Wizard's Lair 2015 Short Story Contest Rules

[Zeta Clark]

I am very happy to announce this year's rules for our annual short story contest. There are some slight tweaks from the previous contests, so be sure to read up on the changes before submitting this year. If you have questions, feel free to contact us via our email.

Subject/Protagonist - The main protagonist of your story must be an original or a pre-existing female superhero. She is not required to possess superhuman powers though; so characters like Batgirl and Elektra qualify for this contest. Other super heroines can be used in your story as secondary characters, if you wish.

Deadline - Midnight on November 28, 2015 (Eastern Time).

Prize will be: $50 (if we receive 10 or less complete entries), $75 (if we receive 11 - 20 complete entries), $100 (if we receive more than 20 complete entries). Stories with multiple chapters will be considered one complete entry, regardless of the number of separate entries submitted.

Winner will be chosen: By viewer votes in December poll

Here are the specific rules regarding our story writing contest this year:

1. This year, entries are required to have some form of bondage present. And by bondage, we mean the act of restraining another individual with rope, leather, chains, or some other type of material. Try to be creative here, and remember that bondage shouldn't automatically conjure up images of BDSM.

2. Entries should have at least one of the following top 5 voted perils (selected by our viewers earlier this year):

Heroine is blackmailed into doing things
Heroine infiltrates an enemy organization, but is discovered
Opponent uses mind control abilities against the heroine
The classic chloroform peril
Opponent can absorb the heroine's powers

3. All submitted entries must be original for this short story contest, and should not be posted outside of The Wizard's Lair before, during, or after the contest. By offering a prize reward, The Wizard's Lair considers itself having acquired sole hosting rights for all entries submitted, including those not selected as the contest winner.

4. Up to two entries per author may be submitted, but no co-writing please. Prior to our deadline, an author may withdraw or substitute any entry he or she may have submitted to this contest.

5. Entries must be submitted in English. Correct use of grammar and spelling is expected. Too many spelling or grammatical errors will result in disqualification by the webmaster. Please pay attention to structure (A 200 word sentence in a 5,000 word paragraph is not acceptable). The minimum story length is 1,000 words.

6. Entries must be a complete story. Sending in a chapter from a series will not be accepted, though a story itself can have as many chapters as the writer would like. The story must have a beginning, middle, and end. It needs to stand on its own without having to read some other story. There will be no extra points for length, but be aware that longer stories generally have better character development and more descriptive scenes (both of which usually enhance the reading experience).

7. Entries must have a title and your author's name (nom de plume). We will reject untitled stories and/or stories from anonymous writers. We highly recommend that you use a pen name in place of your real name.

8. Entries should be marked as such in the email subject field (i.e. 2015 Story Contest Entry Submission) when the story is sent in.

9. Entries must be an attachment, and should be written in a RTF, TXT, HTML, or DOC format. All entries stories will ultimately be posted in a HTML format. And for reasons of voting, this format will be presented similarly across all entries.

10. NO PLAGIARISM! Anyone found intentionally plagiarizing another work, will be banned from this short story contest and future contests.

11. Entries should be representative of The Wizard's Lair. So what does this mean? Well, it means that we prefer things that are more tongue-in-cheek to those that are ultra-real. It means that we prefer playful stories to those that our overly violent. Our viewers have an expectation when it comes to The Wizard's Lair, and we will do our best to help your entry meet those expectations.

Good luck writers!

[TIEnTEEZ]

Quick question:

"Opponent can absorb the heroine's powers"

can you clarify what you mean by "absorb?" Does this mean the villain steals the heroines powers ala Rogue? Or just renders the heroine powerless? Or both?

[Zeta Clark]

Yes to each. =)

You may interpret this, and the other perils, in whatever way you wish. A villain might simple "absorb" a heroine's energy blast and redirect it toward civilians. Or maybe the villain uses something like Firestar's heat energy to power his or her own cold energy to use against the heroine. Or if you wish, the peril could be a simple leeching effect, like using Parasite against Supergirl or Leech against She-ra. And I think it definitely would be exciting to see a story where a heroine's powers are temporarily stolen away from her through an absorption (just imagine having a heroine who has the power to alter emotions, and then have a powers thief use her power against her).

So many neat options to explore.

[TIEnTEEZ]

Cool. Thanks for clarifying.
I've never participated in one of these before, but I might take a shot at this one if I have time.

[dagger_fan]

Oh wow! I never knew this kind of contest even existed! This is great. I definitely want to participate. I have an idea of a story I would like to write but I need to ask: can the story be set in another time? I would like to write a colonial type of heroine a la "El Zorro" but with the twist that the villains/antagonists don't realize she's actually a woman (prejudice of the time) until they remove her mask or costume.

I've never seen that kind of heroine or story in the Wizard's Lair, so I just want to be sure it suits the contest.

[Zeta Clark]

That story would definitely qualify. We look forward to your entry and good luck.

Z

[Zeta Clark]

Reminder - There are two months remaining. Be sure to submit your stories soon. =D

[Neocsar]

Is there a maximum length to the story, considering it's a short story contest?

Also, this might be my first effort at writing and therefore would really appreciate it if I'm able to post the story on some stories forums/sites for feedback after the contest is concluded, to keep me going and improve my writing.

[Zeta Clark]

There is no maximum length. We encourage longer stories, because most allow the characters and story to develop fully.

Contest entries are slightly different from other submission to The Wizard's Lair. By offering a prize reward, The Wizard's Lair considers itself having acquired sole hosting rights for all entries submitted, including those not selected as the contest winner.

You have a couple options with contest entries though. The first is directing people to your entry on our website. Our website is free-to-browse and doesn't ask for sign-up information. The second option is simply modifying the story. You have a lot of ways to achieve this. For example, have the story go from 3rd person to 1st, or tell the story from the point of view of a different character (even a cat). You might try telling the story with the plot mixed around a bit. I occasionally do this with my writing, and I find it helps to see the same story told differently. If you use Option 2 though, please mention that the original was created for The Wizard's Lair short story contest. =D

We are also willing to assist you on getting started as a writer in our genre. We have many guides that you might find helpful and well as a few writers that can help.

Look forward to reading your entry.

Zeta