So, since people are usually curious what kind of prompts we get every year, here are a few of the prompts from last year with some notes regarding the prompts.
Prompt 1 – "You plan to go rock climbing, so you head to the local sporting goods store to buy some new equipment. While on the mountain, you run into some problems."
I wrote a Stardew Valley using this prompt. Sebastian, one of the characters whose into adventuring took a rekindled interest in rock climbing which in turn led to him getting new equipment at a sporting goods store. As for the problems he ran into—faulty new equipment during an earthquake, the earthquake being an element from the games which did in fact cause a landslide in the mountains. I also added in original characters who are related to Sebastian through his father, as this character happens to be living with his mother, stepfather and half-sister.
Part of the story took place in the mountain, and the other part which was happening simultaneously was happening down in the valley. The sporting goods store only featured as a setting towards the beginning of the story, which made sense given that part of the prompt is meant to open up for the rest of the story. The rest of the prompt featured prominently in the story I wrote with the main plot being focused around that problem that happened in the mountain, of Sebastian being injured during the quake and needing a rescue.
I did come across another story for this prompt that was eliminated during the first round because—well, let me give a quick summary of the story.
The story, like mine was fanfic. The MC (main character) was the daughter of two canon characters; the story is what we in fanfic call next gen, a story that followed the next generation—in this case the daughter of the two canon characters. She's being trained like her parents to fight the good fight and was one of the better if not best students they were training. One of the major plot points to this story was the MC having a problem with another one of the girls also being trained because she felt her parents treated that girl more like a daughter than her.
Was the MC likely a Mary Sue and was that why the story was eliminated? Quite possibly, given the focus on making her one of the best in the class along with the contrived conflict of the other girl being treated more like a daughter than her. However, there is still a chance flaws for the character would be revealed such as her thinking the other girl was treated more like a daughter than her stemming from jealousy rather than being the truth and her learning that she shouldn't be jealous like that. The beginning 2k could even be rewritten for the second round, and a judge would know this.
Of course, this would also require the write to be self-aware that the conflict for the MC was contrived not believable, that it was teenage drama that the MC needed to grow out of. And I do suspect the writer was young and not self-aware that the conflict for their story was contrived like that, but me suspecting that—a ambassador suspecting that the writer didn't have the necessary skill level yet to turn that story around to score higher in the next round—that wouldn't be reason for it to have gotten nixed during the first round.
So then what was the reason for this one getting kicked?
Well, did you notice something about that summary? Can you tell me off the bat what any of that has to do with the prompt? There's no rock climbing, no mountain with a problem. The one thing from the prompt that was there which I didn't mention because it really didn't have any effect on the story was a visit to a sports store with absolutely no mention of purchasing new rock climbing equipment and there was no mention in the summary of the story about a story that would eventually take place in the mountains. No explanation from the writer either, should it have been something they wanted to surprise the readers with.
