Writer's Contest Ideas

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#1

Hi everyone! I’ve always thought that the Writers’ Contests were a great idea and the themes were always fantastic! But, I wanted to see what everyone in the community thought about the contest ideas and what ideas they came up with!

My Idea

MH: Mental Health
Lots of people deal with or have previously dealt with mental illnesses/health, including me, and they are often incorrectly portrayed in stories, so this idea would be a great way to spread the message that mental illness isn’t a joke.

Feel free to share an idea, or two, or four!

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#2

Bump!

1 Like
#3

As someone who struggles with mental health, I always appreciate more accurately portrayed mental health stories on the app. It was one of the biggest reasons I wrote my first story… the way mental health is so incorrectly portrayed in so many stories. Unfortunately, for that reason, I think it would be a bad idea for a contest theme. There was a big backlash during the Queer contest over concerns with an inaccurate representation of the LGBTQ community. I fear that a mental health contest would result in a LOT of stories that romanticize and further stigmatize mental health problems.
There are quite a few good mental health stories on the app. You just have to know how to find them.

7 Likes
#4

I think that’s a great idea! It would be really good in many ways

1 Like
#5

This idea is actually really Cool!

But as @J.Miley mentioned it can be portrayed extremely inaccurately…

Though it could happen if they set some specific rules…

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#6

I feel like loads of people would enter with little to no knowledge about mental illnesses, therefore misrepresenting them. I have a couple stories about obsessive compulsive disorder, because I have been diagnosed with the disorder and know what I’m talking about. I have a feeling most people would go off stereotypes and lack of research.

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#7

I’d like to see themes such as writing a villainous MC, a zombie apocalypse for a story setting/theme, underwater story setting/theme, I’d LOVE to see a sci-fi themed contest, I’d also like to see a contest where your main focus should be droids/ perhaps MC has to be a droid. I could come up with more, but those are a few I’ve had in mind for a long time.

I just feel like too many current contest themes are either too vague or neglect certain genres.

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#8

This is exactly my fear. People entering with little to no knowledge of mental illness, and it being misrepresented, romanticized, etc. There is no way to police and control who enters a contest, or what type of story they write. I’m trying to think how to word it, but it seems in almost every contest, we already have at least one entry that is offensive to one community of individuals or another (LGBTQ, POC, etc). That is with contests with non-specific themes (except the Queer contest last year.) If you have a contest specifically geared towards stories involving communities that are often stigmatized, then you’re opening the door for offensive and even maybe triggering stories and lots of problems.

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#9

I agree

#10

I know, I mean the Fairy Tale contest said it had to be Romance, there could’ve been some really great entries in other genres like action, adventure, or drama.

#11

Actually, the Fairy Tale contest could be any genre. There were winners from several genres (Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance, and Fantasy) including my own which is Fantasy.
There are contests that have to be specific genres. Genre-specific contests I remember included Kiss and Tell (Romance) Clue (mystery) Magicka (Fantasy) Adventurous (Adventure) Missed Connections (Romance) Thriller (Thriller) Fantastical (Fantasy).

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