August Contest: Alternate August - Deadline TONIGHT!

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As a writer I am constantly asking myself, “What if?” So what if we lived in a society that had completely different values and taboos?

How about an alternate society where homosexuality was the norm and someone that found themselves attracted to the opposite sex was considered to have a very bad mental problem? What if that person was forced to be treated for being mentally deviant? What if they are forced to go through a sex change so their body now reflects their sexual preference?

What about a society where polygamy is the norm and a couple that wishes to only have a marriage with each other and no ‘extra’ husbands or wives may be considered selfish? Maybe such a marriage between only two people is not even legal? What kind of problems would this couple have? What kind of pressures would their friends, society or even the government place on them to change their attitudes?

So the Rules:

1. Contest entry has to take place in an Alternate Reality where society has a completely different set of values. The two settings above are only examples, use your imagination as to the values in your story. Feel free to use one of the examples too if you wish.

2. The story does not have to be a solo. The author is welcome and even encouraged to continue the story line but it does need to be self-contained and bring some form of conclusion to the part of the story that is posted. For instance your protagonist is male that desires females, he is taken to a treatment center. He does not wish to change, he fights the mental conditioning, eventually he either finally begins to see other males as sexually attractive, or he is forced into a sex change she does not want, or he escapes the treatment center. All three are conclusions to the story arc, man is forced to change his sexual views, but allow the author to continue the story if he or she wishes.

Prizes will be 1 year subscription for 1st place, 6 months for 2nd and 3 months for 3rd. Erin will handle choosing the winners, although I am sure it will be like many contests before by using the Kudos count.

Comments

Thanks Erin :)

Thanks Erin I knew I could count on you to fix any mistakes I made in posting it.

You're awesome :)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

I'll try to create something.

I'll try to create something. I have been trying to get the motivation to write something different than the usual dime novel soap opera junk I churn out.

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

Dime novel soap opera?

Hey no dissing one of my favorite authors :) While the narrative style of writing you use fell out of favor many years ago, it was the style used in most of the great classics and therefore nothing to sneeze at. Your stories are compelling and evoke strong emotions for the reader. So while you may feel they are dime novel soap opera, the one thing they are not is junk :)

Since the idea for this contest actually began as multiple story ideas I had, I plan on writing one also. Of course I disqualify myself from winning any of prizes if that should happen.

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Deadline

Is this contest still active? Does it run through the end of the month?

Yes it's still active

Yep still active until the end of the month.

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Goodbye Themyscira

laika's picture

I posted an outline of my story idea here, regretting that I didn't have time to complete and was busy with other stuff. Erin's kind assessment below convinced me to clean it up and post it. If I rewrite what I had here as a hasty first person memoir with a minimum of dialogue I should have it done in time. It takes place in the DC comics universe (I don't know which Earth.... Earth #27) and that island Wonder Woman comes from, all of which I know very little about, so apologies in advance if it isn't exactly canon.
Hugs, Veronica

Love it!

erin's picture

You should submit it as it, it's sketchy but complete.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Wholeheartedly agree!

With Erin, post it to the contest!

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Why not?

As long as it has some type of alternate theme why not?

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Deadline and voting for August contest

erin's picture

The deadline for submission is August 31 at 1159pm PDT. Voting, via kudos, will continue thru sometime on Sept. 9 at which time a snapshot of the kudos ranking for all titles in the contest will be taken. This will then be posted sometime during that weekend as an announcement of the winners. Prizes can be claimed via PM to me, Erin, anytime in September after the announcement.

Thanks to all who submitted stories, or cast kudos. :)

A September story challenge will be announced the weekend of Sept 2 to 5.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Brain Droppings

I have managed to squeeze out a bit of neural excrescence about 3 hours under the wire(I thought it was 3 minutes but as it turns out the world actually doesn't run on Eastern Time...). Turns out this whole work thing gets in the way a bit but to be fair I should really blame "House of Cards". We burned through 52 episodes in under 2 weeks.

We've just started in on "Sense8", an offering by the creators of the "Matrix" trilogy the Wachowski sisters(Who at the time of the "Matrix" filming were known as the Wachowski brothers). I won't put any spoilers out there but bits of it are absolutely terrifying!

I don't expect my offering to win or even do very well... but I'm happy with it.

Abby

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