Any Budding Pratchetts Out There???

[Tonyblack]

Terry and Transworld are looking for budding writers to enter a Competition.

Come on you talented lot!

[poohcarrot]

80,000 - 150,000 words?!

[Jane]

That's like a hundred microsoft word pages!

This competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over who is a resident of the UK, Republic of Ireland or other countries of the British Commonwealth.

I guess I'm out.

[michelanCello]

Me too...

[bikkit]

so am I

[mspanners]

I may have been interested in it if it had been set on the Disc, could have entered one of the short stories I have posted here (or expanded on one) in the past but unfortunately that is not what they want.. ho well! Thanks for the link anyways!!

[poohcarrot]

If you don't buy a ticket, you won't win the raffle.

I'll have a shot (but I might get bored with it after a while)

[mspanners]

Good luck there mate, hope it goes well!!

Had a rethink and maybe I could rewrite one of my stories as a comedy version of the Discworld a bit like Bored Of The Rings was and link it to an alternate Earth somehow....I,ll have to think on it.

One problem though......

(c) be submitted as a Word document with double spacing in font size 12 point 'Times New Roman'.

I use text document to write as I do not have office or word so how can I transform a text doc to word in this format?

[lyn]

That's like a hundred microsoft word pages!

This competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over who is a resident of the UK, Republic of Ireland or other countries of the British Commonwealth.

I guess I'm out.

go for it Jane.
Australia is part of the Commonwealth.

[Jan Van Quirm]

It's doable, but like pooh's kind of saying you need a lot of stamina to spew that much out, even though the compy doesn't close until 31st Dec.

My longest piece of serial fanfic on Dreamworlds is just under 65,000 words and that took me around 18 months, although I was writing other stuff in between bursts of activity.

Thing with me is that the theme/plot has to come from me, so although I can do straight contemporary fiction this isn't 'grabbing' me at all just now. But I'll probably have a go, if only to give pooh a reason to show me how to 'do' it

[Jan Van Quirm]

I use text document to write as I do not have office or word so how can I transform a text doc to word in this format?

So long as it's in text on wordpad/notepad etc then you can just open your working doc up in Word and then 'save as' a Word doc

[raisindot]

80,000 - 150,000 words?!

Unnnh, yeah. These things are generally called "books." Quite popular at one time or another.



J-I-B

[raisindot]

Much as I respect PTerry for sponsoring something like this, especially in giving unpublished novelists a chance, the "alternative Earth" genre has been totally done to death since Philip K. Dick penned the first true classic of the genre, "The Man in the High Castle," back in the early 60s.

I also can't imagine how any unpublished writer without an independent source of income could possibly complete a 80K-100K work of any quality by the end of December. I think the "novel synopsis" idea is a much better alternative.

Then again, we may all be surprised.

Lucky for your Brits that as a Yank I'm disqualified. My unpublished novel, "Wm. Shakespeare, Werewolf" would have won hands down.



J-I-B

[Jan Van Quirm]

I also can't imagine how any unpublished writer without an independent source of income could possibly complete a 80K-100K work of any quality by the end of December. I think the "novel synopsis" idea is a much better alternative.

Au contraire! *feeling a bit 'Stephen Fry' today*

Aside from the inane crap/inspiration/motivation factors anyone who does instant messaging, forums, blogs or networking can easily do 1000 words per day (you can get nearly 800+ words with double spacing on about 2 sides of A4). 80 days time and you're on the min word count. 125 days (just over 4 months) and you'd have something the size of a decent novel well before the deadline

Whether you could actually sit down and read it depends on your own ability and the reader's tolerance for hastily scrawled trash...

On the done to death front - there is no such thing as 'new' just variations on themes that have been around since a couple of decades after the storytelling apes first learned how to talk...

[poohcarrot]

Well, my book is going to be called;

The amazing adventures of Captain Poohcarrot

Chapter 1

Captain Poohcarrot is from the year 3010, where there are two parallel Earths. The good one is run by the enigmatic President Tony Black and his bionic PA SWReader. The bad one is run by the evil genius J-I-B.

Capt PC (a time cop) lives with a day-glo, large breatsed robotic beauty called Dotsie (.C), who instead of fulfilling Capt PC's every whim, is malfunctioning and stroppy and nags him all the time.

There is only one religion, Lennonism (John Lennon). Capt PC's first mission is to go back in time and stop the assassination of the Messiah, John Lennon. However, like the Quantum butterfly of legend, this can be achieved by altering just one small seemingly unconnected past event.

In this first case, if Capt PC can get Doris Batty of 27 Blackgate Drive, Darlington, to go shopping in Tescos on Saturday July 15 1979, then through a long line of connected events, John Lennon's life will be saved.

J-I-B hears about the plan and despatches a terminator type robot jobbie (a Quirm) to thwart Capt PC's mission