Writing ContestThis contest involves writing about a specific character of the current month’s race. Each author will be judged by three volunteer judges on the quantity (number of posts - limit one per day) and quality (entertainment value) of your writing. In addition, all DP members will have the chance to vote for your character as their favorite. All "favorite character" votes will count toward your final score, as we will consider them a testament to your ability to win over an audience with your writing.
How to Enter:1. Sign up with DP. If you have not already done so,
sign up as a DP member by registering on our forums using an
ooc username that is NOT the same as ANY of your active WoW characters. While you're here, introduce yourself in our introduction thread and check out some existing journals and stories to see what your competition is like.
2. Sign up for the contest. To enter, you must have a character of the appropriate race currently active on
any roleplay server. Characters on non-RP servers are ineligible. We strongly suggest you enter only one character, as this is essentially a contest between characters, and you don't want to compete against yourself! To sign up, enter your competing character into our
Call Sheet by
the 20th of the month. At minimum, you must enter the character's name as it appears in-game, and the RP or RP-PvP server that the character plays on. However, adding more detail such as a picture or description may generate more interest in (and more votes for!) your character.
3. (Optional) Make a character account.You don't have to do this, but it's more fun sometimes to see a picture of your character next to your posts, and/or a special signature underneath. If you would like to make a separate account for your character, you only need log out of your player account, choose "Register," fill in your character's name, and
use the same email address you used for your player account (that lets the database know it's a character). For "location," character accounts often use their server, and for "occupation" they often use class. But feel free to experiment.
4. (Also optional) Enter a brief biography of your character the Character Introductions thread.This thread is located in the "Events & Pacers" Forum. Posting some information about your character gives even the busiest of our members a heads-up that there’s some good writing to be read! You can even include a direct link to your journal or story thread. (Contact any Producer if you need information on how to do this.)
5. Share your writing.Post your writing samples in the appropriate forum (Journals or Storytelling) by
the 25th of the month. You may post as many pieces as you like but
you will only get credit for one post per day. First-person journals, letters, or tales written/told
by your character go in the
Journals & Letters section. Third-person stories written
by you
about your character go in the
Storytelling section. (If you're not clear on the distinction, try browsing these sections to see examples.) The reason for the separate sections is so we can separate your skill as a writer from your
character's skill (or lack thereof) in expressing him/herself. An orc peon's journal, for example, would be riddled with bad grammar, and that shouldn't count against you.
Tips for Winning:**Know your game lore.**It's your character... but it's Blizzard's world! Because this is a writing contest, researching your setting is very important. We have all kinds of resources on the site to help you learn about the various races and about the world of Azeroth, and you also have access to the amazing
WoWWiki, so if you stray too far from WoW canon, it may count against you! If you have any questions about what is and isn't possible in Azeroth, feel free to ask in our forums or PM one of the DP Producers.
**Enter early.**The judges will be pretty cranky if they have to read 1,641,626 entries on the 25th. Do you want a cranky judge reading your entry? Also, entering early gives you a chance to gauge people's reaction to your piece, make adjustments, and post again! Last but not least, the longer your pieces are up on the site, the more people will read them and vote for you!
**Enter often.**We recommend that you break longer stories up into small, cliff-hanging pieces and post one each day rather than posting the whole thing in one shot. There are three reasons for this. 1) It keeps your name in front of your audience on a regular basis so they don't forget you. 2) Shorter pieces are more likely to get read by busy members and earn you votes. 3) Because of the way the judging process works, you'll get more credit for 3 1,000-word pieces than you would for a single 3,000-word piece. We reward you for catering to our short attention spans!! However, posting 1,000 3-word stories will
not help you, and may result in your being Cursed by DP's warlocks.
**Check out (and support) your competition.**What makes this contest unique is that you can read what your competitors are writing and try to one-up them by posting something new and better! If you see someone whose writing truly impresses you, feel free to mention them in the Character Introductions thread in the
Events & Pacers forum, and vote for them when the time comes. Your team spirit will be noted when judging time comes around!
**Use the Call Sheet.**Yes, this is a writing contest, but there's also a "member vote" element that comes into play, because we want everyone to feel included in the fun. So being visible matters! When you log on your competing character for some questing and roleplay, we recommend that you alert your fellow DP members to this fact by using the Call Sheet. People who have characters on your server may log on looking for you, and if they RP with you and like you, that may well influence their vote!
