Well, as mentioned, this is the place to discuss anything you want to regarding the competition.


For the record, the complete list of rules and a small FAQ;

This is an extract from; http://competition.chorrol.com

The Rules

1. Any work entered has to be written by yourself.
2. There is a limit of one entry per writer per category.
3. Any entry has to be a completed work.
4. Any entry has to be written in English.
5. You may, if you wish, enter your story anonymously.
6. Any entry sent in, has to comply with the guidelines listed below
7. The maximum word count listed below, is the absolute maximum. A single word over the maximum will place your story in a different category.
8. Any entry has to be written about The Elder Scrolls universe, non ES related stories will not be allowed to enter.
9. By entering your stories into the contest, you're granting participating fansites the license to use the stories in any way they see fit within the confines of this contest.
10. The final deadline for entering a story in this competition, will be April 30th. Midnight April 30th is the last time for submitting a story.


Guidelines for submitting stories

1. All entries are to be sent to the following email address; Competition@chorrol.com
2. Make sure all entries are either in .doc, .txt or .pdf format.
3. Each entry has to be in a separate, but single file. If a story has 30 chapters, please send me all 30 chapters in a single file.
4. Please specify for each entry you're sending; 1. For which category you're entering it and, 2. What name, if any, I should mention wrote it.


The Categories

Short stories; Can be no longer then 2500 words
Medium sized stories; must be longer then 2500 words but no longer then 20000 words
Long stories; any story longer then 20000 words falls under this category, this category has no maximum word count.

The title of the story and the name of the author do not count toward the maximum word limit.


Judges and Judging

1. Each category will be judged by a panel of 3 members of the Elder Scrolls scene. In total there will be nine judges.
2. The panel of judges is pre-selected and will have the final say in everything.
3. All decisions of judges are final and cannot be appealed.
4. In a situation where the above rules do not apply, the ruling of the majority of judges (either in total or for a specific category) will be deciding.
5. Judges are selected before the start of the competition and their names are published on this site.
6. The final results of the competition will be published before June 1st, but if possible, sooner.


The judges;

Alexander -> Chorrol
Apy -> Planet Elder Scrolls
B -> The Imperial Library
BSD-IES -> Chorrol
Dark0ne -> TES Nexus
Gstaff -> Bethesda
Haplo -> Tamriel Rebuilt
Ratwar -> UESP
Reaver -> Elderscrolls.net

Q. Can I submit more then one story?
A. Yes, but not in a single category. Everyone may one story per category, that’s three in total, one for each category.

Q. My story is 2501 words, can I still submit it as a short story?
A. No. The word limit is strictly enforced. Ignoring it will make no difference as your entry will be rejected.

Q. Can I simply take a single chapter of my ongoing tale and submit it as a short story?
A. No, every story submitted has to be a “stand alone” story, that is it cannot be part of a larger story.

Q. Can I submit a story written in German or French?
A. No. Only stories written in English will be allowed.

Q. Will my story be judged based on proper grammar and spelling?
A. No. This isn’t an English spelling contest, so we don’t judge based on grammatical errors and spelling errors or the lack thereof. However, although we aren't marking it on these criteria, any submission that is littered with mistakes of this kind will inevitably be judged more harshly. Word processing programs come with spell checks inbuilt. Use them - it'll help you and the judges.

Q. What do you mean by “All the entries have to be completed works”
A. It means basically, your story has to have a beginning, a middle and an ending. If you’re in the process of writing a large story, and are up to chapter 3 of what will become 4, or 10 chapters, then you cannot submit it. Only complete and finished stories may be submitted.

Q. I once wrote a story about The Elder Scrolls ten years ago, can I submit it?
A. Yes. It doesn’t matter when you wrote it.

Q. Can I also submit this great story I’ve written that isn’t about The Elder Scrolls universe?
A. No. Only Elder Scrolls related stories will be allowed to enter in the contest.

Q. Does the story have to be about the actual Elder Scrolls, the ones you find in Oblivion?
A. No. It can be about anything related to one of the games set in the Elder Scrolls universe; Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, Redgaurd, Shadowkey, Battlespire, or anything lore related to that same universe.

Exciting... Say I were thinking of reworking the story I entered to the last competition - is that allowed?

And just a suggestion - you might want to specify which timezone midnight is working on.

All we've said is that the stories have to be complete. So yes, I can't see any reason whatsoever why you couldn't enter the last story. Just remember though, you've got another 500 words to play with in the short story section. If you choose to - you don't have to obviously.

I'll let Alex get back to you on the timezone one, it's not just Chorrol involved this time. The judges are from several different TES sites.

Are we allowed to know who the judges are?

Looking at Alex's post at the beginning, I assume so. It says,

5. Judges are selected before the start of the competition and their names are published on this site.

Now, I can't see the names published anywhere yet, but I'm assuming Alex will get around to that.

Just to re-iterate the word counts:

Short Stories - Can be no longer then 2500 words

Medium Sized Stories - must be longer then 2500 words but no longer then 20,000 words

Long stories - any story longer then 20,000 words falls under this category, this category has no maximum word count. Let me repeat that. NO MAXIMUM WORD COUNT. It can be as long as you want.

Sorry, BSD. I read the original announcement after posting that. My bad.

No problem mate

Made me feel useful for a change...

I just amended the first post here to include the names of all the judges.

Thanks, Alex.

Np

Just wondering what kind of criteria the judges will be awarding points on?

Well... everything really.

Obviously, as a competition, the stories will be rated against the other entries in that length class. Each judge will come up with their reasons for their choices, and those reasons will obviously include plot, characterisation, dialogue, writing style, how much they enjoyed reading it, is it unique or cliched etc etc. Each story isn't going to get scored on an individual basis I wouldn't have thought though. You have to take a story as a whole.

Woo hoo! Time to see how "Bloodlust" stands up to the masses. Now I gotta figure out a short or perhaps a medium story to write. I don't wanna use "The Mistake" again.

I'm in. Now I've really been neglecting my stories here, but I'm still going to start a new one.

No fixed ideas yet, but I think I'll use Ro-El. There's tons of stuff I can let that kid do sometime between Oasis 2 and Redemption. I should be able to think of something.

Mallet, I'm pretty sure Bloodlust will score mayor points. You might still want to read it through and look for miscelaneous typos though, just in case.

Crap! Got a chance to be in on this....and don't have a complete story to compete with...

Or both a short and medium?



Well, you also seem to have a few "completed" stories already, one of those is an easy entry. If you want to go with it that is



Perhaps you can come up with a short or medium sized story between now and the end of the submission period? Then you can enter

That's what I'm doing with the Medium and Short categories.....

I'm doing something almost entirely new, though continuing on my recent Alik'r desert kick... my recent submission to the Temple of Lore can serve as a sort of clue as to my subject.

Oh yea, I definitely plan to go through it and edit the typos. I also gotta switch the first few pages to past tense since I couldn't make up my damn mind about which tense to use when I started that thing.

so, I had just a quick question. I wrote a story for another bord that was set in the 5th era. obviously some things were a little different as it was set a couple hundred years after oblivion, but it was still within what i thought as the bounds of the TES word. is this ok to submit or should I stick with the times portrayed in the current games?

Could you possibly send me a link via pm to where you've posted it before, so I can have a look? If it fits within the lore and feel of TES then it should be fine, but I think we're a little nervous about spaceships, plasma guns and BFG's suddenly appearing in Balmora

haha, certainly. If one were to pretend that the 3rd era is he middle ages, the 5th would be the renaissance...

Muhahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa great sweet BSD....you absolutely made my day! That comment was priceless.

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking of coming up with something, although it might be a dark, sad story, because my thoughts are a bit that way at the moment...


Let's just hope I'll manage to go through with it....

I just jumped in on this one earlier today with no idea what version (short, medium, long) I was going to go with. I was aiming for short or medium, but I checked my word count and I was already up to 5600+ words. And my story has barely kicked off. So I think I'll be aiming for the big one now, my only fear is that I won't finish it by the deadline, even working a couple hours every day (unlikely) I won't be able to finish it. I must decide upon telling the story unaltered, or cut it off (which will probably ruin it). Can the end date be extended? Lol, i wish. Anyway, I was wondering about speech. Obviously people in ES don't say dude or things of that nature, and was wondering how much this would affect our score. And names. There are obvious traits of names for a given race, and would straying from these unspoken guidelines affect the score? And what about violence? I'd assume it'd be pretty liberal given that Oblivion is a mature rated game, but are you laying down rules for going too far?

No, I'm afraid not.



"Yo, my main man Helseth, what's happening dude?" It doesn't quite fit does it? How would that affect your score? Lets just say I wouldn't recommend it...



The simple answer to both of those is stick to the lore as much as possible. For example, if you really want your lead character to be called Bob and your villain Bill then it's up to you....but it doesn't really seem to fit. I would stick to TES type names if it were me. There are plenty of name generators around if you're stuck. This is the one I tend to use the most:

http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/ngen



Good question, and one we haven't discussed. Truthful answer is it depends. Violence is an accepted part of Tamrielic culture but I'd tend to avoid excessively gratuitous - for the simple fact that it's held on a site which younger viewers can read.

I agree completely with BSD-IES there. Though would like to mention two small things.

I'm not sure if it's in any of the games, but I can imagine a character with a name very unnatural for the race he/she belongs to. In such a case, a good background explaining it could do wonders. However like BSD-IES said, probably best to keep it genuine and at least somewhat lore friendly, though that doesn't have to be the ultimate guiding lines.

Violence, no rules against it, not even a rule against the most gruesome violence, however again you could ask yourself if it serves your story, that is if it adds something to the story, or if it's just violence for the sake of violence, In which case, it might be better left out.

Can I submit a story that is stand alone, yet other stories I've written involve the main character?

As in, multiple stories telling different times in the character's life, but I just submit one of them. Or is that bad?

I was also wondering about what Thundakk brought up. And if not, what about other sub-characters? Can they break off, and I make another story about that character? (Sorry, horrible grammar, I just couldn't think of a better way to word that, tch, and I'm supposed to be a writer.) Also, how do specify the catagory we're trying for; put long/med./short in the subject part of the e-mail? P.S., Now I'm on 12,000 words! And that was what, 2-3 days? Impressive snake. Found a way to shorten the story within reasonable limits without sacraficing too much. And thanks for the name generator BSD-IES.

ooooh. interesting. I shall have to see what I come up with...

A stand alone story about an existing character, or sub character from one of your on going stories would be just fine to enter. Just so long as it isn't simply an extract from a longer story.

That's good to hear, as I sent it in before I even thought of that question.

Cool. I started this story for the sole purpose of this contest, but now I've found myself attached to some of my characters.

Okay. It's been awhile and things are for the most part running smoothly. But I ran into another problem with names. I was using my spellcheck and it didn't like the name of my orc character. Not being too computer saavy (AKA retarded) instead of adding it to the dictionary I used a place holder with the intent of coming back to change it. Now I've got over 20,000 words and the spell check isn't picking it up because I altered it. Now I'll probably have enough time to go back and change it, but if I don't am I stuck with the place holder? The gist of my question is this: Will someone edit our stories before they are entered for people to read on a large scale? Knowing myself I'll have a few typos not picked up by spellcheck. Also even if and when I do go back to change things there'll be a few Fred Groh' Cash's mixed in with the proper Fred gro-Malag's. I don't want to confuse people (at least not in this context), but like I said, I'll get around to it.

Sorry, but no - nobody will be editing it for you. Whatever you send in as your submission will be what's shown. Warts and all

Can you not do find and replace?

Finished and sent in. Whoooo. Long catagory with 3 days to burn. Went back and fixed what I could. I left the ending open for a contuinuation (maybe). Anyone aiming for the longest catagory, 20000 words +, good luck. You and I will be fighting for the top spot. I put alot of work into this one, and I think it turned out fairly well, guess we'll find out in a couple days. May the best Argonian win!

I sent in "Bloodlust" today after fixing the tense issues I had with the beginning of the story. There's bound to be typos here and there, but the story was just too damn huge for me to catch em all.

Hopefully the judges will enjoy it. It's gotten a good reception here from what I've seen.

So I'm assuming it's in the long catagory right?

Sent it in yesterday evening. (Well, it was like half an hour past midnight, so I should say this morning.)

Medium length and for as far as I can see, most typos are out. Except there is a small continuity flaw at the end, which I noticed five minutes after sending. Oops.

Yes, Orimus it is. It was a story that I had worked on for a year and a half before finishing. I did have a few lengthy breaks getting close to the end though. According to the Word document, it is around 270 pages though I have a feeling the borders of my pages might be the cause of that. I was pretty sure that when I finished it, it was only around 200.

I only got 49 pages, all in size 12 font Times New Roman. Considering I started this story on April 15th and finished on the 27th of the same year. Ya, that's pretty good. There'd be more, but my writing before the contest was dedicated to 500+ page hand-writen (and its only a brief outline) fantasy novel(s). All the while I was writing my Halo fanfic, multiple short stories, drawing, etc. etc. Ontop of my normal life and school and stuff of course. I still think I should've expanded it before sending it in... but I'd always think that, no matter how near-perfect it got. I think the total amount of hours I put in is maybe six or seven, so for that amount of time its a good story. But like I said earlier; we'll find out.

Indeed. I wish you the best of luck.

well 00 and 24 both are exactly the same, so I don't see the problem. I think the due date is basically 23:59:99 April 29. Midnight is the first second of April 30. Now you just gotta figure out which time zone they're working with, which I believe is one of the European time zones.

I'll just wish you all good luck! I'm not participating, I did plan to but......nevermind, things doesn't always come out as planned!

Sounds like quite a few stories are being entered in this 200+ pages? 49 pages? Yikes! You people have got the writer's bug and good for you! I always enjoy well written stories. As for the due date, I figure if the entry is there by 11:59:59pm GMT, that should be good enough Looking forward to seeing what other people have entered, even if they've entered it before or posted it on a forum somewhere.

I've never posted anything anywhere before this. I hope my writing style is a breath of fresh air. From what little I've read it seems unique, not that I'm saying all your guys' are the same, just that mine is you know, my own. I kinda compare my style to Eoin Colfer's Atemis Fowl books; medium-long description, talk, action, repeat. I like it, I also delve into my lead charaters thoughts more than Eoin.

It's a good bet they're talking about Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) for this. It'd technically be the first time xone of all to reach midnight, and the one that's normally used. If you open the little clock that;s on most computers and take a lok in the time xones area you should be able to figure out what time you would need to have something in by. (yeah, real technical of me, i know)

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