I'm assuming everyone received their challenges? There were a few of you that didn't fill out the request form, so I gave you a random challenge. If you're unhappy with your challenge, I'm sorry, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it.

So, has everyone gotten started on their challenges? Have any ideas in mind? Having trouble starting? If you want, post here and discuss your status with your fellow challenge entrants. Who knows, maybe someone could spur your muse.

Good luck to all of you!

Rhandi

Now that all of you signed up, the process can begin. In total 17 challenges will be issued. They are all made up from the forms you submitted, as in, your fellow authors created them. Five days will be allotted for you guys to choose which challenges you're interested in.

You all are going to have to read all of the challenges below and select your top five that you'd be interested in. Please follow the form below when making your selections.

Name:
Email:
First Preference:
Second Preference:
Third Preference:
Fourth Preference:
Fifth Preference:

Example:
Name: Jolene
Email: jibber46@gmail.com
First Preference: 5
Second Preference: 6
Third Preference: 17
Fourth Preference: 9
Fifth Preference: 10

You have until the 10^th to make your selections. All of you who don't submit your selections will be randomly allocated one. If you are unable to participate in this round, please inform us right away by sending an email to officathon@gmail.com. All of your requests will try to be fulfilled, but sometimes it is impossible. If an occasion arises, you will be notified immediately.

Oh, and all posts will be screened.
 

( The Challenges; )

Thanks,
Your Mods

 

Revival

The Original Fiction Ficathon is now OPEN for business. Despite inactivity in the past 1,989,790...months, I've decided to find the time to revive this community.

However from this moment on, I'm wiping the slate clean, and this community is starting back at step one. This means a few changes will be taking place. The challenges will be sped up just a bit, we'll have writing/plotting/dialogue/etc... tips, and possibly help forums.

To do what I am planning, I am going to need some help, the help being other, active mods. The mods need to have an abundance of time, be friendly, and have some web-based experience.

I also want to create a website that goes along with this community, possibly move this community to its own website. Now, I myself, have the resources to do this, but I am wanting to split all of this work between a few people.


If interested, Fill Out The Form Below: (The post will be screened so others cannot axcess your information)

Name: Laura
FP Name: laurainthewild
Email: laurainthewild@gmail.com
Qualifications: I can devote a few hours a week to working with this community. I am friendly, helpful, and excited to get started. I have hosted websites on my own time. I am great at making graphics and would love to make the awards and such, or design the site layout. And I have quite a few ideas that would benefit this community, such as...

Alright, on to sign-ups.

Sign-Ups

For those of you have absolutely no idea what this community is about, I'll give you a short introduction.

Hello! I'm K.B. Hanna from Fictionpress. The Original Fiction Ficathon is a community based competition where the competitors receive challenges written by other participants and are expected to write at least a 3,000 word composition fulfilling the challenge request. You will have a period of one month, or two (I haven't decided yet) to complete the challenge. The challenges will be posted on fictionpress, either as a short story or novel. To read the FAQ please click here. Afterwards, there will be a voting period where the participants and readers review the works and vote on them under categories such as Best Romance. A judges pick will also be made for each category. Then, awards will be given out and a new session will begin.

To sign-up for this session of the ficathon, please copy the form below and post it in a comment. Again, the comments will be screened so the challenges will be completely anonymous.

Name: Laura
E-mail:laurainthewild@gmail.com
Fictionpress.com profile address: http://fictionpress.com/laurabee
Genre of story you'd like to request: Romance, Young Adult, Suspense
Rating you'd like to request: K-M
What you'd like to see: A rocky relationship, sporks, death by candlestick, an unlikeable protagonist
What you'd hate to see: Mary Sue type characters, excessive use of the words totally, hot.
Three words/quotes you'd like to see in the story: Manhandling, "Worms are bad for you.", "Do you have ants in your pants?"

Don't make the challenges too specific, as in already giving them a plot and characters to work with. As it's been said before, avoid creating challenges like this "Mark, the boy, meets Katie, the girl, and they totally don't get along but then tragedy forces them together and they like, totally bond and then fall in love and all."

Once you post your comments, you'll be signed up for this session. Since this community has been inactive for a while, I'll extend the sign-up period in efforts to gain more participants. Also, to help the efforts, please Don't Forget To Tell Your Friends!

At the end of the sign up period, you'll receive an email confirming your participation. NO sign-ups will be accepted after the deadline passes. Sorry, you'll have to wait until next session. If you have to drop out, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing us at of_ficathon@gmail.com.

Deadlines

Dates of the ficathon (subject to change):
Sign-Up Deadline: 1st July
Request (Top 5) Deadline: 5th July
Assignments Given Out: by the 10th July
Writing Deadline: September 10th 2009
Begin Voting Period: September 11th
End Voting Period: September 25th
Awards Given Out: by the 28th September

Thanks for signing up!
Your mod, K.B. Hanna


People Who Have Signed Up For Session 1
Rhandi
Kristen
Ava
Mishiema
Mawa
Shiegra
Emmy
Amy
Chelsey
Autumn
Laneille
Natalie
Chels
Belle
Smita
Ellis
Daphne

Total: 17

Alright, well, this community has remained silent for quite some time, but it was really a good idea. I'm interested in reviving it as I finally have the time to do such a thing, however, I'd rather not do it alone. If anyone else is interested, please leave a post, pm me, etc...

Rhandi

 Heya Ficathoners,

First off, let me thank those who have already turned in their 2000 point checklist. You're all awesome.

This checkpoint is from: 13th February - 20th February.

As stated before, You do not need to have the 2000 words posted on Fictionpress or wherever you are intending on posting the story, but you will have to e-mail it to the Original Fiction Ficathon e-mail address: officathon@gmail.com. However, if you'd prefer to comment here with a link to your 2000+ words you can do so.

It would be helpful if you put this in your email/comment:
Name:
Challenge:
(for comments only) Email:

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE 2000 WORDS YOU SUBMIT WILL IN  NO WAY BE CONSIDERED THE FINAL VERSION, NOR WILL IT BE JUDGED. WE JUST WANT TO SEE PROOF THAT YOU'RE WORKING ON YOUR CHALLENGE. ☺

Much love,
Your Mod's

First of all, a big thanks goes out to all of you who managed to turn in your challenges on time. Unfortunately, some of you did not. Because of this, we are looking for 11 back-up writers. Because of the short amount of time, the back-up writers only need to write 2000 words by the deadline.

Those of you who already have a challenge may apply to be a back up writer, but both challenges must be submitted by the deadline.

If you are interested, please fill out the following form:

Name:
Email:
First Preference:
Second Preference:
Third Preference:

Example:
Name: Abby Johnson
Email: jabby07@email.com
First Preference: 3
Second Preference: 10
Third Preference: 23

 Thanks for all your cooperation!
The Mods

To those who completed the 1000 word checkpoint, CONGRATULATIONS! You lot are amazing and absolute stars. Next up, 2000 word checkpoint on February 10th - February 17th. :P

Sadly, the following people have not submitted their 1000 words. If your name is on the list and we do not receive the 1000 words from you by the 20th of January you will be blacklisted from the next session. E-mails have been sent out  as well.

Also we are looking for a back-up writer for Challenge #17. Back up writers will not have to do the 1000 word checkpoint. If you are already doing one challenge and would like to do this challenge as well, you are allowed to do so. However, both challenges will have to have the same priority (ie. 2000/+ words by the 10th of February). If you have any other questions/concerns about being a back up writer please comment on this post.

Hello there writers!

I (calybe) had made a mistake in the last post, the 1000 word checkpoint actually starts from the 10th of January, not the first week of January. I'm really sorry about any stress & trauma I might have caused by that. Nevertheless, thank you to the people who submitted their 1000 words already, you guys are stars!

This checkpoint is from: 10th January - 17th January.

As stated before, You do not need to have the 1000 words posted on Fictionpress or wherever you are intending on posting the story, but you will have to e-mail it to the Original Fiction Ficathon e-mail address: officathon@gmail.com. However, if you'd prefer to comment here with a link to your 1000+ words you can do so.

It would be helpful if you put this in your email/comment:
Name:
Challenge:
(for comments only) Email:

If you're having problems with your story/time management, now is the time to voice these concerns! We will be appealing for back-up writers soon.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE 1000 WORDS YOU SUBMIT WILL IN  NO WAY BE CONSIDERED THE FINAL VERSION, NOR WILL IT BE JUDGED. WE JUST WANT TO SEE PROOF THAT YOU'RE WORKING ON YOUR CHALLENGE. ☺

Much love,
Your Mod's

 

Happy Holidays to everyone.

This is just a reminder that the first week of January will be the 1000 word checkpoint. Make sure that you at least have 1000 words ready by then!

You do not need to have the 1000 words posted on Fictionpress or wherever you are intending on posting the story, but you will have to e-mail it to the Original Fiction Ficathon e-mail address: officathon@gmail.com .

If you have any questions please check the FAQ's first, otherwise please comment here.

First of all, if you still haven't confirmed that you have received your challenge, please do so here. It is very important that you do so.

Secondly, if you have any questions/concerns about the challenge you received please comment to this post in the following format:

Name:
Email:
Challenge Number:
Question/Concern:

We will then relay your questions/concerns to the person who issued the challenge and get back to you.

All comments are screened.

Much Love & Cheers,
Your Mods

The Challenges have been sent out. If you did not receive your challenge please comment with your name and email address as shown below:

Name: Participant
Email: whatever@email.com

Otherwise, if you have received your challenge, please comment with 'confirmed'.

All comments will be screened.

Love & Cheers,
Your Mods

OK, so the deadline of submitting your requests has finished and now it's time to send the challenges. The list has been compiled (those who hadn't submitted their requests have been assigned one by the mods), and you shall receive your challenges before the end of this week.
As a reminder:
Dates of the ficathon (subject to change):
Sign-Up Deadline: 1st November
Request (Top 5) Deadline: 1st December
Assignments Given Out:  10th December
Writing Checkpoint #1: 10th January
Writing Checkpoint #2: 10th February
Writing Deadline: 10th March

Have fun!

Loads of love and cheers,
Your Mods

An email has been sent out to everyone confirming their participation in Official Ficathon Session 5. If you did not receive an email please comment on this post with (comments will be screened):

Name:
E-mail Address:

Also, a reminder that everyone has to post their preference of challenges over here, not anywhere else.

Edit: The FAQ has been updated. If you still have questions, please post them over there.

Edit 2: A new email of confirmation has been sent to everyone. If you didn't receive that one either, please comment on this post.

Much love and cheers,
Your Mods

 Sorry for the delay, but the challenges are finally up. There are thirty-seven. For those of you who attempted to sign up after November 1st, your challenges were not accepted as the deadline for sign-ups had already passed. However, you are all still free to sign up for the next session.

Please read all of the challenges below, under the LJ cut, then select your top five choices. Fill in the following form and post as a comment. All of the posts are screened so there is no need to worry about someone else seeing your choices.

Name:
Email:
First Preference:
Second Preference:
Third Preference:
Fourth Preference:
Fifth Preference:

Example:
Name: Abby Johnson
Email: jabby07@email.com
First Preference: 3
Second Preference: 10
Third Preference: 23
Fourth Preference: 36
Fifth Preference: 7

You will have until the 1st to do this. After that time, those who have not sent in their preferences will be randomly allocated a challenge.

Not everyone gets the challenge s/he wants, but the moderators do try to be fair when distributing the challenges. Sometimes conflict is unavoidable.

Please read this ENTIRE post before you sign up, so that you fully understand what's happening and of course, feel free to ask questions.

Because of the lack of completion of last session's challenges, we're going to have a check point sort of system for the of_ficathon. So a month after all the challenges have been handed out we're going to check the word progress of the stories. If you haven't met the 1000 word limit at that point we'll get back up writers to do the challenge. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of warning before the check-point occurs!

Sign up is as follows: Copy the following form, fill it in and post as a comment. Comments will be screened so challenges will be totally annonymous. NOTE: You do not necessarily need a fictionpress account, it's fine if you decide to post your story on LJ or any other sites.

1. Name:
2. E-mail:
3. Fictionpress.com profile address:
4. Genre of story you'd like to request: 
5. Rating you'd like to request:
6. What you'd like to see:
7. What you'd hate to see:
8. Three words/quotes you'd like to see in the story:

It's been noted that really specific challenges seem to daunt people so don't get too into it. Please don't request a story where "Mark, the boy, meets Katie, the girl, and they totally don't get along but then tragedy forces them together and they like, totally bond and then fall in love and all." It leaves the author no room to explore the concepts of a challenge.

That's it! After you've posted your comment, you'll be signed up, and your name will be added to the list (it'll be on this post) of authors. There was some leniency last session with sign-ups, so that if you missed the deadline, we'd still include you but this time, no. The SECOND that it hits the end of deadline day, it's closed. Sorry. You'll receive an email, at the end of the sign-up period, to confirm your participation in the ficathon. Please, before you sign up, make sure you can fulfill the ficathon requirements, and if at any point you feel that you can't, then please email the mods at officathon@gmail.com

Dates of the ficathon (subject to change):
Sign-Up Deadline: 1st November
Request (Top 5) Deadline: 1st December
Assignments Given Out:  10th December
Writing Deadline: 10th March

Remember: If more people know about this ficathon, more will sign up - which will make the challenge much more fun. So please, don't forget to tell your friends and plug this ficathon!

Also: Here are some Frequently Asked Questions, in case you're not sure about something.

Love,

Your moderators.

Don't worry of_ficathoners, this community is not dead (and neither am I)!
Although, I am very sorry for this late post...I was away in a different country for more than a month with no access to internet, so I had no time to do this. So, without further delay, the results are as such:

Best All Around Fiction [1st]
It's a tie between Euphoria and Seizing The Sky

Best All-Around Fiction [2nd]
What Superstars Are Made Of

Best All-Around Fiction [3rd]
Runaway

Best Humour
Standard Deviation

Best Romance
My Favorite Remedy

Best Plot
Stalemate

Best Characterization
Seizing the Sky

Best One-Liner
My Favorite Remedy-- “David, I’m paranoid, not psychotic.”

Best Dramedy
Romantic Drama

Best Periodic Piece
Runaway

Best Take on a Cliché
Septima

Best Fantasy
Rekindling

So, before the new session starts, if there is any suggestions for improvement please comment on this thread, and if you would like to be a fellow moderator (I just need one more person) don't hesitate to mention that as well. I could really use the help.

P.S: I was thinking on having a limit on the number of people who can join to ensure stories do get written...what do you guys think of this idea.

These are the awards: 

1. Best All Around Fiction [1st] 
2. Best All-Around Fictiom [2nd] 
3. Best All-Around Fiction [3rd] 
4. Best Humour 
5. Best Romance 
6. Best Plot 
7. Best Characterization 
8. Best One-Liner 
9. Best Angst 
10. Best Dramedy 
11. Best Periodic Piece 
12. Best Take on a Cliché 
13. Best Fantasy 

To vote: 
Copy the awards (the bolded) and paste into a comment. Beside each category, enter the name of the story you wish to vote for. You don't have to vote in every category, although try to in as many as you can. All comments will be screened, and only mods will be able to see the votes. The actual number of votes will not be made available to anyone. 

The stories:

1. What Superstars Are Made of
2. Septima
3. At A Glimpse 
4. Romantic Drama
5. Substitution
   
6. A Work in Progress
7. My Favorite Remedy
8. Seizing the Sky
   
9. The Professor's Conservatory
   
10. Suffer The Little Children
    
11. Euphoria 
12. Stalemate
    
13. Three Fathers
    
14. Rekindling 
15. Runaway 
16. The 8th Wonder
17. Standard Deviation
18. Coup d'état
    

the note:
Sorry this is so late, I have exams coming up and couldn't find time to update till now. (Oh man I hate hate hate A-Levels :[ ). Anyway, because the lateness of this poll the results will posted around 20th June-ish or earlier.

Now...get to voting people!

When you've either:
1) Reached your 3000-word mark
2) Finished writing your story

Please comment to this LJ post with your challenge number, your username, the story link [http://www.fictionpress.com/s/whateverthenumberis/1/] and the title of your story. We'll then transfer it to this LJ post.

We'd love it if you could link to the OF_Ficathon [http://community.livejournal.com/of_ficathon/] on your LJs or Fictionpress profiles so the ficathon can grow during other sessions, to make it as successful (if not more successful) than this session. Thank you to whoever participated in the fourth session - it's been fun!

(Note: If you'd like your link or pseudonyms to be changed on the masterlist, or if you cannot see your name there, please comment!)

If you have questions, don't hesitate to check out the FAQs, comment on this thread with your question, or email us.

Original Fiction Ficathon: Session 4 - Winter 2007

1. murderprotocol wrote What Superstars Are Made of for cherokeescot
2. Yumegatari wrote Septima for nonabugg
3. calybe wrote At A Glimpse for mosaicstains
4. Queen Beryl wrote Romantic Drama for Espionage In My Shoe
5. Espionage In My Shoe wrote Substitution for Queen Beryl
   
6. Strike Me Dead wrote A Work in Progress for orpheus song
7. mishiema wrote My Favorite Remedy for writtenreality
8. bleedingair wrote Seizing the Sky for hippos-anoonymus
9. HannahmarieWillow wrote The Professor's Conservatory for McQuinn
10. Spazmic Kitty wrote Suffer The Little Children for bleedingair
11. hotkitty wrote Euphoria for klaredelune
12. chocolatetuna wrote Stalemate for Rhandi
13. shadowhound wrote Three Fathers for shadowgryphon
14. L'rein Vinalo wrote Rekindling for Spazmic Kitty
15. nonabugg wrote Runaway for Alanna Lioness
16. graffitibox wrote The 8th Wonder for Katie
17. Rhandi wrote Standard Deviation for chocolatetuna
18. klaredelune wrote Coup d'état for hotkitty

D A T E S O F T H E F I C A T H O N
Sign-Up Deadline: 15th October
Request Deadline: 20th October
Assignments Given Out: December
Writing Deadline: March 31st 2007
Voting Deadline: April 21st 2007 (subject to change)
Awards: April 28th 2007 (subject to change)

Remember, if you haven't got your challenges yet comment in the post below this one. Also, I'm going to post up the Master List around the New Year, so if you have reached the 3000 word mark, don't hesitate to comment below to let us know (if at least 5 people have reached the word mark then I'll post up the masterlist sooner).

Also, I was wondering, for the awards, would you prefer the winners to be simply mentioned (this) or would you prefer graphic awards (this)? Or do you not mind either?

Please read the FAQs if you have any further questions, or comment below.

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Much love and cheers,
The Mod's