You Spoony Bard! Final Fantasy IV Fanfiction Contest

[DragonHeart]

Please read the entire thread before submitting any questions or comments. Contest closed due to lack of interest.

All right TFF, it's time to unleash your inner Edward. The YSB! Contest is here to honor the recent rerelease of one of Square's greatest stories, Final Fantasy IV. Long underrepresented in the annals of TFF media, I believe it's a fitting time to pay tribute to this ultimate story of friendship and redemption.

Entrants

Anyone may enter this contest. You can submit as many entries as you like in all categories. Just keep in mind that submitting more than one entry in a category means you'll be competing against yourself. Feel free to post any non-entry FFIV fanworks in the main Literature forum.

I recommend posting only your very best work in an entry thread, the links to which are found near the end of this post.

Deadline

The contest will run from now through November 23. This date is not random; it's the original release date of the North American SNES version. I'd use the JP date but that would make the contest run till next year so...yeah.

However, if the entries start slowing day I may also close it early, but I will give at least one week of notice prior to this, to give last minute entrants a chance to get their work in. Nothing will be accepted after the deadline is reached.

Anyone may enter at any time before the deadline. Please do not post your entries here; there are links to the appropriate threads below.

Restrictions

PG-13 only please.
No length limits, just keep it reasonable.
All work must be your own.

Categories

I intend this to be a multimedia contest, so just about anything is game. The entries will be organized into the following:

Short Fiction 100-5,000 words

Long Fiction 5,000-10,000+ words (you may enter a piece greater than 10k if you really want to)

Poetry/Song Lyrics

Art traditional or digital, original* work only. No throwing together a bunch of Google images and calling it an entry.

Music Videos but please post only your own, original* work, not just a video you appreciate.

*By original I mean it must be your own work, not ripped off a random Google search and passed off as your own.

Every entry must be related to FFIV in some way.

Entries

There are separate threads for each type of entry, links as follows:

Art
Music/Media
Literature

Please post your entries in the appropriate threads.

You may submit as many entries as you like for each category.

Voting

This is not set in stone but as of right now, I intend to open this contest to public voting after the deadline. I will make sure to have at least one judge besides me on tap should a tiebreaker be required. Do not send any votes until after the contest is closed to new entries. Any votes received before November 23 will be discarded.

Rewards

Nothing is decided yet but I might try to convince Cesar or Steve to put the winning entries on the main TFF site for display. Other than that, I can always ask Djinn to make some sweet banners for both winners and runner-ups...which I might do anyways, cause what's a contest without a trophy? At the very least there will be a sticky thread with all winning entries included so everyone can admire your greatness for all eternity...or 2012, whichever comes first.

All comments and questions are welcome and feel free to start at any time!

~DragonHeart~

[loner-kid]

Is there a limit to the amount of entries a user may submit e.g 1 over all or 1 per category

[DragonHeart]

You may submit as many entries as you like for each category.

In other words, nope. You could submit 50 for each one if you really wanted to. Just keep in mind that every entry will eventually be judged somehow, so submitting more than one in any category means you'd be competing against yourself.

~DragonHeart~

[Aerif]

I've been wanting to write some FFIV fan faction for ages... So thanks DH for an adequete excuse to do so ^_^

Question. Should we post Literature entries in their own topic or upload a .txt file to the entry thread?

[DragonHeart]

You can copy and paste them directly into the entry thread. They won't be anonymous or anything, as I'm thinking of opening this to public voting. Even if I do end up appointing judges, they will be as impartial as possible.

I was hoping starting this contest so close to the rerelease might inspire people who are either taking the journey again or experiencing it for the first time. ^-^ Who knows, maybe I'll write a little something for this in the future.

~DragonHeart~

[Halie]

Just to clarify, any member of TFF can enter the competition, right?

And also, is it alright to enter your own drawings of the different characters of the game? Or are there specific things that you can enter?

[DragonHeart]

As stated, anyone may enter, and you can do whatever you want as long as it's your own original work and related to FFIV. By original I just mean no ripping off someone's DeviantArt and passing it off as your own. You don't even have to do any characters, you could do monsters, locations, the Red Wings, whatever you like. There really aren't any restrictions outside of what I mentioned in the top post.

~DragonHeart~

[Dimi]

This sounds interesting. Especially since a lot of my poetry is related to me and nothing else. It'll be nice stretching it out to something else so count me in!!!

Do we PM to you or post them in the Contest Entries? And will there be a prize for the winners?

[Victoria]

You can copy and paste them directly into the entry thread.

~DragonHeart~

Seriously? Do people not read anything anymore? >_>;
Quoted from like 3 posts above you, Fishie... Geez.

(I don't mean to call the kettle black sometimes, but god. Lol..)

[DragonHeart]

Rewards:

Nothing is decided yet but I might try to convince Cesar or Steve to put the winning entries on the main TFF site for display. Other than that, I can always ask Djinn to make some sweet banners for both winners and runner-ups...which I might do anyways, cause what's a contest without a trophy? At the very least there will be a sticky thread with all winning entries included so everyone can admire your greatness for all eternity...or 2012, whichever comes first.

Basically the rewards haven't been fully established yet, but there's plenty of time for that. At the very least I can guarantee a banner and a sticky; anything else will be bonus, at this point.

And be nice, Jay. I don't want you scaring my entrants off.

~DragonHeart~

[Refieth]

Ooh... I'm entering! I was going to write a FFIV fic with Cecil and Rosa, but as I can't keep myself to PG-13 when it comes to Cecil/Rosa... I'll try something else. Maybe... Edward dies and meets Anna in the underworld? Maybe even... on the Phantom Train?! 8D I copyright this idea! *runs off to start writing* And I'll probably enter the art one as well.

[DragonHeart]

Sounds like some good ideas to me, just don't get too carried away. We are supposed to be a family-friendly forum so any entries that get too 'involved' will unfortunately have to be removed. I guess maybe if we had more traffic here in Lit we could petition for a password-protected adult fiction section, but that's not really keeping with TFF's content policy and thus, would probably never happen. Ah well, such are the limitations of youth.

~DragonHeart~

[Refieth]

Sounds like some good ideas to me, just don't get too carried away. We are supposed to be a family-friendly forum so any entries that get too 'involved' will unfortunately have to be removed. I guess maybe if we had more traffic here in Lit we could petition for a password-protected adult fiction section, but that's not really keeping with TFF's content policy and thus, would probably never happen. Ah well, such are the limitations of youth.

~DragonHeart~

I've seen a few threads where the content in the thread is decidedly 18+, but they get away with it because they warn you in the thread title. If thast's allowed, I'm prety sure a password-protected adult lit section would be fine... I think.

Just to clarify, would it be alright to have a pretty dark fic, including (not too graphic) death scenes, set on the Phantom Train, then later in the underworld, so long as it isn't graphically violent or explicit?

[DragonHeart]

I can't say I agree with those sorts of threads, though I've posted in them before. Don't think it's appropriate for this sort of forum but who am I to judge, really.

Anyways, yeah death scenes are fine, just try to tone down any gore and/or violence. Blood is fine, shredded intestines spilling across the ground are not, for example. Language is okay too as long as you don't purposely go around the censor to use it.

~DragonHeart~

[Refieth]

I can't say I agree with those sorts of threads, though I've posted in them before. Don't think it's appropriate for this sort of forum but who am I to judge, really.

Anyways, yeah death scenes are fine, just try to tone down any gore and/or violence. Blood is fine, shredded intestines spilling across the ground are not, for example. Language is okay too as long as you don't purposely go around the censor to use it.

~DragonHeart~

Got it. I'll try to censor myself when it comes to the gore and violence. No heads getting ripped off, no shredded intestines, no ninja with spiky-soled shoes jumping on people. Mind you, I will probably end up pushing the PG-13 rating to the limit...
On a side note, can you tell me Anna's hair color? It might seem a random and pointless question, but I need it for the fic I'm doing for this...

[Myo]

Ok I have seen this before but i was unable to post at my old computer, so its a big ten-fore for me, just a warning i may make two or three of them ok. Anyways I'll see ya guys in the literature thread

[Edmisster]

I have a quick question. With the music videos you say that you just want original work. Are you extending this to the music, or just the video?

[DragonHeart]

As much as I'd prefer original stuff I know most people who do AMVs have little musical aptitude themselves so no, I don't expect the songs to be original. I'm simply saying that I don't want things to be ripped off websites and posted here as someone's own work.

~DragonHeart~