CAST YOUR FANFICTION!

[Timewalker]

How is every other monthly contest judged? Don't people VOTE on which story they LIKED or ENJOYED the most? If the actors that have been cast make the story seem more enjoyable, that may affect their voting, but the quality of the story will have far more to do with it.

I like Tiberius's ideas! I shall adopt them as my own!

My plan for poll time is to instruct the voters that they will act as "film critics" as well as literary critics. The idea behind presenting a cast list at the beginning is to put the idea in the voters' heads what the writer was thinking in terms character traits as the story is being read. I want the voters to run the stories in their heads like films, then grade everything, performers, story, pacing, etc. That way, the voters put as much mental energy into their evaluations as the writers did into their products.

That's my plan.

You had me up until this post. It's one thing to develop a story with an original character and ask the reader to please imagine the character being played by Jodie Foster (for example), but quite another to suddenly decide that you'd like people to write a 5000-word movie novelization and have the readers critique everything.

Mind you, I personally evaluate movies not only on acting, but on a lot of the technical stuff, since I have a background as a theatre techhie.

Would crossovers be allowed (as long as no RL characters are used)?

 

[Admiral2]

How is every other monthly contest judged? Don't people VOTE on which story they LIKED or ENJOYED the most? If the actors that have been cast make the story seem more enjoyable, that may affect their voting, but the quality of the story will have far more to do with it.

I like Tiberius's ideas! I shall adopt them as my own!

My plan for poll time is to instruct the voters that they will act as "film critics" as well as literary critics. The idea behind presenting a cast list at the beginning is to put the idea in the voters' heads what the writer was thinking in terms character traits as the story is being read. I want the voters to run the stories in their heads like films, then grade everything, performers, story, pacing, etc. That way, the voters put as much mental energy into their evaluations as the writers did into their products.

That's my plan.

You had me up until this post. It's one thing to develop a story with an original character and ask the reader to please imagine the character being played by Jodie Foster (for example), but quite another to suddenly decide that you'd like people to write a 5000-word movie novelization and have the readers critique everything.

But you do critique everything about a story when you read it with a critical eye (Character, Plot, pacing, worldbuilding etc.) and all these things can be applied to film. All I'm really saying is that the cast list adds a couple more things for the voters to consider.

Mind you, I personally evaluate movies not only on acting, but on a lot of the technical stuff, since I have a background as a theatre techhie.

Then you're actually in the right frame of mind for this, even if you don't enter and just vote in the poll...but, of course, I would say enter anyway.

Would crossovers be allowed (as long as no RL characters are used)?

Yes. Just make sure the setting is primarily Star Trek.

 

[Count Zero]

Do the actors have to be contemporary? Or are dead actors or actors at a younger age than they actually are now allowed?

 

[Admiral2]

Do the actors have to be contemporary? Or are dead actors or actors at a younger age than they actually are now allowed?

Dead actors and actors at younger ages are perfectly fine.

 

[Thor Damar]

Quick question if I may?

What if one of your actors has played a guest character in a single episode of Star Trek, only ever in that one episode. Would that go againist the rule?

They'll be portraying entirety original characters from the the depths of my terrible mind of course...

 

[Admiral2]

Quick question if I may?

What if one of your actors has played a guest character in a single episode of Star Trek, only ever in that one episode. Would that go againist the rule?

They'll be portraying entirety original characters from the the depths of my terrible mind of course...

Of course!

But yes, that would go against the rule, because that actor was cast for that one episode for somebody casting Trek for Paramount, and I want you to have thought the character through from creation to portrayal all on your ownsome.

And as mentioned up-thread this may seem terribly restrictive, but that's the point. This month you're not meeting a theme challenge, so I want you to do all the work on the assigned task, which means not using Trek as a character or portrayer resource.

Now, just to go over stuff discussed in this and other threads:

-You can use original characters you've already created for other series.

-You can repost stories if they meet the criteria and you add a cast list.

-Dead actors are acceptable.

-Younger versions of actors are acceptable.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

Question: how much wiggle room do we have with the word limit; that is, how far over 5000 can I get away with?

 

[Admiral2]

Question: how much wiggle room do we have with the word limit; that is, how far over 5000 can I get away with?

I was worried about this one.


I would prefer to say "None", but if you go over by a few hundred or so, I won't quibble.


If however, you wanna turn in a novel, you're gonna have to do some editing. Word limits have been creeping up around here lately and I'm trying to get us back to short stories.

 

[Cobalt Frost]

Here's my stab: "Dramatis Personae", here: http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=146584. Hope y'all enjoy!

 

[USS Fardell]

Incomplete entry here.

 

[Admiral2]

And that's Game, people! Poll thread a'comin'.