One-Shot Contest 2022 Theme Poll
It's nearly time for our annual one-shot contest! The writing period will begin June 1st, but before anyone can start their writing, we need to figure out what people would like to write about! The theme options above were selected from suggestions submitted during the timing poll earlier this year. Narrowing those down to six was tough, and I expect the poll this year will be close, too! Please feel free to vote for as many different themes as you think you'd enjoy writing for, and look out for the results when the contest is officially announced on June 1st.
The themes on offer are:
Hisui: The wild success of Legends: Arceus has lots of people talking about this retro take on the Sinnoh region. This theme welcomes stories centered around Hisui's pokémon, its lore, culture, or even the land itself. Anything's fair game as long as it showcases some aspect of Hisui.
Pokéworld Holidays: One of the defining aspects of a culture is what and how it celebrates, and nothing shows that off better than holidays! What sorts of holidays would a human farmer in Kanto observe? What about a pokémon living in a Mystery Dungeon? This theme calls for one-shots focused on a holiday or holidays celebrated in the Pokémon World, whether one that's been touched on in canon or one you've made up yourself!
Villain POV: The Pokémon franchise has given us a wealth of villains, scoundrels, and generally Bad Guys, from villainous teams to the humble magikarp salesman. This one-shot theme asks you to tell a story through the eyes of any one of them.
Everyday Life in the Pokéworld: Many of our favorite Pokémon stories feature grand adventures, high-stakes action, or larger-than-life personalities. But what about all the people living in the Pokémon World who don't get to be the protagonist? What's it like to work at a library in Johto, or make your living as a berry farmer on the Mist Continent? This one-shot theme looks for stories about ordinary, day-to-day life in whatever version of the Pokémon World you'd like to explore.
Pokémon Culture: What does life look like in Pokémon society? You might look at the culture of wild Pokémon, village-living PMD mon, Pokémon living among humans, or any other sort of social group you'd like. One way or another, you'd want your one-shot to showcase the culture that's developed for this particular Pokémon group!
Cross-Canon Fic: Crossovers across franchises can be loads of fun, but Pokémon's somewhat unusual in that it has so many different canons that you don't need to go outside the Pokéworld to come up with a compelling crossover. The idea behind this theme is simple: write a story drawing on elements from two or more different Pokémon canons. Whether it's a simple anime x mainline games mashup or a Trozei x Pokémon Special remix, this theme welcomes all stories that blend aspects of different pokémon canons together.
In addition to a contest theme, we are also looking for judges. Contest judges will be the people who rank, review, and ultimately decide the outcome of the contest! Being a judge means that you'll be expected to review ~15 one-shots over a two-month period and rank them according to how well-written they are and how well they use the theme. If you'd like examples of past judging, you can check out the results thread for last year's contest!
If you're interested in judging for this year's contest, please post in this thread or send me a DM. We'd ideally like four judges for the contest this year. Note that if you serve as a judge, you may not also submit an entry to the contest.
