Science Fiction Writing

Event Format

There will be 3 separate categories: Story writing, Short sketch writing and Fanfiction writing. All entries are to be sent to onlinesciencefiction@shaastra.org with the phrase “SF Writing” in the subject line, followed by Category: Conventional OR Short Sketch OR Fan fiction, and then the title of your story. Please see the FAQ for more details on the categories.
This year we are honoured to have with us the famous blogger and best selling science fiction writer Cory Doctorow  as a judge for one of the categories of the online contest.
Last date for submission of entries is 21st September

Topics

The last date for all 3 categories is on September 21st. All entries are to be sent to onlinesciencefiction@shaastra.org with the phrase “SF Writing” in the subject line, followed by Category: Conventional OR Short Sketch OR Fan fiction, and then the title of your story.

Conventional Story Writing

Even though some of these topics are fairly detailed, you are allowed to diverge from them if you feel that it will improve your story to do so. All entries will be judged on their merits as works of science fiction, not on how well they keep to the topic. In fact, stories based entirely on your own ideas are also acceptable and even encouraged, provided that they are of sufficient merit.

1.You have just woken up in a white windowless clinical-looking room. There is no one in sight, but you can hear voices inside your head, specifically one that says “It's awake! It's awake! Destroy the creature!!!” Go.

2.Write a short story starting with the words ‘I’ve always wanted a light sabre’.

3.Write a story about a scientist who invents a machine that generates good luck.

4.Write a story that starts with the words – “She had perfect purple teeth, green silky hair and a laugh like a siren. She was a queen, a ruler of millions who worshipped her as a goddess. And I was in love with her”. [Last line optional]

5.Write a short story that ends with ‘... earth just didn’t feel like home anymore’.

6.Write a short story starting with the words, “The Vulcans were so angry that they actually LOOKED angry.”

7.Time machines. That’s it. Spin it any way you like.

Short Sketch Writing

Unlike in the conventional story writing section, you are advised to keep to the topics as far as possible for this category. However, some deviation is permitted if you think your entry requires it. Entirely original entries are permitted ONLY if you are sure that your entry really does fall into this category, within the fairly narrow definition it has been given (see FAQ).

1.Write a short transcript of the last communications an astronaut exploring an alien planet along sends to the crew aboard his ship, right up to the moment of his death.

2.You are a biochemistry student in a prestigious university working with a batch of irradiated sludge from a previously unexplored section of the Pacific Ocean. Narrate in brief the observations in your log over the course of a month.

3.After years of hard work, you find that your artificial intelligence program has finally reached “self-awareness” .Write the transcript of your first conversation with your new creation.

4.Write a short piece of fiction that describes the thoughts of a man whose brain is directly connected to the brain of an ant (-like being, or other component of a hive mind)

5. Describe (briefly) a day in the “life” of a complex, distributed AI. Think HAL 9000 (2001, A Space Odyssey), or Jane(Ender series).

6. Describe the video recorded by a satellite of an ambush by the orbiting alien embassy on the Earth’s major cities.

Fan Fiction

After much thought, it was decided not to give any topics for this category, but to allow any entries that fulfill all the criteria mentioned in the FAQ. Fan fiction is meant to be quite open-ended: it's about what you can do with someone else's characters/concepts in a way that utilizes all the things that made them great, while bringing your own unique ideas into the mix. I believed that this would be most efficient if no restrictions at all were placed on this category, beyond the very reasonable ones mentioned for the conventional story category: an interesting and coherent plot, characters, settings and a reasonable length, which I had indicated to be around 2000 words or more. Yet again, there is no hard word limit. Inspiration may be derived from anything that comes under science fiction, whether books, movies, games, comics or anything else, as long as it is reasonably well established. You are also free to submit stories that you may have already sent in for any amateur fan fiction contest, as long as they have not been published.

Rules and Regulations

1. The Online event of Science fiction Writing at Shaastra'08 is open to all. Non-students can also take part in the event.
2. All entries need to be sent by email only.
3. There is no limit on the number of members per team.
4. One team can send more than one entry; however, not more than one entry will be eligible for a prize.
5. There is no hard word limit, but do remember that it’s a short story.
6. Entries after the last date would not be accepted.
7. The results would be announced during Shaastra'08.
8. All entries have to be in ENGLISH.
9. The entries for the Online Event have to be in DOC,TXT or PDF format. No other format would be accepted.

FAQs

• What is a "short sketch"? How short is it really supposed to be?
  
  The sketch is expected to be between 500 and (at the very greatest) a 1000 words, and the on the spot event will have a time limit of only one hour. Sketches are a separate category not just because of the length but also because they are meant to be short extracts, transcripts, messages, and the like - "unconventional" writing that do not present a complete plot but simply a hook to a larger story. Summaries are not allowed, though.

• What about that of the stories?
  
  The story is meant to be in the range of 2000 words, although there is no hard word limit, and stories of any reasonable length will be accepted if they are of sufficient merit. It should be as long as necessary to include an interesting plot, character development and the like. The on-the-spot event will have a time limit of 4 hours, so it should also be as concise as possible while accomplishing the above goals.

• What is Fan fiction writing?
  
   Wikipedia says that "Fan fiction is a broadly defined term for fiction about characters or settings written by admirers of the original work, rather than by the original creators." This means that fan fiction is what you write if you pen a story using characters or worlds originally created by somebody else. If you write a story about Elijah Bailey and Daneel Olivaw (from Asimov's Robot series) playing golf and discussing old cases, that's fan fiction. It might also involve characters from well known mainstream literature in some science fictionesque setting. You are welcome to use characters, concepts and scenarios from all sorts of media (including movies, TV shows and even comics, in addition to novels), provided that it qualifies as science fiction. However, you are requested to stick to more or less well-known franchises, which are generally considered to be science fiction. Blade Runner is great. Star Wars is fine. Revenge of the Nerds 3, however, is not.

Results

Here are the results.

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