Mossflower Odyssey IV: The Beasts in the Crater

[Tooley Bostay]

Nine beasts, enslaved in a distant coliseum. The terms are simple: fight until you die. Glory awaits the strong while the meek shall perish, their cries drowned by the roar of the crowd. It's survival of the fittest and survival takes many forms. Let the games begin.

Hi, everyone! My name is Tooley, and given this place's premier love of Redwall (and writing in general!), I thought I'd let you all know about a Redwall writing contest that has just started up! To note, I'm not directly involved in the management of this contest--just an excited fan looking to share the news with others who might be interested (I apologize if this is in the wrong section, though I see that these have been advertised here before).

Now... some of you may be squinting your eyes, cocking up an eyebrow, and mouthing the words "what da heck is this?" Which leads us to~

What is a Redwall Survivor Contest?

A Redwall Survivor Contest is a collaborative story set within the world and framework of the Redwall series. Nine writers will each write a character of their own creation, set within the plot and story developed by the contest's Coordinator (which, in this case, is the story about nine beasts forced to fight and survive in a coliseum). Every week, contestants will write a "chapter" for the story from their own character's point of view, interacting with the other characters and pushing the plot forward until it reaches its conclusion (this takes, in real-world time, about a few months). Think of it like a round-robin RP, except with much longer chapters (about 1,500 words on average), and a lot more coordination and planning behind-the-scenes, so that the story itself reads with the smoothness of a novel.

But I said this is a contest, and I wasn't lyin'! There's a catch: every week, after each contestant has posted at least one chapter (usually no more than two, often just one), the readers then get to take the reins and influence the story directly by voting to eliminate their least favorite character from the story. Whoever receives the most votes that week must then off themselves from the story, either by having their character leave or - more traditionally - killing their character. This continues until three characters remain. These characters survive, and the audience then votes for which one of them is to be crowned the winner of the contest.

As you can imagine, the stakes are high, and every week the writers have to bring their A-game to avoid the reader's axe!

Also, given the age-range of the Redwall books' readership, I feel it's necessary to note that the "rating" of these contests ranges from a heavier PG to a medium PG-13. Some mild swearing may occur, and given the nature of the contest (and, also, the Redwall books themselves that these draw inspiration from), things can get violent. Especially with this contest set in a coliseum, there is going to be a lot of blood and death. Now, we don't tolerate extreme gore, gratuitous violence, or anything explicit in nature, and these contests have had writers as young as 13, but it's something to keep in mind if you're squeamish about language, violence, or some more mature subject matter (past contests have dealt with subjects like genocide, abuse, and other heavy issues). The contest also requires a lot of time and commitment (see: 2+ hours daily), and there can be a big sense of disappointment if you get voted off. If you don't think you can handle either of those, then you might want to consider just reading along and influencing the story with your votes. =)

So, how do I make it into one of these contests?

Before the nine characters are chosen for the story, aspiring writers first go through an application process. A list of categories is set for who the nine characters will be (things like "A Thief," or "A Beast With a Secret"). A writer chooses which category they would like to apply for, and then they write a short story (750 words max) about their character. To note, this isn't like providing a bio like you would for an RP, where you just describe their appearance, personality, etc. Imagine instead writing a moment out of your character's life--a little slice of a story featuring your character. That could be something as simple as a regular day in life for them, or it could be a massive moment that defines who they are. The sky's the limit here, so long as what you write gets across your character's personality and makes people want to read about them more.
(On the contest forum, there are links to examples of good applications. Check these out to get inspiration on what exactly the Coordinator is looking for in an application, and how to best write one.)

Now, why is it important to write a really good application? Well, after all the applications are submitted, the top 3 best from every category (decided by the Coordinator) are put up publicly, where everyone can read them and vote for whichever one is their favorite. Whatever application gets the most votes will make it into the story itself, and from then on, the contest is a-go!

Okay... but what do I get for winning?

Beyond bragging rights, there is no direct "prize" for winning. Our artsy members regularly contribute fanart of characters and scenes in the story, but there is no real reward in the monetary sense. That said, if you're someone who enjoys writing, wants to improve their writing, or wants to be get involved with a community of aspiring writers who quite deeply love the craft of writing, then you owe it to yourself to give these contests a shot.

Speaking personally, the last contest (Mossflower Odyssey III) was my very first Redwall Survivor contest. I was, in many ways, a fish wayyy out of water, but I had such an absolute blast. Developing my character weekly, challenging myself to grow as a writer, seeing the story develop from my own actions and the actions of my wonderful co-writers, being encouraged by people who loved writing just like I did and who wanted to see me succeed--I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences I've had as a writer. You can bet your scones and scuffles that I'm going to apply again this time.

So I highly recommend you all check out the website, where there is further information on the story, and details on how to apply: http://redwallsurvivor.com/forums/

If you have any questions about this whole thing, then feel free to ask either on the forum (where the Coordinator, Admin, and the rest of the community are), or here on this thread. I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have. And if this looks all a little bit confusing, then trust me, I get it. I had a ton of questions when I first found these contests, so just hit me with what you've got and I'll see what I can do! =D

Thanks for your time, everybody!

Applications CLOSE on Wednesday, June 14 at 11:59 PM

[Ashleg]

If this was a little more relaxed I think I would do it, but as it is this would freak me out.
The art is pretty cool though.

[Tooley Bostay]

There certainly is a time commitment, but I'll note that I never felt overwhelmed when I participated. Just had to make sure I set aside enough time to write a chapter, and know what my fellow authors were planning to do. Some people spent 4+ hours daily chatting with their co-authors. Others only checked in for the summaries.

Still, I won't try to convince you otherwise if you know it'd be a bit chaotic for you. Feel free to read along, though! The audience is a huge part of how the story turns out, and we've got a lot of artists on the site, so there'll be plenty more art where that came from! =)

[Ashleg]

Weeeellllll...
What are the categories? Perhaps I can be swayed...

[The Skarzs]

How does the interraction take place in what was described here?

Every week, contestants will write a "chapter" for the story from their own character's point of view, interacting with the other characters and pushing the plot forward until it reaches its conclusion

Is the interraction directly between artists, or are each writers' chapters not required to be consistent?

[Tooley Bostay]

RE: Ashleg

Ah, yes, lessee, categories are:
- The Healer.
- The Traveler.
- The Beast Who Makes Things.
- The Thief.
- The Silly Beast.
- The Beast Driven by Love.
- The Beast with the Gift of Gab.
- The Beast with a Secret.
- The Beast Driven by Revenge.

And those are more general guidelines--very open to the interpretation and creativity of the writers. Say you made a vermin character who is an apprentice healer, but really they prefer to cut beasts open, rather than sew them shut, like th' dirty lil' vermin that they are! That's totally fine, since it still fits under the general heading of that beast "being" a healer (in this case, in name only). "Healer," in this case, does not mean that you end up performing that single role throughout the story--it's more of a guide to steer the author's imagination when they come up with a character. Same goes for them all. Driven by love could mean romantic love, familial love, love of a nation, and so on and so forth.
The author's creativity is what we're looking for here, so we encourage people to go wild when creating a character!

Also of note, these aren't locked by species or the vermin/woodlander divide, so pretty much everything is fair game here! Mice, foxes, badgers, lizards, birds, and everything in-between. That said, what matters here is character and story, not "abilities" or "power levels." Someone creating a massive badger warrior character does not mean they have a better chance of winning the contest. In fact, if they create that badger warrior at the expense of developing a cool, interesting character, it probably means they have less of a chance! It's all about the character you create and the story you tell with them - whether they're a mouse or a wolverine - not how big or bad or powerful they are.

RE: The Skarz

There is definitely interaction that goes on, and the finished story can be read as a seamless whole, so it's all interconnected. This takes place both over Skype (mostly where the writers brainstorm out what their plans are and run it by their fellow writers) or on a private board on the forum. They all plot out what they would like their characters to do, and together figure out a posting order and how to get all the information across for that week. This is probably the most "complicated" part of the contest, so let me give you an example that may help:

In the last contest, Mossflower Odyssey III, I played a pirate stooge on-board a ship. One of my posts early on in the contest had my character running from the brig onto the deck of the ship, just after we'd been rammed, and struggling to work in the chaos as a boarding party of woodlanders charged on. Now, I had two things I needed to do: write the stuff I wanted to write for my character, and write the stuff that was needed to connect the posts preceding and following my post. What I wanted was to show my bumbling, stooge of a pirate have to man up and fight for his life, which I did, as he clashes with one of the attackers. What I needed to show was how the slavedriver (a fellow writer's character) is ordered by the captain (another writer's character) to dive and try and sabotage the attacking vessel, which they do. Now, when the slavedriver wrote their post after me, they wrote all about their attempt to sabotage the vessel--they didn't need to go all the way back and show the conversation of them being ordered by the captain to do it, because I had added that element in my post. So, when read as a whole, the story flowed very smoothly together, as if one was reading a novel, just with multiple viewpoints.

That's the sort of interaction and collaboration that went on. Authors saying "hey, I want to do this. How do we make that happen?" and someone else saying "hey, my character is going to be doing X, maybe I can fit that detail in!" And in that last contest, it's worth mentioning that there were six newbies writing in it (including myself), out of ten, and we managed just fine. You pick up the flow of things super fast.

[Ashleg]

Ugh. Argh. I'm being swayed.
Once school is over I should have time to consider if I really want to dive into this.
Just know I have an eye on it.

[MeadowR]

Too complicated and time-consuming for me, but thumbs up to you people for all the work to make these kind of in-depth contests to happen in the first place!

[Ashleg]

Tooley, in the case I do decide to do this, are we supposed to sign up on the website?

[Tooley Bostay]

RE: Ashleg

Huzzah! I know of several people who are in the same position as you--waiting for the school break to happen before they begin to work on their apps and whatnot. Funnily enough, the original plan was to begin the contest in April--glad that it got delayed!

Hmm, good question! I know that for the last contest, we did have to sign up for an account on the forum before we could send our apps in (just so that the Coordinator could make sure we weren't going over the 3 submission limit). I'll check with the Coordinator and let you know his answer soon as I can. I'll say that it wouldn't hurt to make a forum account, though. Probably faster that way of getting answers to any questions you might have, and we're all a friendly, Redwall-loving bunch (in fact, some of them used to run Redwall clubs back in the heyday of the fandom).

I do know that if you made it into the story, you would be provided a snazzy new forum account under your character's name, so that you can maintain your anonymity and have access to the supah secret Author's Board.

RE: MeadowRabbit

Aww, thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to check it out and replying in any case. =]

[Ashleg]

So that's what I was curious about.
Anyone's allowed to sign up with any name but once (if) we're in we get to make a character account.
Right? That's to my understanding at least.

I am just so dazed right now because of everything lately...garr.

[Tooley Bostay]

Yup! Once you're in, you get a character account (made by the Coordinator, so you don't even have to go through the trouble of creating it), which you then use to post up your chapters and access the behind-the-scenes boards. The initial cut of 27 applications also get avatars drawn by one of our resident artists, who - along with being dang talented - happens to be a professional artist. My own avatar here is one she did, so that's just another reason for people to try and apply--free, rockin' awesome art! =D

If by "everything" you mean school and general busyness, then I hear you there. One of my buddies is in college studying art right now, and it's a beast on the poor guy. Just a few more days and then he (and you, I hope!) is home free. You got this, mate. =]

EDIT: Got a reply from the Coordinator. Says it's not mandatory to make an account to send in an application, but it's very highly encouraged. I imagine it makes things easier on his end. Posting this here in case anyone reads and is curious about this question.

[Ashleg]

Now that I understand what's involved... >: )

EDIT:
@Tooley Bostay
I PM'ed you on the site because I got confused again. Whoops.

[Tooley Bostay]

Haha, no prob. Sent you back a reply, so you're all set, mate. Thanks for letting me know. =D

[Ashleg]

I may or may not have spent two hours writing the thing...
There's no saving me.

So I just send it to that email and that's it?
It's an obvious question but the thought of screwing up kills me.