Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Announcing the Rule Of Three Blogfest October 2011 (now closed)


Grab your badge! The Rule Of Three Blogfest is here! Brought to you in conjunction with fellow writers/bloggers Damyanti Biswas, Stuart Nager, and J.C. Martin , we hope this will be a fun and creative writing project. Details and linky are below. It's a lot of information, I know; there will tabs at the top of my blog for dedicated pages containing this information, updates, and a list of featured authors who have donated e-books for one of the prizes. Now, on to the nitty gritty.







REN3

The Rule of Three Blogfest:
A. What is the Rule of Three?
The "rule of three" is a principle in writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. The reader/audience of this form of text is also more likely to consume information if it is written in groups of threes. A series of three is often used to create a progression in which the tension is created, then built up, built up even more, and finally released. –Wikipedia


B. How does the Rule of Three work in this blogfest?

The Rule of Three is a month-long fiction blogfest, where we’ve created a ‘world’, the town of Renaissance, and challenged you to create a story within it. The story will feature 3 characters of your creation, who will be showcased on your blog on 3 different Wednesdays, following the Rule of Three. The 4th Wednesday, we’ll have the culminating scene.
C. What is the Shared World of Rule of Three?
This is the town of Renaissance, where all of our stories will take place.
An outpost town in the middle of nowhere, but many routes (the TARGE, KRIS, and VILLEIN are the largest of routes, but not the only ones) pass through or by the town. The CHIAVONA desert is encroaching on one side (to the West), a once lush forest (the CULDEES) lies to the East and South. A large river, the ESPADON, runs through the forest of ASSART to the north, but it is not close by. The ROUNDELI Mountains are to the North, far, far away, and when you look towards them you don’t know if they are an illusion or not. Closer by are the smaller hill chain, the MAIN GAUCHE and the MINOR GAUCHE, that fed the mining, creating caverns (the KASTANES) and passages (one particular passage is known as HERIOT'S PASS) which lie underground.
At this point in time, there is a general population of 333. A mixture of a community. It boasts families that have lived there for generations upon generations, but they are in the minority, and are not in positions of power. There are traders who have come back here, at the end of their many travails, to settle in. The new families and power players have taken this as a last refuge for themselves, hoping to rebuild lives torn apart on the way here.
The town has had a number of identities throughout it’s history: A trading post; a mining town; a ghost town until it was rediscovered; a thriving community; the scene of a number of great battles; the scene of one great tragedy (that led to it’s Ghost Town standing); a town of great joys and celebrations, and so much more.
Welcome to Renaissance.
D. Writing Guidelines for the Rule of Three Blogfest:
  1. Your overall story can be in any genre, time period, or style you choose.
  1. You must have three characters (Rule of Three), but the relation between them is up to you.
  1. Every Wednesday, post a narrative fiction: story, poem, song lyric, play, monologue, soliloquy-- any style you choose to work in.
  1. Each Friday you will be given a broad writing prompt that will escalate the inner happenings of your story.
  1. Choose one of your characters to showcase that given week as the main protagonist for that posting. Of course, you can weave in your other characters as you see fit, but the main action/conflict or point of view should be the showcased character of the week.
  1. In the fourth week, give us your tour de force, a culmination of the story that will make us weep, weak at the knees, jump for joy, whatever...and know a writer’s job was done well.
  1. Upper limit for each post is 500-600 words max. 
D. We have Prizes!!!!!!


We as hosts will read all the posts and put up a shortlist of possible winners, and then hold a poll for votes on the shortlist to decide the winners and honorable mentions.


The prizes are:
1st prize: $ 50USD Amazon voucher
2nd prize: $ 10 USD and Guest posts or Interviews on the host blogs:
Stuart Nager@Tale Spinning            J.C. Martin@Fighter Writer

Lisa Vooght@Flash Fiction                Damyanti@Daily (w)rite


3rd prize: A bundle of the following e-books:

1.Michael Hicks,     "In Her Name: Empire"    http://tinyurl.com/3kqocew

2. Marcus Clearspring, "Walkabout Gnomes"  http://tinyurl.com/3wkgxry
3. Alex J Cavanaugh, "Cassa Star"   http://tinyurl.com/3t358vk

4. S.L. Pierce, "The Hate", "The Devil's Game", "Secrets"  http://tinyurl.com/42ef9l2

5. Faith Mortimer, "Echoes Of Life and Love"     http://tinyurl.com/3aptnva

6. Talli Roland, "Watching Willow Watts"   http://tinyurl.com/3ru9bb8

Honorable mentions will receive 1 e-book from among these 3

1. Damyanti Biswas, "A To Z Stories Of Life and Death"  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81146

2. J.C. Martin and Michelle Davidson Argyle, "Stories For Sendai",       http://tinyurl.com/3asdnrr

3. Stuart Nager, "Dawn Of Indie Romance",      http://tinyurl.com/3pkeexn

(For full information on all authors and books, click on the Featured Authors tab at top of blog.)

E. How to Sign up:
  1. Sign up at the Linky list below by the 3rd of October. Please do so only if you intend to write a story, and participate in the writers’ community, not because you want to promote a soap, a website, or a random electronic gadget. We promise to remove all spam and advertisements.
  1. Leave us a comment after you sign in. For instance, talk about which genre you want to write in, whether your Rule of Three story would feature characters from your current WIP or you would introduce us to new ones…anything at all about your plans for the blogfest

  1. Visit this blog or those of the other hosts tomorrow, or any time during the next week to find the first Rule of Three prompt.
  1. Please let us know if you’ve signed up but find yourself unable to write for the blogfest for some reason, so we can remove your link as a courtesy to everyone using the Linky list to visit the participants. Most visitors find it annoying to reach an irrelevant post by clicking a name on the Linky list.

  1. Schedule for prompts and posting: save these dates on your calendar!


Rule of Three 1st prompt 1st September

Rule of Three Part 1 (post) 5th October

Rule of Three 2nd prompt 7th October

Rule of Three Part 2 (post) 12th October

Rule of Three 3rd prompt 14th October

Rule of Three Part 3 (post) 19th October

Rule of Three 4th prompt 21st October

Rule of Three Part 4 (final post) 26th October

  1. Poll for shortlists will be up on 2nd November, and winners will be declared on the 11th of November.
  2. All the hosts would take part, but they will not win any prizes.

F. How to become part of The Rule of Three Blogfest Success:
    1. Place the Rule of Three badge on your sidebar.
  1. Post and/or tweet about the challenge in the weeks leading up to the Rule of Three. Spread the word on twitter with the Hashtag #REN3 .
  2. Throughout the blogfest, visit as many other entries as you can and give the entrants some comment love and suggestions.
We now declare the Rule of Three Blogfest open! Please visit us tomorrow for the first prompt, so you can plot the beginning of your Renaissance story following the Rule of Three!

9/7/11  Update: everyone who signs up for the Rule Of Three Blogfest will receive a copy of host J.C. Martin's horror novelette The Doll !