Greetings, and welcome to the third (and long over-due) ZUser Created Challenge - Writing Round! It's been some two years since the last one, so here's a brief over-view of what this contest will involve.
In the ZUCWR, everyone is given a topic - usually fairly vague - and a maximum word count, along with the categories that each piece will be judged on. It is then your job to go away, write a piece that you think is worth entering (or not, if you just want to enter for the heck of it), and then post it in the submissions thread once it's up. After that, the chosen judges will score each piece, and the winners be announced.
Now for the details.
Topic - Take a scene from a Zelda game - any Zelda game - and write it in your own words. It can be a boss fight, an encounter with one of the numerous NPCs dotted around Hyrule, or even just a walk in the park (assuming there are any parks in Zelda games...). It doesn't matter if you write the same scene as another person, because odds are fairly high that it'll come out completely different anyway...unless you're copying, in which case you get disqualified.
Format - The final piece can be anything up to and including 1,500 words. We don't mind if you go a little over that, but only a little. Every piece will need a title to go with it, and they should be put in quote boxes for ease of reference. You will also need to give an age rating, and tell us what scene from what game it has been taken from.
Judging - The
poor saps volunteers who will be judging your entries are <Puck, HitokiriChibi, Ciroton and Cookie>. The categories for judging are:
Spelling and Grammar - Microsoft Word usually gets all spelling mistakes, but make sure you read it through a few times and see that's nothing incorrectly spelled our there is lack of correct grammar in sentence parts. Do a spellcheck if you need. Any mistakes, whether minor or major, will decrease your point score for that category, and on an overall level lower your main score.
Dialogue - Hey, even if you just have Link in the scene, or a single character or whatever, you'll have to make them talk. Make sure what they say isn't exaggerated or sounds funny, make it clear whose talking, and of course have a variety of speaking description words *i.e, said, asked, inquired, replied* And remember - swearing is not allowed.
Originality - You're taking a scene that's already been made and putting it into writing yes, but if you just do that, then your score's gonna flop. Add little things we don't see, get into character's heads, have the narrator say things we didn't experience in the game. But remember, going overboard with new stuff will get you in trouble for this score as well, keep it in perfect moderation.
Description - Writing is painting a picture with words, but like real art, doing too much can make things bad, and doing too little is horrible. Just as originality, keep it in moderation. Add detail, but don't add too much, because then it'll sound funny, and your score won't be too good. Use just the right amount.
Also, don't forget - anything that breaks forum rules will be penalised. If it's bad, expect an infraction.
Timing - The submissions thread will open on the <15th of May>, and close on the <22nd of May>. Late entries will not be judged, so don't try it.
That's about all. Use this thread to ask questions, and we hope to see your entries later on.
Good luck!