Fortnightly writing competition: coming soon!

[Trihan]

Okay, this competition has two potential themes. I haven't put in specific dates for the start and end because Dualnames and I have both come up with ideas for a topic and we wanted to let you guys choose which one you wanted to do.

Trihan's idea
Write about a memorable day from your own life in the style/point of view of your favourite adventure game character. You can have some artistic licence here and edit specific details to suit the character you're writing about as if it was a day that happened to them instead of you.

Dualnames's idea
Write about anything you like in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy style.

Let us know which one you prefer for a contest!

[Aljoho]

I think both ideas would be cool but I personally prefer Trihan's idea simply because it gave me a good idea for my own entry. Also it could always be interpreted as Dualname's idea (especially considering Dualnames himself is working on a HGTTG related adventure game if my memory serves me well) but of course I'm one of many lets see what everybody else thinks.

[Stupot]

I like the sound of DN's idea.  I'm not a massive fan of Douglas Adams' style - I think it's randomness for randomness' sake.  So this would be a good opportunity to try and immitate that and see if it is actually more difficult that it looks.

[limeTree]

I like the second one,since i read the guide i saw the movie.
And the book cracks me up.

[monkey0506]

Just curious about this...did this competition get approval?

I might join in if I have anything...but I didn't see in the official approval thread that it's been approved. If it sparks activity I doubt it'll be shut down...just hate to see a happy few have their hopes dashed against Forum Charter Rock...just like what happened to the Mayflower... 8)

[Trihan]

DualNames and I had a joint win on the last fortnightly writing competition and rock_chick gave us the go ahead to make the new one, so as far as I know it's approved.

[Gilbert]

Just curious about this...did this competition get approval?

If you did check the thread for the last round, you'll see that this is just a normal on-going competition got carried over to the next round.

[monkey0506]

Oh sorry...the "coming soon" threw me off and I didn't see it in the forum charter. My mistake.

[rock_chick]

Unsure, I have only a bare understanding of HGTTG so I wouldn't know how to write a story with the second theme but it does sound interesting! Perhaps a little idea about how to go about it might help because both ideas are good.

[monkey0506]

[Mr Prosser:] "But the plans were on display..."
[Arthur:] "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
[Mr Prosser:] "That's the display department."
[Arthur:] "With a torch."
[Mr Prosser:] "Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
[Arthur:] "So had the stairs."
[Mr Prosser:] "But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
[Arthur:] "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."

...a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc, etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

The trouble with most forms of transport, he thought, is basically one of them not being worth all the bother. On Earth â€" when there had been an Earth, before it was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass â€" the problem had been with cars. The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime from out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm's way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another â€" particularly when the place you arrived at had probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e. covered with tar, full of smoke and short of fish.

There is an art, [the Guide] says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. [...] Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

And more...

[Aljoho]

I think thats all the votes we are going to get - Trihan and DN, can you open the competition soon - my fingers are itching to type (I guess it's HGTTG by popular demand).

[Dualnames]

Unsure, I have only a bare understanding of HGTTG so I wouldn't know how to write a story with the second theme but it does sound interesting! Perhaps a little idea about how to go about it might help because both ideas are good.

Example entry: Sleep

Sleep:
Sleep is an essential process to all beings. Except from the duradindi people on Viltvodle 5. They're beings that lack of insomnia and therefore they never sleep. A fact that the ruthless marketing division hadn't really taken into mind, but by curious facts managed to sell a very decent amount of alarm clocks.

Randomness all over. Anyway Trihan will give the final go to this.

[Trihan]

I must admit I would have liked to have given the go-ahead on my idea since it provides more freedom for people to express ideas (and fairer to people who haven't heard of Douglas Adams), but DN's seems to be more popular, so Hitchhiker's Guide it is.

I'll make a new topic for the actual competition and request that this one be locked.