WHAT IS THE GEN 3 CONTEST?

This contest originated from the Literary Lounge Discord server. If you're interested in joining, please read everything very carefully! All the information you need is here.

Since the Literary Lounge is a community where moderators, authors, and users all interact with each other on a daily basis, we've decided to make the contest entirely anonymous. This means that nobody will ever know who the judges are except the organizer, and the judges won't know whose story they're judging until the end when the results are released. Everyone is judged on their writing alone!

WHAT IS THE GOAL?

The goal is to write a novelette between 7.5K and 15K words, and there are a few things you need to include as well. This can be done literally or figuratively. For example, if you need to include a bridge, you can have a scene take place on a bridge, or you can portray something as a bridge between two things.

To commemorate General 3, you need to incorporate three keywords. Everyone gets the same keywords, and you have to use all three of them, so no picking and choosing! The keywords will be published on the day the contest starts.

You can write whatever you want in terms of genre, time period, style, etc. as long as you use the keywords, so you have a lot of freedom! (Just make sure it's in English.) You are also allowed to write mature content, but keep Wattpad's guidelines in mind.

HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE?

The contest runs from June 6th to July 20th, which means you have a month and a half to complete your novelette. The idea is that you can use the first 15 days to outline/prepare your novelette and the remaining 30 days to write it, which is 500 words a day if you're writing 15K, but you can obviously use your time however you wish. If you wanna pants the whole thing a week before the deadline, be my guest. Do whatever works for you.

HOW DO I SUBMIT MY STORY?

Once you've finished writing your novelette, you need to send it to the organizer on Discord in a direct message. (Glyn, the owner of the LL server, is the organizer.) You need to be a member in LL to be able to do this.

Do not send it to someone else and do not post it on Wattpad/Tapas/etc. Either send the organizer a docx or pdf file or send them a link to a Google Doc. Seriously, do not post it anywhere until the contest is over! Remember, it's all about anonymity.

If you're having trouble sending your story, DM Glyn about it. Don't ask the mods. They might be one of the judges.

HOW ARE THE STORIES JUDGED?

Once you've submitted your entry, the organizer will make a copy of it and send this copy to the judges so they can't see whose story it is. The stories will be judged in multiple categories and they will get an overall rating. The judges will use the 10-star rating system for this, and their average will be your final score.

Thus, there will be four winners in total: one for each category, and one with the highest average composite score overall. Only the winners will get prizes, but those who end up in second place will be mentioned as well!

How long the judging takes will depend on how many entries there are. This is the first time we're doing this contest, so there's no way of telling yet. The estimated time will be published on the day after the deadline.