Once, long ago, the elf Maerzadí had a premonition that he would accidentally kill his son in battle. Rather than live to see it happen, he committed suicide, saving his son, and at the same time proving that the future isn’t set. Short of killing...
With the recent revamp of Shur’tugal Fan Fiction and the Shur’tugal Fan Fiction Forums, change is the hot topic on every user’s lips. Like it or not, change happens. Therefore, this month’s contest is about - you guessed it - change.
Contest:
Rewrite a scene from either Eragon or Eldest where a major turning-point has occurred. However, you must do so through the eyes of another character. For instance, the scene where Roran gives his inspirational speech to Carvahall, from the eyes of Horst...or Brom's death from Saphira's point of view. Be creative. Try and think outside the square.
A Note On Plagiarism
Remember, the object of the contest is to put your own twist on the scene, not to copy what CP wrote. Try to avoid copying CP's descriptions and word choice, and if possible, dialogue as well. If you must quote dialogue, please properly cite direct quotations. This can be done in a few ways--you can italicize or bold all direct quotes and add a footnote citing chapters and page numbers, or you can cite the quote in the text, like so:
"When all seems lost and your power is insufficient, go to the rock of Kuthian and speak your name to open the Vault of Souls [Eragon ch 27, pg 206]," said Solembum.
Obvious plagiarism or failure to cite quotes copied from the book may result in disqualification.
Submission Requirements:
Submissions will be judged on creativity and entertainment value.
Submissions less than 500 words will not be accepted.
User-friendly stories. Please do not use excessive violence or language. Try to retain the essence of Eragon or Eldest.
Multiple entries are accepted. However, there is a limit of three per user.
Contest Ends August 3rd
Note: Please submit all entries under Challenges>Changes category.
The moderating staff was informed of my decision to leave several weeks ago, and I have chosen two moderators to take my place as the new co-admins of SFF and SF3: QueenMindi and Dragonflame_05. Please send all of your PMs to them instead of me (they now have control of the shurtugalfanfiction (at) gmail (dot) com e-mail address, so you should still use that address for any e-mail correspondence).
I have worked for Shurtugal for three and a half years. Back when I joined, we had 200 members, fewer stories, one skin (which was an ugly brown), no moderators, and no forum of our own. The site has grown a LOT since then, and I've met some fabulous people and read some fantastic stories along the way. The current staff of moderators are the best group of people I have ever had the privilege of working with, and I do wish them the best of luck with all of their future endeavors.
I want to make clear that I am not leaving SFF at poor terms and will continue to visit in the future (at the very least, I will be finishing my current story, Damsel in Distress [/shameless plug]). The fact is that being an admin of a site this large is a difficult and time-consuming job, and I just don't have the time to really do it right any more, what with law school, my new puppy, and my friends, all of which have been getting slightly neglected up until now. A special thanks to my boyfriend, who has not only put up with my constant attachment to the internet and a bunch of authors I've never met, but also helped enormously with the upgrade.
Again, good luck to everyone. DF and Mindi, I wish you the best of luck with your new job and know that you can always come to me if you have any problems. Mods, you really are a fantastic bunch and I hope everything goes well for you also. Authors, you're all so talented and I hope you all continue to write stories and eventually get yourselves published. Reviewers and SF3 members, thanks for contributing to the site and adding your much-desired two-cents. And to you lurkers out there, I'm glad you enjoy the site, and I hope you decide to join one day.
Always,
Lindsey
So, you’re reading your favorite fan fic and suddenly a blue eyed character is from then on described as having brown eyes. A minor inconsistency, but still really annoying. How about something a little bigger like the elves don’t use animals to eat or make anything, but Arya wears leather? Somewhat major and really annoying. There are tons out there. Come and discuss the most amusing you have found, how you as a writer fix such problems and how you feel about them when you read them. The discussion can be found here Remember you must be a registered member.
Note: If you want to see something featured that you are interested in, please leave a comment and we'll see what we can do. This is for you guys to be able to discuss what interests you.
You may have noticed that the New Fictions category has disappeared. All stories in New Fictions have been moved to the General Fictions category and all new stories submitted to the site should now be submitted to General Fictions.
Authors of Inheritance fictions will also notice a new tag available when they submit their story (next to the Warnings box) called "Time Period." You can now label your story with the period of time (Before the Cycle, Book 1, Book 2, etc.) that your story takes place in, or use multiple lables if your story spans more than one time period.
All authors may add this tag to their stories by going to Account Info, clicking on Manage Stories, and then Editing the story they wish to tag.
If you are having any problems or would like some questions answered, I'm always reachable by e-mail at shurtugalfanfiction (at) gmail (dot) com.
Battle scenes--we all know they are important, but how do you go about making them fit with your story? Do you write small battles or large ones? No battles? Many battles? Come and discuss the battle scene here. Remember, if you are not a registered user of SFF/SF3, you must sign up to participate.
Dragonknighttara
Revan
Shadowjhunter
swenson (shwensie)
We received applications from a number of very talented and dedicated authors. However, these four really stood out as having great applications, are talented authors, and showed a real enthusiasm for working on the site. They are currently undergoing training, but will soon be full members of our staff.
We're really excited to have them on our team, and we hope you give them a friendly welcome
As you can see, the upgraded version of SFF is now online!
To get to the new version of SF3, click on the "SF3" link above or visit http://fanfiction.shurtugal.com/smf
Because of the difficulty with the upgrade, we know that there will be glitches. Please report any problems that you find in this forum on the new SF3 or email me at shurtugalfanfiction@gmail.com
Just so everyone knows what to expect, here is what is going to happen:
On Monday, June 23, you will no longer be permitted to submit new stories to the site. You can submit as many stories as you like on Sunday, but on Monday morning we will stop you from adding anything else. Any story that is submitted by Sunday night will be moderated as usual on Monday and posted to the site. A special note to validated authors: you may still be able to add new chapters to the site, but we request that you do not because if we don't notice that you posted a story, it may not be backed up or transfered correctly during the upgrade.
Although submissions will be stopped on the 23rd, you will still be able to read stories on the site, edit stories that have already been posted, and leave reviews. SF3 will not be affected in any way during this time.
However, on Wednesday, June 25th, both SFF and SF3 will go offline entirely for the upgrade. If you attempt to visit the site during this time, you will receive a short text message telling you that we're doing the upgrade (at some points during the upgrade, you may not see anything at all, or you may be able to see the new or old site but not be able to access anything). This is all completely normal and expected, so don't worry! We're going to back up all the data on the site before we upgrade just in case, and we've already done a lot of work pre-upgrade so that the upgrade itself takes as little time as possible. Most of the 25th will be spent beta-testing to make sure all data was transferred correctly and everything is working properly.
On June 25th, please try to be patient. We have a lot to do, and if we're getting tons of e-mails from authors asking how things are going, it's going to take us longer to get the site back up. If there are any unforeseen delays, we will be sure to change the text message you see when you visit the site and tell you when we expect the site to be back online. We are hoping the upgrade will only take one day, but it may take longer if we have server issues or beta testing takes a while.
When the upgrade is complete, you will be able to access the new versions of SFF and SF3. SFF will still be located at fanfiction.shurtugal.com; however, SF3 will NOT be located at the same URL. After the upgrade, we will place announcements and links on both SFF and the old SF3 directing you to the new forum. The old SF3 will be completely locked down so that you can not post any new material on it, but you will still be able to see the boards in case you need to look up any information.
We're sorry for the short notice on the upgrade-- there were some last minute complications and the date of the upgrade was changed a few times to make sure the right people would be available at the right times and we had enough time to get everything done. I am very sorry to announce that the moderator Mickinell, who was in charge of the upgrade, has chosen to leave SFF for personal reasons. She is still helping us finish the upgrade, but I've been taking the past week to better familiarize myself with the process so I can make sure the upgrade goes smoothly.
If you have any questions about the upgrade, send me an e-mail at shurtugalfanfiction (at) gmail (dot) com. Remember, it's always better to ask before than to be confused later, so if you're unclear about anything, let us know as soon as possible so we can give you some answers.
Congrats to our winner, Lya, with her story Hvitr-Kona!
Runners-up were Carnoc with Heart and Mind and Elvish_Arya with All the Time in the World. Great job, you guys!
All of the entries were awesome--you guys did a great job being imaginative with the pairings. If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out all the entries...you will never look at Alagaesian romance the same way again. Make sure to leave reviews so the participants know they're appreciated!
To apply, send an e-mail to shurtugalfanfiction (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject line "SFF Moderator" with the following information. NOTE: Please send the Basic Information and the Sample Chapter letters in ONE e-mail.
Basic Information:
SFF penname:
Real name/what you prefer to be called:
Age:
Do you mind reading V-rated stories (stories that may contain adult content, violence, profanity, or sexual content?):
Do you have any qualifications you would like to mention (i.e. beta reader, AP English classes)?:
How much time do you have per day/week to work on SFF?:
Why do you want to work for SFF?:
If you live at home, are your parents okay with you working for the site:
Sample Chapters:
Two sample chapters have been posted on SF3 at http://fanfiction.shurtugal.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2616. Read these sample chapters, and follow the directions for each of them. Again, please send these letters in the SAME e-mail as your Basic Information.
Applications are due by June 24, 2008 (two weeks from today), so please apply as soon as possible!
Also, please remember that even though we have relaxed a considerable amount of the submission requirements on SFF, we have not completely thrown the rules out the window. The most common problem I have seen in the past two days is authors submitting multiple chapters of a fic to the queue all at once. Considering that we're already having server problems, this is not helping the mods get through the stories in the queue any faster. Please remember to submit only one chapter of your story, wait until it is approved, and then submit the next.
Also, because of the server issues, it would be a good idea for you to check your story after you've submitted it (hit the Submit button, then go to Manage Stories and look at the chapter you just sent us) to make sure the entire chapter was uploaded correctly.