Forum - View topicINTEREST: Short Story Contest Bans 'Traveling to an Alternate World' Fantasy
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1799 |
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Thank. God. I'm getting tired of the setting.
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Gemnist
Posts: 1762 |
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Well, if this is one of those contests where the winner may or may not get his/her story published, then I can accept this - it's always for the best when a company or industry tries to break out of its comfort zone and instead tries to revolutionize something.
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Blatch
 Thread Killer Posts: 348 Location: Northeast U.S. |
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I will admit: even if I love some of these series in particular (mostly Log Horizon), I'm happy to see companies finally try to stop this trend, because it's gotten annoying.
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7jaws7
 Posts: 705 Location: New York State |
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I approve of this. We need more ideas that don't rely on inspirations by classic literature or movies.
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VanGosroth
 Posts: 299 |
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Ironic that they are pretty much judging a book by its cover rather than the content within.
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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Mhh, I also think they are putting the cart ahead of the horses. The problem is not that there are too many novels where our main character or cast is transported to another world, the problem is the lack of quality writing in many of those. The end result is that all those writers that lack creativity will submit another Infinite Stratos or whatever they deem to be popular at the moment.
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FloozyGod
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I don't really mind the vague idea of someone traveling to an alternate world, but when the details include a fantasy/medieval/ video game setting where the MC is a teenage boy who was once a loser in the previous world and has a dissenting attitude, who now has some special skill/power, and every girl in the new world wants to fudge him? Yeah, those are a dime a dozen these days.
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meiam
Posts: 3472 |
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My first reaction is that this is pretty funny and should be a sign of how incredibly unoriginal most writer are.
But at the same time just because something is unoriginal doesn't means its bad and by banning them outright you won't get the parody version. I think a better idea would be to set theme for the submission they'll accept, as such you can avoid having to sift trough five billions of the flavor of the month. |
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Arale Kurashiki
Posts: 793 |
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I hope they aren't too literal about this rule. I mean, you can write many stories about "traveling to another world" that are nothing like the cliche they they are referring to. I agree that people shouldn't write that cliche anymore, but the phrase used to describe it can be rather broad if it's interpreted literally.
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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Awww & I was planning to submit a story where the protagonist travels to a Japan where good books are written. I guess they didn't ban time travel, so there's still a chance.
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1055 |
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That's how publishing works. You can write the most brilliant horror novel ever, but if the editor who sees it happens to know that Stephen King's next book has a similar concept, you aren't getting published. Most fiction magazines have submission guidelines that include lists of ideas the editors are tired of reading -- it doesn't matter how well you execute the plot. |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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While I oppose any kind of censorship that are made just to make the stock-holders happy, when every two-bit starts with "Imma just a regular high-school, but I died, and now I rockin' it with dragons, goblins, and hot princesses," it's time to stop the current for a while, let the sludge drain.
That's also true. I believe that this is the main reason why if a LN isn't "transported/reincarnated into a different, fantasy/RPG-based world," then it's most likely to be a "high-school, battle-tournament, clichéd harem" type. |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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This is probably the funniest thing I've read today and I bet this ban probably rules out half of the story submissions, lol. They should also say that the title of your story can't be a question.
Yeah,they could just do a separate contest for best "traveling to an alternate world" story and then everyone's happy. |
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lys
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1020 Location: mitten-state |
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It's only a ban for this one contest. It'll force less creative writers to either think up a slightly more original premise or not bother entering; hopefully the better writers who stand a chance of winning won't have a problem coming up with something better anyway. (the genre seems like it's half parody at this point as it is, so I'd argue that poking fun at the oh-so-familiar cliches and tropes wouldn't even stand out.) It's amusing to me that it has come to this, but also maybe a sign that publishers are finding it harder to sell stories (especially from new/less-known authors) that use this setup.
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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The state of politics has grown unpalatably sour over the last week. With governments in disarray and unsavoury attitudes running rife, we now read news that visa embargoes are being imposed upon fictional realms of all places! Is nowhere safe from this rampant madness? |
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