It's that time of year again, where mittened hands are clutching mugs of hot cocoa tight (unless you're one of our southern hemisphere friends, who are more likely enjoying a soda on the beach, right?). Once again the Season Prose Competition group wants to stroke the fires of your creative genius with a full-fledged competition!

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The Competition
Welcome to the Winter Prose Competition, 2012 edition! As always, this contest will be carried out in the form of a competition, rather than a tournament. The fundamental difference between the two is how the rounds progress: in a competition, every contestant will advance to the next round, and no eliminations occur. This competition breaks past form in several key ways, so read on carefully for full information.

Applying to Enter (Competitors)
For logistical reasons, entry into the Winter Prose Competition will be limited. If you want to compete in the WPC12, please complete the first chapter (you can find this in the post immediately after this one) and email it to the SPC email address, compleader (at) live (dot) com, before midnight on the 21st of January (23:59:59 PST UTC/GMT-8). Of the completed challenges submitted, twelve will be randomly selected to compete in the WPC12 in addition to the three entries submitted by the winners of the last two flash fiction competition or their representatives (a total of 15 competitors). This is not a first-come first-served selection process, so take all the time you need to ensure the quality of your entry.

The Challenge
The competition consists of only one challenge to be completed in two chapters, both of which are outlined in the post following this one. Any questions about the challenge can be addressed to the SPC email account or through the Contact Author function of the SPC profile.

The Entries
Entries in the Winter Prose Challenge will be anonymous, and as such will need to be emailed to the competition organizer. Email submission must be addressed to the SPC email account, compleader (at) live (dot) com. Both attached word documents (.doc and .docx preferred) and work pasted into the body of the email will be accepted. All submitted work will be posted as it appears in the received email message or attachment.

Any entries containing profanity, mature themes, or other content that would necessitate a Mature tag on Protagonize will not be accepted.

The Timing of Dates Due
All times posted here and during the Competition will be in Pacific/Protagonize Standard Time, which is -8UTC/GMT. All due dates, for both submission of completed chapters and reviews, expire at midnight. Because the due date is at midnight, competitors should have their entries in by no later than 23:59:59PST, as indicated by the time stamp attached to the received email.

Email from the Organizer
All email from the organizer, such as reminders of due dates, will be sent through the SPC email account, compleader (at) live (dot) com. Please ensure that this address is added to your "safe list" of trusted senders so that you do not miss any important messages.

Reviews
All competitors must complete peer reviews for each entry, including their own. This self-review will not be included in any score totals, but is in place to maintain anonymity. All reviews must be posted as a comment on the entry. To make organization easier, please remember to submit all comments "On This Chapter" rather than on the story as a whole.

All members of the SPC group are entitled and encouraged to participate in reviewing the entries. These reviews must follow the same guidelines as the peer reviews completed by competitors.

Penalties and Evictions
Competitors can receive penalties in the form of reduced scores in the following instances:

Sending a completed chapter late
Posting a peer review late
Rude conduct towards other competitors or the competition organizer

The competition organizer reserves the right to evict any competitor from the competition at any time if their conduct is unacceptable under the Protagonize Terms of Use, or if they refrain from posting one or more completed challenges.

The Grading Sheet
Each peer judge will review the completed chapter based on the following criteria. No half points are to be awarded in any case, no matter how hard you plead with the organizer. It is recommended that after the sheet has been filled out you reread the entry, reflect on the score you gave (writing comments will be very helpful for you here), and reconsider the score you wish to submit.

The Challenge - ( /20) Did the entry adequately address the main point/s of the challenge? How well did the entrant perform within the bounds of the challenge, and was the performance satisfactory?

Look over the issued challenge and identify the key part/s of it, and when reading the entry try to find the answers to those challenges. If even one aspect was not addressed, the entrant cannot earn full marks. Only complete this portion for the second chapter, and apply it to the entry as a whole.

Mood & Imagery - ( /10) Does the writing evoke any feelings, emotions, or reactions from you? Does this mood fit with the narrative, or seem out of place? Do you have a clear picture of the setting and actions, or are you left confused?

Look for stand-out words and phrases that convey a clear mood, descriptive passages that paint a clear pictures, and cohesion among the mood, actions, and setting. Also keep an eye out for the opposites: words and phrases that are ambiguous or contrary to the mood, descriptions that leave you confused, and disharmony between the mood and setting. Of course, the author might use a contrary mood to make something stand out, and those instances should be judged according to their effectiveness.

Believability & Consistency- ( /5) Can you tell that the writer spent time thinking about and planning the narrative that is being told? Is the writer consistent in his/her details?

This competition requires the competitors to complete challenges that build upon each other, so consistency is key. This setting should also make sense to the reader, with explanations worked into the writing if need be.

Pay attention to the way that characters speak and behave; have they undergone a noticeable change from previous entries, or retained their initial characterization?

Engagement - ( /5) Is the excerpt easy to read, or did it drag at points? Was it interesting to read and have enough variety to maintain your interest? Did you feel like you were being lectured to, or was this genuine storytelling?

It can become very tiresome to read paragraph after paragraph of descriptive prose, so it is very important to keep the audience engaged. If you find yourself glued to an entry and immersed in the storytelling, consider giving the author a high score for this criteria.

Things to look for are variation in sentence structure and a balance between descriptions and actions. Take note of the way that the entry flows in relation to the mood: is it smooth, jerky, erratic, logical? Also take into account the words that the author used; having to stop every few seconds to look up a word takes away from the reading experience, and can make the reader feel belittled.

Spelling, Punctuation, & Grammar (SPG) - ( /10) Has the author put in the effort in ensure that his or her writing follows typical grammar conventions and standard spellings, whether Canadian, American, British, or otherwise?

This criteria looks at the polish that the author puts on his or her work. Improper SPG detracts from the other elements of the writing, such as the Mood & Setting and Engagement. Take into consideration the severity of any abuses of SPG: some typos will be recognized by spell-check programs as other words, and so might be passed over by the author. That said, an entry with any abuse of SPG, no matter how small, cannot score a perfect mark in the SPG category.

Scoring
The above review criteria each have an associated number of possible points, adding to a total of thirty and fifty points for each review. No scaling will occur among reviews or among chapters. The first leader board will be compiled on or shortly after the 29th of January. This leader board will include only relative standings, as competitors will be able to add up their scores individually with ease.


The Reward
There are two prizes (bit only one winner) in this competition. First is the title of Winter Prose Competition 2012 champion, and the bragging rights that go with it. As the only entry fee is a willingness to lose a bit of pride, the winner will take all the lost pride of the losers for him or herself. The champion will also be interviewed by Jackerbie, the result of which will be posted in the Protagonize Interviews group.

As always, profile badges will not be awarded at the end of this competition, just as they are not awarded for the Seasonal Poetry Tournament. If you feel this is unfair, please speak with Nick and politely ask him to halt any current site developments in order to design a spiffy decal for you.

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The Schedule
January 6th - Challenge posted, the WPC12 is open for business!
January 21st - First chapter due at midnight.
January 22nd - Selection of competitors, entries posted.
January 29th - Chapter one reviews due at midnight.
February 4th - Second chapter due at midnight.
February 5th - Entries updated with second chapter.
February 12th - Chapter two reviews due at midnight.

The Challenge and the Chapters
Compared to past competitions, the challenge for the WPC12 is comparatively simple: write a short story in two chapters. The bulk of the challenge is not particular to any one chapter of your short story, but there is a second part that must be completed throughout the chapters. The challenge is as follows:

The first sentence of chapter one must be: "The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."

The first sentence of chapter two must be: "The moon shone like a blade frozen in blue ice." The train must appear in this chapter.

All of these words must appear in the story at least once in some form, with at least four of the words per chapter. :
flicker (verb or noun forms)
blood (noun or adjective forms)
heart (noun or adjective forms)
crest (noun or verb forms)
scent (noun, verb, or adjective forms)
rust (noun, verb, or adjective forms)
dross (noun or adjective forms)
wisp (noun or adjective forms)

There is no word limit, but a range of 400-600 words per chapter is suggested. Remember, each competitor (including you!) must read and review 15 entries in only a week.

Completion of the first chapter is necessary in order to apply to compete in the WPC12, with submission due on the 21st of January at midnight.

The second chapter must be submitted by midnight on the 4th of February.