OPINIONS: new contest

Soo what are all of you thoughts on the new contest :slight_smile: ?

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I like it, but I do understand the concerns people are bringing up. My biggest question is because it is so vague, I wonder how they’re going to make sure the winners reflect the diversity of the submissions.

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yeah and I also don’t think the typical episode users are going to be engaged and interested.

so it all comes down to the episode staff deciding whose trauma and experiences is winner worthy which sucks.

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I am so confused about this contest theme so can our stories fantasy stories like there is like a “cult” what lets say says that oh no our government is bad and like nobody believes them and so on and MC like realises trough out the story that it is bad or something.
Taking example of like “Red Queen” (Scarlet Guard orsm)

Or no?
Can anybody helpp

I don’t think that would work :pensive:

I definitely have concerns about it, and it feels to me very artificial. Like they are doing it for money and to look better rather than actually wanting more representation on the app and to help people get their work shown to a bigger audience. It feels like authors will be boiled down to “the gay author who wrote that mlm story” or “the black girl who wrote a story” and things like that. And, why make a contest about things you already have shelves for?

I had more and may add onto this but my brain is so all over the place right now so my thoughts are a bit too scattered.

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I think my main concerns are:

  1. How the heck are they going to properly judge them?? I think I understand the theme. I think at the end of the day they want minority/marginalized writers to write stories about their experiences. My thing is this range is so broad. For example in the contest thread I’m seeing everything from race struggles to OCD. OCD and racism are both things that effect people. I would never say they effect people in the same way and realistically the struggles of racism are always going to be far greater than the struggles of OCD. How will they judge that? Will it be a game of “who’s trauma is bigger”? I hope not, but…

  2. Will readers even want to read these stories? Now, here me out, I do think some people aren’t going to go the trauma story angle which is great but let’s be honest here most people on episode come here to relax and read for fun. I do think it’s going to depend on how individual stories are handled but even I don’t know how much I’m going to want to read a bunch of stories about personal traumas (assuming people do go that route).

  3. I think if they were going to come up with a theme to uplift marginalized voices they could have picked something better and also I guess I kind of just wish they considered diversity more in contests in general. This just feels very…forced?

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So I know I will get a lot of hate (maybe) but I would not like to read a story which whole plot is that character maybe has like anxiety or something cause for me it just wouldn’t be interesting enough ://

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No, that’s totally valid! I decided to take it from the angle of thriller/sci-fi and write about a character trapped in a simulation that can prey off your fears…which, for someone with generalized anxiety, is not gonna be fun. So it’ll focus on anxiety but from an action-based perspective so it isn’t just about The Girl with Anxiety :tm:.

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this is a really good idea. i’d so read this

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Alright, so what do you guys think about this contest? I know others will disagree/agree. I’ve seen a lot of feedback on ig. But what are your thoughts, and will you be entering? Do you understand the theme? Do you think the theme should be changed a bit differently? Let’s talk and please keep the comments respectful, of other’s opinions.

I think that this contests theme is a little weird and not explained well :sweat_smile:

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I honestly believe Episode is running out of ideas for contests.

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Agreed tbh.

That’s a good question. :thinking:

The next contest theme:

Writing an Episode story

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Shelf Name: “Episode Stories”

Check out our contest winners who wrote an Episode sory!!!

I honestly want this to be the next contest :rofl:

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I very much don’t like this contest, could write an essay on why its so bad lmao

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For those of you who are entering- what genre are you writing in?

I’m personally doing thriller :grin:

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i had the same thought. i hope that’s not case because it’s never okay to invalidate one’s experience because it doesn’t exactly amount to the next. my thing is, i have low standards for episode, so i really don’t have high hopes that they will throughly read stories and put the right stories that fit the prompt greatly.

it would be very beneficial if they have actual official BIPOC writers that will judge this prompt not solely based on who’s trauma is more traumatic but also not hoping to see a story about an alien facing racism either. idk, i kind of wish they would rethink this prompt but it’s too late now :woman_standing:t4:

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