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The Challenge!

Write me a story!

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I'm setting a little task for those of you with literary minds. I want you to spin me a yarn, it can be any kind; adventure, romantic, scary, cute etc... you decide! There's a little twist to this tale though (haha!) You're going to have to follow my guidelines.

Your story will be a journey, and you'll complete part of it each day, I'm going to give you a start and end point, and certain criteria that you need to meet each day, along the way; words/phrases to use, things to do, people to meet etc. It will be your task to work them into your story, no matter what type of story it is. The end result will have to make sense!

You'll create your own travel diary and each day's entry will record your doings for that day, being sure to include all the requirements for that day, taking you through the week until you reach journey's end...

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Want to give it a go?

Entertain me!!

What do I win then!

Prizes!


FIRST: 10k + Medal of Totally Epic Win
SECOND: 5k + Medal of Shiny Awesomeness
THIRD: 2k + Medal of Super Spiffiness

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Rules

☠ One entry for each day; you can play catch up if you get behind, but you cannot work ahead.
☠ No more than 4000 characters per daily entry. Count them HERE Check the NS (no spaces) box! Enormous thanks to the lovely Kent for finding this counter for me *smiles*
☠ Meet ALL the criteria for each day, or your story will be void.
☠ Don't post an entry until you're 100% happy with it. You can't edit it once it's been submitted.
☠ Make sure all your entries are submitted before the contest deadline.

Contest deadline: x amount of hours before event ends, can't really be more precise than that :)

First Things First!



Useful Island Information

Your task is to travel across Menewsha during this following week. You adventure starts in the village of Franklin Point on the western tip of the island, this happens to be where my parents live! Your destination is right here in Menewsha town itself, on the east coast. What happens inbetween is entirely up to you!

Here are a few points that you need to remember:

✤ Menewsha has no modern vehicles or power sources. Energy is generated by magic (for those who can) or steam.

✤ Menewsha is a mountainous island formed by volcanic activity.The mountains cover the island's center and some of them are still active. A spur of this range reaches out towards the western coast, a flooded valley here provides paddy fields to grow Menewsha's red rice and raise golden carp, both highly sought-after export items.

✤ Dragons live among the tallest peaks in the center of the island. The temperate climate prevents them from growing to enormous size, but they can easily fly off with a cow, or a human...but there have been no reports of humans being attacked thus far.

✤ Menewsha is approximately 70 miles at its widest, by 60 high. If you imagine an oatmeal cookie that's spread into a rough and uneven shape as it baked, then someone took a big bite out of the righthand side of it, that's kind of like the shape of the island. With Menewsha town in the center point of the coast of the large bay created by the bite.

✤ The coastline is tall cliffs on the northern side, breaking up into multiple bays and headlands on the east and west coasts as the land sinks, shelving to small beaches and tidal wetlands in the south.

✤ The land to the north is riddled with caves and prone to sinkholes and landslides. There's an underground river who's course is often altered by this.

✤ Smugglers have used secluded bays as rendezvous points for centuries, and dug tunnels up through the cliffs, often breaking through into the natural cave system.

✤ The flatter lands towards the coasts are farmed; the small Menewshan Black cow is popular but watch out for the bulls, they're feisty! Pockets of woodland abound, though forests tend to be avoided as no-one really knows what might be in them.

✤ The railway serves all towns and larger villages around the coast but it doesn't cross the mountains, neither do the roads.

✤ There are numerous small holdings and isolated dwellings scattered around inner areas of the island, before the ground becomes too steep.

Daily Tasks

✤ First thing, create a journey diary for yourself in the subforum!
✤ Each day, check this post. Your writing prerequisites for each day will be added here.
✤ They won't be added at a set time, but it will always be in the morning for most people.
✤ Write your new day's installment in your journey diary, making sure you include all the story requirements for that day.

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Day 1

Words:- Potato, mission, spring, spy, trap, sojourn, sanctuary, bamboozle, conflagration, hocus-pocus.

Phrases:-OMG, is that a llama!. I wonder what happened to her husband. What was that noise!? Oh well, I've got another one. Watch out!.

Tasks:- Climb a tree. Find something in the wild for your lunch. Ask directions from a local. Have an encounter with a small wild animal. Find some shelter for the night.

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Day 2

Words: Custard, giraffe, elongated, sporadic, rose, feather, well, porous, beacon, arbitrary.

Phrases: It was here a moment ago, I know it was! WOAH! That was close! "Excuse me, could you tell me where I could find a pig, please?" Where did that hole come from! Hmm, I appear to have gone blind...

Tasks: Light a fire, help a small child, make a startling discovery, learn something new, have an allergic reaction.

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Day 3

Words:Yarn, poisonous, waterfall, catacombs, balloon, snake, mushroom, thunder, pond, teeth.

Phrases: How did that get up there!? I wonder what will happen if I poke this. I'm so sorry! Get that thing away from me! Oh, well thank you very much!

Tasks: Be affected by the weather in some way, have a scare of some kind, find something small but precious, learn something about yourself, make a wish about something.

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Day 4

Words: light, hollow, marauding, explosive, worm, hat, goat, hilltop, darkness, obstacle

Phrases: Everything went better than expected, challenge accepted, close enough, aww yeaa!, not bad.

Tasks: Repair something, improvise a means to travel across an unexpected stretch of water, discover a talent you never knew you had, make a firm resolve, injury yourself in a small way.

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Day 5

Words: pie, wolf, dwarf, rainstorm, glass, coffee, swamp, mine, onion, moon

Phrases: Just a little bit more... Ow, that stings! No, that's not right. I hope this doesn't blow up! I'm feeling very sleepy.

Tasks: Hide from something, save yourself from a fall, find something long buried, lose something, have an epiphany.

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Day 6

Words: egg, dung, turnip, farmer, wheel, crystal, door, hat, lion, coast

Phrases: What a strange village. Please don't do that. I hadn't thought of that. Damn, it's burned! That's the oddest thing I ever saw!

Tasks: Dig something out of the ground. Be forced to backtrack for some reason. Get mad about something. Break something. See something that makes you feel a strong emotion.

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Day 7

Words: blue, turtle, coal, bread, gloves, piano, edifice, fever, beach, sausage

Phrases: Finally! I'm starving. Be careful with that. Yeah, sure... What do you take me for!?

Tasks: Talk to a townsperson, barter for some food, feed an animal, sing a song, arrange your journey home.

Okay! The character count is staying at 4000, and we have a new counter, thanks to the lovely Kent, that doesn't count the spaces.

So get to it, people! ; D

Please remember though, no editing!

Hello Mr.Mayor, I was wondering if the first post in the journal is just your usual introductory post?

And then after that it's the opening post to the contest?

Nevermind, I answered my own question. Derp!

This interest me. o 3o
But I'm not into writing stories lately. ; 3;

Oh, neat!!! I think I will do this :D

My posts seems to have merged together. Will that be a problem?

Oh ho ho, this looks like fun! Unfortunately, I have to go to bed now, but I will start my post bright and early tomorrow!

This sounds totally awesome. I hope I can do it!!

Mr. Mayor, thank you for giving a fabulous idea for my NaNoWriMo story as well!
-scurries off to find his quill and ink-
A little question, am I allowed to 'dandify' internet slang, such as "OMG" to, for example: "Oh dear lord." ?

This looks interesting! Shame I kind lost all storywriting abilities after leaving school :oops:

Artsydaze: This will help you, you don't want your entries merging together, I'm sure --> http://www.menewsha.com/forum/main/f...do-i-stop.html

Gonna start my first entry this evening. :3 Already got my thread ready to go. :boogie: This is gonna be fun.

I have a question. Are you able to double post in the entry diary, or do you just keep editing the same post with different days like you would normally on Mene?

Going to start my journal/diary entry now.

Question:
may I write it as a diary entry. Or does it need to be in story form?

@Jelly: I see! So I will have to delete it and post another one, then?

@artsy

Not necessarily. Them merging is probably fine. Just make sure you click that button when You post again. :]

@Shadami: I copy pasted it just in case... though some funky color code ending seems to have gotten into it :?...

OH! that color code is from it being posted into the same post before. Its the color of that dotted line that appears. It comes with a slightly off gray color code.

I know, but I only noticed it when it was too late ^^'...

Oh well. Now you know what to look for :]

Aw yeah, just wrote my first entry.

And w o w, 3500 is not a lot. I had to edit mine a tone before it was under the limit. lol, I have this whole big story planned and I hope I can get it all in!