Forum - View topicINTEREST: Short Story Contest Bans 'Traveling to an Alternate World' Fantasy
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DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
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I have to agree with some of the folks here; even if it is getting tiring to see so many bad entries in a specific genre, the answer isn't to simply ban the genre - it's to stop rewarding it. It's not as if the genre was non-existent before SAO. If whatever such entry in that genre is the best short-story that comes up in the contest, why shouldn't it win just because the folks judging it are tired of reading other bad ones? Or are they presuming to be declaring the end of the genre? Even if it's meant to be a one year ban, the chilling effect is that no one in these following years, hoping to win, will touch the genre, regardless of skill or confidence in their writing. If your judges or committee don't like the genre, then let them have the freedom to reject the stories on its merits, not prejudge every possible entry that might fit that idea.
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Amuris
Posts: 69 |
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I get why they did this. It doesn't seem so bad if your just going by anime but almost every new web or light novel has been a transfer or reincarnation story. By the way, Sword Art Online isn't either. People at ANN, please learn the difference. However, this doesn't address the actual problem and I would like to see bans in the future that do. The things that make a transfer story suck are just as bad for magic battle highschool and everything else for that matter. So some of the things they should ban are:
1. TUE stories. These are stories were everything exists just to impress upon the reader how great/cool/strong the op mc is. These are stories like Mahoka and Arifureta. (now a Mahoka fan is going to attack me for comparing them) They restrict or completely avoid character development for anyone but the mc that isn't growing admiration or becoming worse themselves to contrast the mc. No one solves their own problems, they mostly exist to present problems for the mc to solve with ease or be their fans. 2. Short-hands for character development. This is commonly done with game mechanics now. The rising of stats is used as the only representation of a character growth. There is never a need for them to actually change tactics or learn how to actually fight as long as their numbers continue to increase. The Rising of the Shield Hero plays with and subverts this a lot. When summoned, the heroes in Shield Hero were modeled after bad authors and a lot of the fans of transfer stories. They had sole confidence in their game stats, not understanding the difference between a game and reality, and were outclassed and manipulated by people with significantly weaker stats due to the fact that they never learned anything not directly supplied by the system (fighting technique, proper magical knowledge, how to read, etc.). Many of the bad storie's mcs are like these heroes at their worst. 3. Harem/Plot or harem over plot. Often, the story is made as a vehicle to add cute girls to a harem. There isn't a firm overarching plot or the girls added contribute nothing to said plot. Mushoku Tensei does a good job fixing this as each girl initiates, embodies, and represents part of the character development of the mc as well as the moral or theme of the story. MT also does not add any girls who show up but do not meet these qualifications to the harem, leaving them as platonic friends. Well, those are somethings you should ban. If they don't want to make a list of the most common screwups their contestants make, they could follow rule number 5 of Knox's 10 commandments of Mystery. (remember, I'm quoting here): "No chinaman should figure." If you consider the context and meaning, it would translate to us as: "Don't put blond, twin-tailed, tsunderes in your story." or just "don't use cliches." |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2126 |
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The genre is in no danger. Trust me. It's everything else that's struggling for breathing space on SnN. Like why Black History Month is a thing and White History Month isn't.
This slang is not googleable! |
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Black_Kendoka
 Posts: 18 Location: Cincinnati, OH |
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At first, I disagreed with their sentiment. Then I started to agree with it, just before I disagreed with it again. Really, I just come out with mixed feelings about everything. But, in the end, it's their contest and it's the writers' choice to participate in that contest and abide by their rules. There are just too many scenarios to this to really have a concrete thought on it.
For me, it's not so much that I have a problem of the premise that you're talking about as it is me having a problem with what they have been doing with that premise for 99% of the shows that currently have that backdrop. Just having a story where a loser finally gets the things that he feels he or she "deserves" really just amounts to teenage wish fulfillment. I'm sure that if I were in my teens to maybe mid-20s, those kinds of shows would have resonated with me. But the complexities and realities of being an adult just makes me groan or just outright hate the characters in the show (here's lookin' at you No Game No Life and Sword Art Online). What would be nice is if they were to take that scenario of wish fulfillment and maybe try to relate it to the real issues that teenagers, and maybe adults, have to deal with on a daily basis. Maybe that wish isn't all as it was cracked up to be. If someone is a loser in real life, they'd probably be even more of a loser with all the groovy powers, so maybe there could be an exploration of the consequences of being too cocky with the sudden victories, or show the personality traits that made the person a loser come out from time to time and the troubles that could come from that. In the end, I'm not much of a story teller, so I don't know how easy it would be to make stories like that, or even if my ideas make any sense. In the end, if they were to do more than just whisk away some teenage boy or girl to a different world where they suddenly get power, money and fame and have no consequences for their actions, then I could see the genre advancing much more than it already has (yeah, I understand that money talks). |
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Sloppy_Jimbo
 Posts: 98 |
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They should also ban characters under the age of thirty and require the setting be in a foreign country. There should be NO fourth wall breaking, time travel, space travel, harem antics, conveniently deceased/overseas parents, robots, superpowers, opening doors without knocking, mysterious people, kissing only in the last chapter, any mention of school, Lannister-like siblings, yuri/yaoi baiting, maids, idols, talking animal sidekicks, magical powers, tournaments, amnesia, anemia, angst, armageddons, people who lick knives, female villians with tragic backstories, male heroes with zero personality, the words "stronger" and "protect" in the same sentence, "your going to catch cold if you sleep like that and/or get wet from the rain", "food tastes better when we eat it together", or nerd culture references whatsoever...
I'll make an exception for blonde goth loli tsundere vampires, however. 
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Amuris
Posts: 69 |
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Tue = Tsue = "I ARE STROMG!" It's a word used in japanese forums to describe op mc that spend all the time boasting about how ridiculously op they are or the story doing it for them. You probably won't see it on english sites, except the section of animesuki were all the obscure webnovels go. anyway, try searching 俺ＴＵＥＥＥ or ore tueee instead. edit:
read Mushoku Tensei. Just read it. Last edited by Amuris on Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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This is just a rule for one contest.
It is not a change in policy about what kind of books will be published. |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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^Exactly. This isn't about freedom of expression. It's their contest and they can set whatever rules they want. Imagine if the contest said "travel to an alternate world" stories only. Would people complain about that? Also it could mean that they just don't want that kind of setting and not that alternate world stories are automatically bad, as some people are assuming.
That's how I see it too. If you're a writer who usually writes alternate world stories, this rule gets you to try something different or new that you might not have done otherwise. |
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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Reminds me of how so many AMV contests outlawed DBZ/Papa Roach mashups and Weird Al. Remember, these folks gotta sit down and read the stories. I feel bad for the schlub that has to read fifty bad Sword Art Online copycats.
'Sides, the contest says nothing about stories already set in fictional worlds; it's less "taking place in fantasy realms" and more "No bad Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" ripoffs". Also: it's only this one contest. Also worth considering is how the lack of an easy plothook could force writers to find something a bit meatier, "art via adversity" and all that. |
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casualfan
Posts: 333 |
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Such a dumb rule. Everything has been done before at this day and age. Instead focus more on the execution of the story or how the writers mess around with the formula. That takes quite a bit of creativity, too. But still it's good for them to be honest and upfront about what they want.
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NormanS
 Posts: 167 |
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While I don't mind the restriction, it's pretty simple to bypass that by just writing another fantasy/video game world since (from what I can tell) the Main character tends to just speak about or mention things from their world probably as a reminder that the character is from another world and apart from that it doesn't add much dialogue or depth to that character. You could write something similar by having the character being amnesiac with a quirky attitude and still have your fish out of water story like Haku from utawarerumono.
In addition this restriction also kinda kills potentially good stories about dimension jumping, space world travelling (then crashing and staying there),etc. Even stories similar to escaflowne would probably be not allowed now that I think about it. |
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sokpupet
Posts: 133 |
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"Sure, what would you want?" "Oh, I'm cool with just about anything. No Thai fusion, though." "But I know this really great place, Mezzo Thai? They have the best--" "I'm sure it's fine, I just really don't want it right now." "They've got this fantastic dish where they turn fresh, locally sourced peanuts into aerosol form--" "Look, really, any other time and I'd totally take you up on it. Now, though, right now? No, I don't want any." "...the hell is wrong with you, dude? I'm telling you it's amazing and you're blowing it off!" "I'm sorry, I'd rather have a reuben or cobb salad. A calzone, even." "Whatever, fascist." |
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SWAnimefan
Posts: 634 |
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Got to agree with the ban, people see a trend and have to put their spin on things, making as if it's something original. But it's just like in the US with all the various Zombie TV shows and Hero movies, it loses it's luster.
The idea of the contests it to be creative and original, not slap a sticker on the side of a car and say you're joining NASCAR. |
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Jonny Mendes
 Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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Maybe is just me, but every time i hear or read a phrase beginning with "Lets Ban..." just make me sick. Makes me remember sad times in history were they burn books and that in some countries some books, movies, tv shows, news are banned.
A Ban is never the answer, never. Finding alternatives is. If the contest was "make a short story based of one this scenarios" that was a good way to find new authors that have talent. But in this case "write about anything except this" is just wishful thinking. Probably they still will have 90% of stories that are almost copies of the most popular LN out there |
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Spike Terra
 Subscriber Posts: 359 Location: Maryland |
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Does the MC stop being a complete creep after the first few chapters? I honestly couldn't get passed the moment, when he realized that his friend was a girl because he was that damn creepy. Seriously, all the good will that manga had tried to build up was constantly ruined by it's horny protagonist, who got away with all of his antics because he was in the body of a child. As for the topic at hand, I really enjoy trapped in a fantasy world types of stories. However, the genre is flooded with them at the moment, so I think the rule is justified. |
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