master of letters

I'm not going to waste any time with being polite. I think I'm better than each and every one of you reading this. I think garry's mod roleplay servers are the worst possible way to tell a good narrative. I am firmly confident two strangers with their mouths gagged and hands tied to a wall could tell a better narrative than any amount of you with all your free will and all your resources. I think about 6 months ago was the last time I played on a garry's mod RP server, gunsmoke or otherwise. Since that time, I've put myself to work on projects away from the limitations of a gmod server and the clueless or abrasive people that reside there, even with all of the plugins and extra content added in. But, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) ended this November and I find that I have a craving for fresh perspective and new creative energy. The Gunsmoke forums is one of the last places I would expect to find that in. Nevertheless, this is an organization of writers, poets, sci-fi enthusiasts, journalists, and just those who've got something -be it a story, an experience, an emotional adventure, a dilemma, an impasse to tell. It would be a disservice to deny entry to anyone willing, even if it is from your sort. I'm sure many of you don't like me after reading this far, that's good! Partially because I wouldn't like me either, partially because that'll root out the impatient, but mostly because I want you to push me over and prove me wrong.

This is the New Mountain Writing Competition, and I want your best.

Under this thread, I'm asking for a minimum of a 1700 word short story. 1700 words sounds more intimidating than it is, it equivocates to about three pages of text with 1.15x line spacing and not an excessive amount of skipped or shortened lines in google docs. It should be easy enough, and given enough time and dedication it should be within reach.

THE RULES:

1): The story you write can be about whatever, whomever, whenever. It is not limited to gunsmoke or any other roleplay setting. While your piece CAN be about the character you currently roleplay with in the gunsmoke setting, I'd advise that you don't. Either the parts that you tell will be metagamed by your peers OR you'll have written all there is to write about that character and you'll find an apathy for playing them in the game world. Nevertheless, your piece is your choice, and you might even grow a connection to your character that you didn't have before, all I ask is that you tell the story you can manage, and if fear of metagame hinders that process, write about something or someone else.

2): The piece should be fiction. If it's based on real events with names changed around and edited for more drama, then that's fine.
3): DO NOT WRITE YOUR PIECE LIKE ROLEPLAY. If you write in the format of roleplay as it is found in game, I will stick a road bollard up your ass. And a road bollard isn't fitting up anyone's ass.

4): Minimum length of 1700 words. That takes about 2 hours to write if you're fully motivated. If you want to go for the gold, shoot for more than that. There is no maximum.

5): You may choose to link to an external site where the text is written, but you must post your writing in some way or another in this thread.

6): Credit all participants of your work. If you write better as a group, do what you need to do, just let everyone get recgonition. And don't copyright, lest the government send bees upon you.

7): Deadline to post is December 24th, 11:59pm.

8): The only prize is the satisfaction of writing and showing off the thought you've put into that writing. This is a casual competition designed only to show off your artistic ability. Show me and everyone you know what you've got.

9): Try to be friendly and welcoming of everyone's submissions, regardless of who they are or what they've done in the past. Artists and writers are proven to hold their grudges, try to put those aside in this thread. Critique each other. Find a balance between offering creative criticism and not taking somebody's heart and soil to an anvil. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But after the top of this post, I doubt anybody's gonna go joining my personal fan club, and rightfully so, no sane person should.

10): I'm a patronizing urethra who thinks I'm the best there is. God forbid I become a patronizing urethra who's RIGHT. Put in your best effort and prove me WRONG! Write as well as you can manage.