If you want to submit your stories then please head on over here.
This thread is for the discussion of everything related to this weeks theme and submitted stories. Be it a critique, suggestion, or just general chat about your favorite submission.
Also feel free to post other stories you were thinking of submitting or other ideas you had around this weeks theme. If you have new ideas for competition themes, you can submit those right here.
ok, i fired the first salvo, ringing in the new competition… it was rather fun, beginning Isana’s trek…
i hope some of you enjoy the story as well… 
Just a suggestion about the content of the rule outline.
It would be super cool if you could expand the theme line to:
That way all important info would be included in the rule section 
excellent idea… consider the rules updated… 
edit: and to help draw attention to the unique rules per week, those will be [color=blue]colored blue[/color]
I like the updates to the rule formatting, it looks good, good job to both of you for those changes
And until I read this, I hadn’t realised you’d yet entered your story @SteveAdamo, as it had the blue outline around your picture and nobody else so I assumed it was the OP 
As for your story, I’ve already liked it and I haven’t yet decided if I definitely am going to enter. It was like that. Just one comment, in England, we spell it “ma’am” but you spelt it “m’am”…is that just an American thing or is it a spelling error?
excellent… thanks! 
thanks again… im really having fun with these submissions… 
truth be told, i’ve seen it both ways, and went with a random choice…
I’ve got a story about 30 words over. I can cut it down, but i’m not sure what i’d cut. It’s only 403 words.
I want to go into alot more detail, I had to stop myself elaborating more on certain topics.
Cut it down, new amount is the one i edited it to, 403.
Whilst I’ll leave the call to @SteveAdamo the reason the word count is in place is to keep everything as concise as possible. If everyone is submitting 800 - 1000 word entries each week, who realistically is going to sit there and read through them all? You just end up with masses of text that nobody is reading!
Try and cut it down as much as possible, you’ll find loads of ways to rework certain bits or alter parts the more you read through
But as I said, it’s up to @SteveAdamo on the leeway for a submission.
Ok, it’s down to 403 now, i feel it’s a close enough number to use, Here we go, the fabled story is ready!
Thanks for replying @SteveAdamo, but @Geoffers747 beat you to it. And thanks for the “I’ll read it, Later.” Just crush my dreams why don’t you?
not to worry, a little leeway is acceptable…
thanks for the submission! i’ll try to give it a read in a bit…
edit: [quote=“Smith, post:10, topic:2861”]
Just crush my dreams why don’t you?
[/quote]
bah! apologies… i did read it, and your writing has improved significantly!
Was it the lack of pillow monsters? Or was it the fact no one died without reason? Was it the lack of Tom and Tony dieing?
Ok had to try something different just for the kicks.
Let me know how my submission works for you.
Er or rather: yer bloody betta likes it or else! Else ahm sayin yar hear!
Hey, I had two questions that came up for me.
First, is it alright to reference ideas/characters/locals we created in previous cycles, or would you prefer new sets to match the change? This goes partly along the [quote=“SteveAdamo, post:1, topic:2860”]
story continuation “point system”
[/quote] idea adopted in the workshop recently, and I was curious how far we should extend this idea. I’d be in favor of using previous cycles (within reason), but I can understand and accept it either way you prefer.
Secondly, what’s the best way to upload a picture file to the discourse (and what’s the best file type to use; .bit, .png, etc)? I mentioned an interest in illustrations for entries, and I wanted to know what would be the best setup. Likely, the story and the picture will be in the same post.
Thanks for your help, guys.
What dimensions for the pictures would you recommend? I haven’t attempted it before, so I wasn’t sure what range I should aim for/ what looks good on discourse.
i think it would be best (read, easier) to start “fresh” with this new cycle… but you are of course perfectly welcome to use characters/places etc. from previous cycles/submissions, as long as they fit within the two themes (cycle/week)…
so, if you had a character named Bob, you can certainly have Bob and Isana (current weeks parameter requirement) in the submission… and if you continue with those same characters/setting from week to week, you earn automatic “likes”… 
the allowable extensions are .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif
i suppose i wouldnt go too terribly large, but discourse will “size” them to fit within the post, and generate an automatic thumbnail… so, post away!
We need more voters, or was Steve’s story the only one to deserve that amount of likes. I mean, STEVE is the only one to have liked either mine or PDanford. I liked his so i licked it, I liked Steve’s too. But if steve is going to win every time, i don’t know what to do. Is it just that all the voters voted for Steve’s because it was first, or is it better than mine and PDanford’s by a long shot?
we’ll discuss this later…
i think there’s always the chance that a first entry, in any competition, will get the most “attention”… that, coupled with the fact that im s00per awesome, and i think you have your answer…
[quote=“Smith, post:16, topic:2861, full:true”]or is it better than mine and PDanford’s by a long shot?
[/quote]
Well I think a huge part is due to him being first.
With my experiment I took a deliberate risk but I just had to try out if I could pull this style.
Actually I am quite surprised to have gotten likes at all 
Well, I can’t help it, I’ve got to go on a diet and his story looked sooo… apetising.
Well, I won’t deny that, but i’d be nice if they shared the love.
The main problem was that i had to read parts of it again and again.
I…finally got it done…
I hope you guys like it, I had to rush this one a bit and my first illustration due to an upcoming German test…
In the illustration, Isana’s in the middle (wearing Ascendancy clothes), a foot soldier to the right (currently unnamed), and Grenda the weaver to the right. Next time, I might try something a little more action-based or moving, rather than what looks like a snapshot on a “Wish-you-were-here” postcard.
Now, it’s time to study!
i liked it! the whimsical element was nice… and the sign added a nice effect!