SUBMISSIONS CLOSED Story Contest Announcement - Virtual Fiction (Hosted by Peculiar Changeling!)

[PeculiarChangeling]

Hello everyone and welcome to Virtual Fiction story contest! 

This contest is for writers, new and old, and I'm doing it because I thought it would be fun! 

 

RULES:

Please read all of the rules. If a story doesn't follow the rules, I'll be unable to select it as a winner, even if the issue is minor. If I notice an issue before judgement starts, I'll try to point it out so that it can be edited, but I make no promises that I'll catch everything. If anything is unclear, please feel free to ask for clarification! 

1: Theme: All stories must pertain to Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, or some other near-future simulation. All stories must also include AB/DL themes. I encourage the use of the Totalverse/Toddleverse setting I've used in several of my own stories, but this is not required. 

2. All characters must be 18+. No exceptions.

3. The story must be written after the announcement of this contest. No pre-existing stories. 

4. Story must be be posted on DailyDiapers, with 'Virtual Fiction Story Contest' in the title of the post. The beginning of the post must also mention that the story is being created as a part of this contest and include a link to this page, so others can easily find it. You should also link your story in the replies to this post so that I am gaurunteed to see it. 

5. All stories must be submitted by or before January 1st, 2023. All stories posted afterwards will not be entered.

6. All stories must be complete. The total word count shall not exceed 10,000 words. (I've got to read them and judge them all, after all!) 

 

Prizes:

Prizes may be redeemed as cash, via paypal, or as a donation to DailyDiapers in your name, or as a story commission from myself. I may choose to add additional prizes depending on the number of entries; for now, only First Place will be guaranteed a prize. This is, in part, to avoid low quality stories being rushed in at the very end to capitalize on the fact that an extra prize is available. (If additional prizes are added, First Place will not change - It will still be the same reward.) 

First prize will be 75$, or a single chapter (2,000-2,500 word) story commission, written by me, Peculiar Changeling. 

 

 

JUDGING:

Judging will be done by me. 

I will be judging stories on the following factors:

Readability (Quality prose that's easy to read, free of typos and mistakes, free of continuity errors, etc.) 

Use of the theme (How is the theme integrated? How effectively is it used?) 

Enjoyability (If it's smut, is it fun smut? If it's character-drama focused, do I feel for the characters and want them to succeed?) 

I will do my best to be impartial, and to complete judging on a timely basis!

 

Questions & Answers:

(Additional questions will be added to this list as I answer them) 

Q: Can I enter multiple stories?

A: No.

Q: Does the story have to be completed by the deadline?

A: Yes

Q: Is there a minimum or maximum length the story has to be?

A: The story cannot be longer than 10,000 words, but there is no minimum. If you can tell an effective story in 100 words, go for it! 

Q: Isn't this similar to that other story contest that someone else ran?

A: Yes! I hadn't realized that running a contest on the forum was even an option until I saw @Kasarberang's contest. I'm shamelessly copying certain elements so as to avoid reinventing the wheel! 

Q: Why are you doing this?

A: For fun! 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This contest was approved by @DailyDi ahead of time.

 

LIST OF ENTERED STORIES:

[ImprobableLemon]

I'm hard at work on a submission.

Maybe touching something new will get me out of my writer's block.

[PeculiarChangeling]

On 11/10/2022 at 9:41 PM, ImprobableLemon said:

I'm hard at work on a submission.

Maybe touching something new will get me out of my writer's block.

I hope it helps! 

[PaddedWarriorPrince]

Hopefully posting this will bring a few more submissions in the next few days. Realized I had this half finished when I had to replace my phone and never posted it.

 

 

[kasarberang]

Happy to see I could inspire more contests to be conducted on the site. Wish I saw this earlier, but like they say, better late than never! Even though it's late, I wish you luck and hope the contest goes well!

[ImprobableLemon]

I have completed my submission for the contest, I hope you enjoy.

 

[PeculiarChangeling]

I've read both submissions so far, and enjoyed them both!

There's about forty six hours left if anyone else wants to sneak in under the wire! 

[willnotwill]

Story posted:  

 

 

[FFU]

Saved by the bell... or something....

[PeculiarChangeling]

Awesome! Submissions are now closed - I'll get all of these read and have my final decision within the next week!

[PeculiarChangeling]

Y'all didn't make this easy on me, did you?

I decided to add a second place prize, of 40$ prize/donation in your name or a micro fiction commission.

Everything was just so close - it really came down to the wire, and I had a very hard time choosing. 

Going down the list, though, I really want to give shoutouts to everyone, because every story was very good and the different variations on the theme were wild and fantastic! 

@PaddedWarriorPrince, you ended your story with a heck of a twist, but one that was foreshadowed and made sense given the world you'd set up - props to you!

@ImprobableLemon - way to hit me in the feels. The emotional impact and the way you showed intrusive thoughts and mental self harm off in the story, the way it was balanced against ageplay and the calming regressive experience, it hit very well. 

@willnotwill, I really enjoyed the world building of yours, and in particular the way that the ageplay and diaper elements were worked into a military setting with a plausible, if fantastical, excuse! The concept of having to fly missions with only VR to protect the pilots from nightmarish mental scarring is a really cool idea, and one that seems almost akin to more classic horror. (Take away a bit more control from the pilot and I could start making comparisons to Iron Lung.) 

@FFU, put simply: Yours was just a whole lot of fun. Well written throughout, and the ongoing sense of, 'Oh no, what's this boy gotten himself into' was palpable. It felt very tightly paced without being rushed, and I really enjoyed the combination of Streamer Gaming style energy with the VR. 

 

I'll deliberate a bit later down, but first, I'm just going to announce the winner: 

@ImprobableLemon, congratulations on winning First Place! 

@FFU, congratulations on winning a very close Second Place!

It was so, so close. I knew when I set this up that the hardest thing is having to tell someone that they didn't win, and you made that absolutely true - this was a difficult decision.

Anyways - congrats! I'll be messaging the winners to work out details!

 

 

[ImprobableLemon]

Big thanks for hosting this contest, especially it being out of pocket and including a second place prize.

It was a fun prompt and I'm glad that we had a really good selection of stories, I'm sure that it was a difficult decision on your end. I certainly would've struggled to choose.

[FFU]

I self-servingly agree with the reply above.

But for real--I feel like there are so few VR stories (anywhere, really), and I'm glad that we could get some more added to the list.

[PaddedWarriorPrince]

This was super fun to participate in, thank you for setting it up @PeculiarChangeling. Congrats to the winners, your stories were awesome. @FFUyours probably spoke to me a bit more as a fantasy gamer and streamer myself. Really hoping to see more of all of your works