"I'm always happy to hear my work is appreciated! So yes, count me in. I would be glad to help out."
Fanon writers, get your pens ready because this should be good news for you! That speaker happens to be ChobitX from Deviantart.com, one of the illustrators of Silent Hero in Emerald. She's not the one I won pictures from via writing contest, but I purchase her work in the form of Deviantart.com points. And since I also hang around Deviantart a lot, I happen to get generous point donations :)
How does this apply to you? Well, I've had a high influx of point donations recently. And there's a problem in the fanon portal: YOUR ACTION SCENES. I've tried many ways to lecture you guys to improve, but I realize that the best motivation comes from what once motivated me as well: offer the best writing, and you'll receive a drawing from ChobitX of your favorite OCs, 100% arranged and paid for by yours truly ^^
Minnichi proceeds to lure contestants by pointing out that ChobitX drew this and this.
Now that your interest is sparked, let's move onto the specifics!
Rules and Guidelines[]
DEADLINE: Saturday, October 13th, 2012 at 10pm (Timezone: UTC -6)
You're not going to write just any fight scene; it's going to be an epic one, of course. But no really, my goal's to make sure you produce a well-rounded battle that's hopefully outside your comfort zone. With that in mind, here's how your scene will be crafted...
Find out who your fighters are here! |
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Look at the first letter of your username (the first available letter if your name starts with a digit).Your first fighter will be a: Example: "1343Minnichi" has to write a scene about a Firebender. A through F: Waterbender G through L: Earthbender M through R: Firebender S through Z: Airbender NOTE: This fighter must be an original character (can include those in your fanon). If you use yourself, make sure you're unique :) ... Based on the number of characters in your username (letters AND numbers), your second fighter will be a: Example: "Minnichi124" would have an odd number of characters and will produce a bender. Odd number: Bender Even number: Non-bender ... Skip this if you ended up with a non-bender and read the next section. But if your second fighter is a bender, look at the first and last available letter of your username and determine if it has an odd or even number of syllables. Based on these things, look who it is: Format: (First Letter), (Last Letter), (Odd/Even number of syllables) *First/last letter can be in any order; "A-Z, G-L" is the same thing as "G-L, A-Z." Example: "Minnichi124" starts with "M" and ends with "I," and has an even number of syllables. It's designated as "G-L, M-R, Even number." The fighter is Azula. A-F, A-F, Odd number: Ozai A-F, A-F, Even number: Hama A-F, G-L, Odd number: Aang A-F, G-L, Even number: Zuko A-F, M-R, Odd number: Dai Li agent >:P A-F, M-R, Even number: Pakku A-F, S-Z, Odd number: Meelo A-F, S-Z, Even number: Zhao G-L, G-L, Odd number: Tarrlok G-L, G-L, Even number: Bumi G-L, M-R, Odd number: Tenzin G-L, M-R, Even number: Azula G-L, S-Z, Odd number: Katara G-L, S-Z, Even number: The Boulder M-R, M-R, Odd number: Iroh M-R, M-R, Even number: Iroh II M-R, S-Z, Odd number: Toph M-R, S-Z, Even number: Korra S-Z, S-Z, Odd number: Amon S-Z, S-Z, Even number: Long Feng ... If your second fighter is a non-bender, look at the first and last letter of your username and if it has an odd/even number of syllables. Here's who it is: Format: (First Letter), (Last Letter), (Odd/Even number of syllables) *First/last letter can be in any order; "A-F, G-L" is the same thing as "G-L, A-F." Example: "Minnichi14" starts with "M" and ends with "I," and has an odd number of syllables. It's designated as "G-L, M-R, Odd number." The fighter is Longshot. A-F, A-F, Odd number: Hiroshi (in a mecha tank) A-F, A-F, Even number: Suki A-F, G-L, Odd number: June A-F, G-L, Even number: Yuyan Archer A-F, M-R, Odd number: Sokka A-F, M-R, Even number: Jet A-F, S-Z, Odd number: The Blue Spirit A-F, S-Z, Even number: Hakoda G-L, G-L, Odd number: Pirate captain G-L, G-L, Even number: Equalist chi-blocker G-L, M-R, Odd number: Longshot G-L, M-R, Even number: Piandao G-L, S-Z, Odd number: Asami G-L, S-Z, Even number: Mai M-R, M-R, Odd number: Ogodei (part of the Rough Rhinos) M-R, M-R, Even number: Gan Jin leader M-R, S-Z, Odd number: Ty Lee M-R, S-Z, Even number: Lieutenant (LoK mustache guy) S-Z, S-Z, Odd number: Smellerbee S-Z, S-Z, Even number: Chit Sang |
Entry Procedure[]
Got it all? If this interests you...
- Comment to declare the participants of your battle (*make sure you've read through the above section!) If it were me who's writing, the comment would be in the following format: "I'm going to produce an epic fight between an original Firebender and Piandao." ...Or just "Firebender vs. Piandao" if you don't want to be awesome and dramatic.
- Specify if the first fighter happens to be yourself, and post the final result in a blog post (or fanon page, if you wish). Link said post in the comments section of this page, and you'll be added to the submissions section.
- Make sure to start off your title with "Entry for..." (to avoid confusion)
The rest of the details of this scene are up to you! Why they fought, where they're fighting, the POV you choose, etc... I was going to assign these details at first, but I was too lazy another important element of action is your creativity. It's also going to be a factor when I decide the winners. Speaking of which, here's the part you actually care about:
Prizes![]
- 1st Place: A full color, full body picture with up to 3 characters, background included
- 2nd Place: A full color, full body picture with up to 2 characters, no background
- 3rd Place: A full color, waist-up picture of 1 character, no background
Honorable mention: A waist-up line drawing of 2 characters OR a full body line drawing of 1 character with no background (Example of a line drawing)
The only drawing requirement for the winners is that your characters must include at least one OC. I feel like it's a waste to request only canon characters, because trust me: whatever you want to happen between canon characters, you'll probably be able to find it somewhere on Deviantart.com already. But anyway, the winning artwork can be anything in your wildest imagination (...within wiki policies!), and I'll arrange its production with ChobitX. Sound good?
Lastly, winners get these nifty userboxes!
This user won 1st Place in Minnichi's Epic Battle Writing Contest. |
Copy/paste {{User:Minnichi/EpicBattleContest1|1st}}
onto your profile, and replace "1st" with whichever place applies to you (unless you're first place :P)
This user received Honorable Mention in Minnichi's Epic Battle Writing Contest. |
Copy/paste {{User:Minnichi/EpicBattleContest2}}
onto your profile.
...
And by the way, congrats to Kuzonkid7, who asked me if he gets a bonus for posting the very first submission. Well, here it is! (I like userboxes, don't you?)
This user was most punctual during the Epic Battle Writing Contest. |
Copy/paste {{User:Minnichi/PunctualBattleContestant}}
onto your profile xP
A note to the losers: (since this is inevitable) I'll continue to get pictures for great quality authors outside of this contest, so don't worry. I'm only holding this contest to target low-quality action scenes - not to mention my typical picture-requesting policy is something like, "Don't ask me unless I'm an obsessive fangirl of your fanon." (Keep that in mind, btw.) Those who are 100% sure I'm obsessed (there's a difference between obsession and regular fan comments, on that note) are rare, which makes picture-giving pretty rare as well. But if you (cough) keep improving your writing, I might just become your biggest fan!
FAQ[]
Be sure to check out this section before adding any inquiries! |
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Why did you comment on his/her battle scene instead of mine? Do you not like mine? D': How long should my battle scene be? Can two authors co-write an entry while submitting separate entries for themselves? Can I change my scene/revise it? Am I allowed to include other scenes inside the entry or must it be solely a battle? Is bad grammar considered a reason for deduction? Can I have more than my two assigned fighters? FAQ will be updated as needed. |
Submissions[]
Tell me if I've missed an entry!
- Kuzonkid7's battle
- Acer Indonesia's battle
- The Walking Inferno's battle
- AvengeBender007's battle
- Mageddon725's battle
- Humble Imaginations' battle
- PracticalPabu's battle
- Godsrule's battle
- MibuWolf's battle
- Omashu Rocks's battle
- AvatarRokusGhost's battle
- PSUAvatar14's battle
- Master Ratava's battle
- WaterbenderTaikai's battle
- Plasmabender117's battle
- Henryjh98's battle
- Sokka Jr's battle
- Momoam15's battle
- Manzai's battle
Oh look, hints! Well, there's only two:
- I tried writing an article about action scenes once, if you want to refer to it.
- "He/she (insert element)bended" as your excuse for an attack is a taboo. Just throwing that out now. Because Minnichi is not fond of this term.
Good luck to anyone who participates, and remember to get your scene posted by October 13th! And remember to seek to improve from this contest. I'll be looking forward to seeing what kind of pictures the winners will come up with ;)
10/10/12 Update[]
(click to view) |
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Zomg it's getting kind of close to the 13th, isn't it? Okay now I have to ask: WHO'S BEHIND??? Seven is not a good number on that poll. Especially out of 20. So I've decided on this: If you are completely sure you can't make it by the 13th, speak up now. I'll consider extending the date by a week if I get a minimum of 10 official declarations (comments) of behind-ness. If not, ya better hope you can get it in at 10pm (UTC-6) on Saturday, because it's been decided that Minnichi will crush everyone's souls except for 4 users at exactly 12am on Sunday, October 14th! (Secretly ranking the current entries as we speak, no pressure ^^) Of course, I have to throw in that if something goes wrong and I end up taking longer than planned, each contestant is allowed exactly 1 pester before it counts against your entry |:( My impression of you as a writer won't be helped if you express excessive concern about your chances of winning a prize. And finally, my impression of you as a writer is "materialistic" unless you compete in Omashu Rocks's comedy writing contest! We authors naturally participate in anything because we love to write, not because we just want nice prizes, right? Rightttt? ;) So get to it while you're waiting for results here! |
10/12/12 update: a note to all those other contest hosts[]
(click to view) |
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Also reminding you that your entry is due no later than 10pm (UTC-6) on the 13th and will be judged by 12am on the 14th! But back to my main point. Why do we want to host a contest? I'll share my own thoughts for a moment. I've been on Deviantart.com much longer than Avatar Wiki, and received kind donations for my sculpts before joining as well. I wasn't 'hogging' the funds or something, because quite honestly I can cover however many illustrations I want for myself and for anyone else. But I didn't come to the fanon portal to advertise that convenience, in hopes that people would be drawn to me (or my fanon) to get a pretty picture. I just hung around and had fun, doing what mattered more: trying anything to help fanons. Then, I noticed a recurring problem: low-quality action scenes. My rants for improvement stretched far and wide, but the trends just stayed the same. I finally decided to pull my "epic illustration privileges" card because it seemed a good idea to offer only a few pictures for best writing; this sent a clear message that only good writing gets you anything in the fanon portal. People would just have to make themselves better if they wanted a picture - which meant battle-writing if the host said so. That was why I created this blog, because action scenes are a very real problem here. If there were a more effective way to get people to improve, I would've taken it, because I honestly dislike having to tell anyone that their writing is inferior to another's. (It's degrading no matter how you put it, and good writing differs for every person). So with this in mind, stop and think about the state of our fanon portal if you're one who plans to host a new contest soon (or has already posted one). For me, my goal was to draw the portal's attention to action scenes and to drive improvement...and I'm still limiting illustrations to only exceptional authors outside of this contest, just to make a point out of quality. Perhaps there's not another glaring area of improvement, but there're many great purposes your contest can serve. Omashu Rocks, for one, mentioned his desire for us all just to have a good laugh in the midst of our hectic, stressed lives (hosting a comedy contest and all). If anything, his contest doesn't have much to do with 'glory,' I think; I simply had a blast laughing at my insane self (and at other entries) and forgot that I was suffering from 3 hours of sleep at the time. This isn't saying that the others don't serve a good purpose, but I just recall OR's example clearly from talking personally with him. So think about your purpose, contest hosts (and potential contest hosts). What can the fanon portal gain? ...And is it really about them, or you? Even if it's about you, please give the rest of us some consideration or we'll have no time to even join your contest, at the rate they're popping up. So...just think about it, guys. I'm happy to have helped inspire other hosts, but just remember that contests aren't a fad or something. They can be quite serious, especially considering that your participants are supposed to trust you to know how to judge good writing. So keep going at it, but just not so impulsively - especially when it comes to timing and deadlines. Thanks for reading this ramble :) See you all tomorrow at the conclusion of this blog! |
October 14, 2012: The Winners![]
Well, that ended up taking me longer than I thought. But hey, I managed to get back to you guys in a matter of hours! Not days! Yeahhh. Even though it's like 1:30am - okay whatever, I've had much worse and it's a Saturday night. Ahem ANYWAY, I'll shut up real quick. Congratulations to: (extremely long drumroll)
> FIRST PLACE WINNER... MibuWolf!
(See explanation) |
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The winner of this competition, without a doubt, had a most breathtaking and truly epic fight scene. One of the most remarkable things I found in this entry was the charming characterization of both Sokka and the OC he was protecting - along with the OC he was fighting as well. Mibu made sure not to skip any of their physical descriptions, to begin with, and incorporated those seamlessly into the flow of the scene. What rose this author to glory, however, was the fact that each and every sentence in the whole passage worked together harmoniously to create her battle. There was not a single moment where it slowed down, not a single awkward phrase, nor a single slipup in visuals. She chose pretty much the best words she possibly could for everything she described. The words themselves worked together if anything, never repeating and with a good rhythm that just kept going. But back to content, her characters' attacks were described in a way that proved her superiority over readers. There isn't any room for us to question what things look like. No, she's making us see what she wants us to see; a true master of visuals, she is. And it becomes pure greatness once she balances all of this with the charming humor of Sokka, the menacing yet not-so-cheesy evil antagonist, and the shy OC that's endangered by said antagonist. MibuWolf covers every area of writing there is to cover and presents us with an unforgettable clash of strength and wits. Congratulations, my epic friend. |
> SECOND PLACE WINNER... Manzai!
(See explanation) |
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Manzai's writing quality reminds me very much of the greatness I once read from the first chapter of his fanon - which by the way, I wrote the Featured Article summary for on the Fanon Portal Main Page. His description of literal movement during each attack is some of the most vivid I've ever seen, and of course that's unimaginably important for any fight scene. However, he goes much beyond visuals; the movements themselves flow together very naturally. It makes one positive that he must be watching a video and writing down what he sees, because he knows exactly what his scene looks like and it's like he's merely explaining to us what's moving across the screen in his mind. There is no longer a sense that he 'created' the fight scene, for it feels so natural that you truly see a fight instead of words on paper - er, computer screen. But wait, there's more! In addition to this freakish reality that Manzai creates, he keeps an intense connection between his characters, incorporating their emotions into their very movements as he writes. He doesn't let a single detail slip for a second. Manzai, buddy, you've earned this one. |
> THIRD PLACE WINNERS... (gasp) AvatarRokusGhost and Omashu Rocks!
(See explanation) |
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Indeed, I actually have enough deviantart.com points to award both of these contestants the same prize. ARG's and Omashu Rocks's writing quality contains a kind of energy that doesn't die throughout the scene. This was an extremely, EXTREMELY hard decision for me, to cut of the rest of the contestants at this point. But delving into very specific things to make my judgment, these two authors have a level of visual description that clicks with the actual fighting - and that's the key. They're able to give us so many beautiful details of what's going on around their warriors, yet keep the energy alive with every attack. They have such thorough respect for detail, yet make sure never to let it drag down the action or decrease the intensity for a second. At the same time, the attacks described never cover up the needed visuals regarding things like setting and emotion; these authors have demonstrated good writing in itself with the balance. But because both the qualities of action scenes were driving me to tears from having to decide on who would nab the winning slot, I just called it a day and let both writers have it! Bravo, Ghost of Roku and Mr. Rocks. |
Anddddd let's not forget about: (dramatic music)
> HONORABLE MENTION WINNER... Kuzonkid7!!!
(See explanation) |
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Hey, I didn't separate Honorable Mention for no reason. This slot is saved especially for the author in which I see the most dramatic improvement in writing. And yes, I painfully went through everyone's fanons that I hadn't read before just to seek out an action scene (or however close I could get to an action scene) for comparison. Kuzonkid's level of writing action scenes in this brilliant little scene has progressed so beautifully since the days I first read his The Lost Air Temple. Get after me all you want guys, but this truly is a reason to get an epic drawing. For the authors who look deep into their writing, take the time to incorporate new principles, and who successfully produce a higher level of description, are the ones who will grow into the great authors. Kuzonkid, you've served well the purpose of this very blog; all my dreams of author improvement have come true. Show off your prize with pride! |
So I spent an extra hour just to ramble about my decisions. I know the feeling, after all, because once upon a time Minnichi lost an art contest for a (sob) tablet by one measly place, and the only reason given to everyone was, "I chose the entries that made me most happy when I first saw them." Happiness? Excuse me? No, I wanted my explanation dangit! And I'm sure you guys did too. I hope that those of you who didn't place can understand my reasoning, as I've tried my best to judge this fairly. This was one of the most horrible things I've ever had to go through, because all of the entries - mark my words - are the most beautiful action scenes I've ever read since joining Avatar Wiki. You've really outdone yourselves, guys. Please keep up the same habits you are now whenever you write, because I'm forever impressed by our fanon portal. And besides, you never know when the next offer for epic art might appear ;)
And that concludes the Epic Battle Writing Contest! Thank you all for participating, and now it's time to go forth and spread your glory to the other contests. Looking forward to seeing you all there!