Brought to you and hosted by your friendly moderators Strangeluv and Medieve, the first literature and graphic art crossover competition.


What's this all about?

Let's see you bring out the little child in you and flex that creative muscle of yours. The goal is to come up with an idea for a children's book or a nursery rhyme and write it and illustrate it in two weeks' time. It's up to you if you want to tell a fable of a legendary prince or a tall tale of a wacky fox and his meerkat friend's misadventures or the whatever of the whatever from the wherever during the whenever.

Due Date: Sunday 1st 8th June, 2008.

---

Is there anything we should keep in mind when writing this children's story?

Keep this quote in mind:

"I believe that good questions are more important than answers, and the best children's books ask questions, and make the readers ask questions. And every new question is going to disturb someone's universe."

- Madeleine L'Engle

Though some nursery rhymes and stories play on being random, children's stories should have some sort of productive message, idea or concept rooted in its work. It is not required of the stories submitted to have that but it is preferred.

---

What should your entry have?

For your entry to be considered eligible, it must:

1. Be no more than 500 words. There is no minimum limit.

2. Have at least six illustrations (one for your title page and at least five additional for the story itself).

3. Be a complete story, not a single chapter or section of a story.

4. Have no more than two participants associated with it upon submission.

---

Would I be doing this alone?

You can choose to do it by yourself or you can sign up with another person. As mentioned before, each entry must not have more than two persons' names on it.

---

What if I don't have a partner but would like one?

Just post here and say if you want to sign up as a Writer or an Illustrator (or both). A list will be posted and updated with these names and hopefully those who would like a partner would all get paired up with one eventually. If you see someone you will be interested in working with, PM them and see if they want to team up with you. Any person working alone can always team up with someone later on.

---

In what format should it be sent?

They should be in Word documents and PM'd to Strangeluv. He will then PM your entries to the other judges. Your story can be written in any font size, type or format you feel best suits it. Your illustrations can be done in any style you feel best suits it.

When you PM the submissions, please send them in this format:

---

How will the winner be decided?

There will be four judges for the contest. The four judges will be:
- Medieve
- Chainer
- Hundley
- Strangeluv

Medieve and Strangeluv moderate the Graphic Art and Literature boards, respectively, so they'd like to think we landed these positions because the people who appointed them felt that they were at least a little knowledgable about the content on their respective forums.

Hundley has a degree in English Literature and the only thing he is qualified to do is judge this competition. Chainer is currently working on getting his degrees in Graphic Design and Multi Media and he is a grand prize winner of several competitions, including one as a wallpaper designer for an MMORPG (Lineage 2).

---

Wait, so what's the prize?

The prize is the critique. For each entry, you will be offered a critique by each of us. Medieve and Strangeluv are at least knowledgeable in their respective fields of art and literature and their opinions should have some worth! And well, Hundley has his fancy-ass degree in English Literature and Chainer is doing Graphic Design courses and has won several competitions.

Each eligible entry submitted will get a critique. However, the winner will get the most detailed critique. Sounds good to you?

But remember, this is a chance to have fun and to use your imagination. The point is to be creative and original. There are no losers here.

And remember, as Father Goose said, "When you write for children, don't write FOR children. Write FROM the child in you."

---

Signup List


Teams/Solitary Workers:

1. Corel & Iaman
2. Juris
3. angry black man
4. An Hafferdat Squid
5. NinjaPirate
6. Chef & Drule
7. climbtree
8. Jester & Izekeal
9. Zengage & BlindMind
10. Catslacks
11. Marmot & EvilDemonCreature
12. Lifexplosion & Rockman
13. Couch
14. Supra Mairo
15.

Unpartnered Writer/Illustrators:

1. -
2. Otomon (Writer)
3. hero bash (Writer/Illustrator)
4. Catslacks (Writer)
5. -
6. El Nerdo (Writer)
7. -
8.

---