One-Shot Contest 2022 Timing Poll

[Negrek]

Thousand Roads holds a one-shot writing contest every year, and it's time to determine when we'll hold the next! Last year the contest was held in February, but since Review Blitz ran through the end of January, it didn't seem like a good idea to start something big in February this time around. With that in mind, please choose any month(s) that would work for you if we chose to hold the contest during them. Traditionally everyone's had one month to write their one-shot, so it's important to find one where people won't be super busy!

We'll be holding a poll to determine this year's theme closer to the beginning of the contest itself, but if you have any themes you think would be fun to write for, feel free to suggest them now. If you aren't familiar with our past contests, previous themes have covered myths and legends of the pokémon world and the relationship between humans and pokémon--but we're open to themes based on particular regions or pokémon types, specific genres, and more! It's not too early to be thinking about what kinds of stories people are excited to write this year!

 

[Flyg0n]

Some ideas (casting a wide net):

Ancient Pokemon (basically stories set in ancient times of pokemon, PLA style, but not restricted to just Sinnoh)
Xeno-perspective
Flygon
Pokemon culture (possibly something specifically exploring some aspect of pokemon and their culture?)
Maybe something landscape themed, e.g., Desert, Ocean, Jungle or something. So the story will focus on something in that setting
Or something type/region focused like suggested (may I suggest Hoenn, hehe)

 

[Namohysip]

Some ideas, if only to throw a few cents in...

"This is only a test."
No dialogue
Story via sent letters
Recovered journal/adventure log
Fantasy holiday
Unexpected cross-canon crossover (Rangers x Unite, Orre x Conquest, etc.)
Puzzle fic (The real answer to a big mystery, or the true ending to the story, is hidden in the prose somehow. Out of order scenes, hidden messages, and so on.)

 

[kyeugh]

i think hisui broadly would make a great theme honestly. there are a few directions you could take it but maybe something broad like that would be nice. also, it allows me to just continue writing wandersword and find + replace the names last minute. i mean, what?

 

[Starlight Aurate]

i think hisui broadly would make a great theme honestly. there are a few directions you could take it but maybe something broad like that would be nice. also, it allows me to just continue writing wandersword and find + replace the names last minute. i mean, what?

What is hisui?

No dialogue
Story via sent letters
Recovered journal/adventure log
Fantasy holiday

I think any of these would make great themes!

My ideas:
- Adventure/exploration
- Lost in the wilderness/lost at sea
- Evil team/Villain POV
- Fantasy religion
- Relationship with self/identity

I'm sure I'll add more as they come to mind; just wanted to start off with a few of these.

I also like Flyg0n's culture idea! And the region theme is cool, too.

 

[IFBench]

My suggestions

- Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game setting
- Hurt/Comfort
- Found Family
- Pokemon only
- Non-human non-Pokemon entity focus

And Hisui sounds nice!

 

[Venia Silente]

Did anyone say oneshots????

​

Not gonna lie this might be interesting. March and July are more convenient for me, September is the least convenient; other than that I'm *mostly* fine with whenever.

As for themes, my suggestions:

First, supporting these:

Xeno-perspective
Maybe something landscape themed, e.g., Desert, Ocean, Jungle or something. So the story will focus on something in that setting

Story via sent letters

- Evil team/Villain POV
- Fantasy religion

- Found Family
- Pokemon only

Second. Throwing some ideas myself:

* Acclimatizing a newly caught Pokémon to the trained life.
* Inter-species folklore (eg.: what did Species A think of Species B back in the day).
* "Well, yeah, ${UNDERUSED_POKEMON} is totally a legit starter!".
* Pokémon courtship rituals and the like.
* "No, Mr/Ms. 10 year old protagonist, I expect you to dine" (Team Blank leader evils affably).
* PMD protagonists get ABSOLUTELY FED UP with the Guild's 90% taxes on everything, chaos ensues, news at eleven.

A bit too specific and far less likely to make it, but throwing these two into the hat as well either for this or for consideration to some other future event:

* Pokémonster Hunter Rise Stories Legends: Arceus Advance 64
* "How can you get lost in ${SMALL_TOWN}? It has *four* houses!"

 

[windskull]

I would be down for Sinnoh/Hisui or past/present as themes that loosely correlate to current games. Might have some inspiration for other topics after pokemon day.

 

[bluesidra]

Oooooh, a lot of nice ideas already! I'm terrible at writing one-shots, and there's a 95% chance I won't have an entry to submit, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to read everything that comes out of it!

Strongly seconding
- (pokemon) folklore: Either xeno or human, i don't care, but give me some good folk-tales or regional legends
- Anything set in the past (but not just Hisui) to celebrate PLA
- Religions (in PMD or mainline, both are valid and doable): These can be wiki-entries, journals of an anthropologist or simply a day in the life of a worshiper

My own two cents:
- If we're going for region, I'm contractually bound to say Johto
- "(un)usual" jobs in the pokeverse: Anything from the shop clerk to the postman, whatever is not the usual trainer/GL/coordinator/Exploration team member is free game. Basically an exercise in worldbuilding. Can be a journal entry or day in the life or whatever

 

[K_S]

Hmm I like the idea of odd jobs... Maybe a washout trainer getting thier toes as something else when they realize they arent fit for a journey for REASONS and it not being the end of the world... It'd be a unexpected twist on the heros journey....

Oh wait this is one-shot land. Yeah that might be too much for one one shot to carry. Still some of it could be usable to someone maybe...

If we are picking regions I vote either galar or jhoto. Neither see a lot of action it seems.

 

[Sinderella]

Ideas for themes:

-Chatfics/Scripts
-Unusual Starter
-Dialogue Only
-Ancient Region (to honor PLA, perhaps building on our own ideas of what ancient civilizations looked like in other regions)
-Holidays in the Pokemon World
-Pokemon doing things besides battling
-Fakemon Stories/Lore/Pokedex Entries
-Regular School in the Pokemon World

 

[Negrek]

All right! Looks like the results are in, and we ultimately have a tie between June and July for the one-shot contest! With that in mind, which of those two months gets chosen will ultimately depend on how the scheduling for other events around that time plays out, but I think we'll most likely shoot for June!

Thanks to everyone who voted, and also to everyone who submitted potential contest themes! Staff will be going over these and look to narrow the list down to ~six before holding a final community vote to determine which one ultimately gets used. Look for that around the end of May!