Roleplay Forum - Valucre - Valucre Newsletter: 9/20/2011

E.L. Doctorow
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader -- not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

Valucre Thanksgiving Writing Contest 2011

Valucre Thanksgiving Writing Contest 2011 (the “Contest”) is open to all members of Valucre, except its Administrative members and Contest Judges. Void where prohibited by law. The submission period begins 12:01 AM EST November 15, 2011 and ends 11:59 PM November 21, 2011.

Eligibility:
- To be eligible to participate, entrants must be a member of Valucre.
- All submissions must adhere to Valucre’s Code of Conduct, as well as Valucre’s ‘R’ rating.
Conditions:
- Entrant (or if minors, their parents or legal guardians) agrees that he/she is the sole author of his/her submission, that he/she owns the copyright in and to his/her submission, and that the submission does not infringe any third party rights (including without limitation, trademark, copyright, trade dress rights, or rights of publicity). By entering this Contest, entrant hereby assigns all intellectual property rights in his/her submission. The submission will become the property of Valucre, and upon Valucre’s request, entrant will execute any documents necessary to effectuate such ownership. Valucre and its staff are not responsible for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operations, theft, destruction, unauthorized access to, or alterations of, submissions, or failure to receive submissions. Also, Valucre and its staff are not responsible for late, damaged, lost, delayed, destroyed, illegible or incomplete submissions. Valucre reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend, modify or cancel the Contest. By participating in the Contest, entrant agrees to release and hold Valucre, and its respective staff (“Released Parties”) harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims, and actions of any kind in connection with the Contest, or resulting from acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prize, including without limitation claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy, whether suffered by entrant or a third party. By participating, entrant agrees to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the judges. Entrant grants Valucre permission to use his/her name and/or likeness in product and for advertising and future promotional purposes without notice or additional compensation (except where prohibited by law). This Contest is subject to these Official Rules. Failure to comply with the Official Rules will result in disqualification. An entrant’s entry will be disqualified, at the sole discretion of Valucre, if he or she attempts (a) to enter the Contest through any means other than described in these Official Rules; or (b) to disrupt the Contest, circumvent the terms and conditions of these Official Rules, or in any way tamper with any component of the Contest. Entries are the property of Valucre and will not be returned. Finalists may be required to sign, and return within 7 days, an Affidavit of Eligibility, Copyright Assignment, and Release of Liability and Publicity. If a finalist is a minor, his or her parent must sign the aforementioned documents.
How To Enter:
- Submissions should be an original literary piece written by the entrant. Literary works include, but are not limited to, poetry, flash stories, short stories, and novellas. Submissions should be sent via Valucre Forum PM to Disco Lemonade.
Prizes:
- First Place: One $20.00 USD Green Dot Gift Card.
- Second Place: Tuxedo Earrings by Enigmatic Creations ($15.00 USD value)
- Third Place: 1250 vB ($10.00 USD value)
General Prize Conditions: In the event that Valucre, in its sole opinion, does not receive enough submissions to select a winner, Valucre may decline to select a winner. Prize will be awarded only if potential winner fully complies with these Official Rules. No interest will be paid on the prize. No aspect of prizes may be substituted for cash.
Judging Process:
- A reasonable period after the submission date ends, four Judges from Valucre’s Storyteller and Public Relations & Marketing Departments will review the submissions. Each submission will be scored using the following format.
- Each section will be critiqued and given a score. On a 1-5 scale with 1 being the lowest possible score and 5 being the highest possible score:
  - Creativity (How original, imaginative, different)
  - Technical aspects (Grammar, sentence structure, conventions)
  - Organization (Clear beginning, middle, end, how ideas tie together)
  - Content (How interesting, engaging, how it affects you)
  - Voice (How the author comes out in the writing, how the story reaches out to you)
- The scores from all four judges will be sent to the Administrator, supernal, to be tallied.

Front Page
Valucre’s copywriter, Eric (AKA Malum), recently sat down with our lovely hostess, Valucre, for a first-ever interview. In their conversation, she revealed to him the original intentions her creator, supernal, had for her and how she has grown since then. During their interview, Eric asked, “What, if anything, would you say to current and future members?” You can read Valucre’s response on our Front Page.

Social Groups

The CK - A group of players who go by a unique code, outside the spectrum of the norm. If our characters die, so be it. Attack us and we show no remorse. If you don't want your character to die, don't attack us. We are The CK. Characters wanted. Rules have been established for this group. Read them here.

Valucre's Cookbook - If you're tired of eating microwave meals and crave something homemade or you have a favorite family recipe you'd like to share with your Valucre family, then you should join the group created by Outreach member, Cordeliane.

Sisterhood of Witches - (Submitted by Fallen Joy) - A coven that focuses on putting their arcane abilities on the market for hire. The coven specializes in magical assistance such as enchantments on weapons, blessings/curses on people or towns, and/or mercenary work. While the witch character is required to be female, their familiars [player or npc] can be any gender.

Welcome Aboard, New Members of Staff

Valucre would like to welcome several members to our Staff. Please take a moment of your time to thank them for donating their time, talents, and skills to Valucre.

Acies ab Vesania – PR&M Team
Blue Shoelaces – Storyteller Team
Hindumaliman – PR&M team.
Nox – PR&M Team.
Rainbow - – PR&M Team.
Rivermane –Storyteller Team.
Tebo – GFX Team

Word Search - Genesaris Landmarks

Y G O L O M S O C M R O T S E G A M
U H A R E M S N V E N G A R I A G C
M R E L S I E G D I R B M U E S O O
J E V A L C N E S R E V A L S E N L
A T R E Y E R P R I S O N C I T Y D
N E E T A G E N E S A R I S Y U T M
U D A C O L D S O U T H E C N P E O
S N S U T A L O S E D T N I A S V U
T A O G S P I H S R I A O R P H A N
A R N R U C W Y T I C N I L E C H T
V G A E L I N D R A C I T Y L A R A
E L I A T S R A V A K O D O L S O I
R A R T A E E L P R U T S U A T T N
N T T N N G H I M A G E S I D E S S
A S S O A L T U S A R C A N T I U M
L A N R S A U Q S D R O L H G I H A
L O I T L N O E D G E M A S T E R S
Y C V H N A S T Y T I C E N I R H S

Spoiler:

Bonus words: Local youth recipe:

Spoiler:

Valucre Friendly Reminder

When creating social groups, it is best that you back up critical information since our groups are purged on a quarterly basis and, hence, may be removed.

Help Feed The Hungry
Freerice is a website where users can play various multiple choice games in order to help fight world hunger. These educational games include categories such as English language, multiplication tables, chemical symbols, famous paintings, and more. For every question answered correctly, ten grains of rice are donated to the United Nation’s World Food Programme.

Sharpen your mind while showing solidarity as a community and join Valucre’s Free Rice group to help feed the hungry!

Writing Prompts

Inspiration for each writer is found in many different forms. This month, instead of providing our readers with a narrative prompt, we have chosen to provide other forms of inspiration. Choose one of the following prompts and, using your blog or a thread in our Txt section, write a story and share with us the inspiration you feel.

Visual Prompt:

Spoiler:

Musical Prompt:
(Writer's Note: I, personally, find this piece to be very beautiful and inspirational. My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Malum for his awesome talents and kindness in his dedication of this original work of art to Valucre.)

Spoiler:

Writing Tips

Narrator Intrusion - A letter from a character (if a character could write to its creator).

Dear Writer,

I am your design. I was born of your creativity when your words gave life to me and your imagination became my flesh and bone. My destiny rises and falls with the strokes of your pen. My life is interesting, adventurous, dangerous, challenging, and exciting. I experience that which you cannot. Yet, sometimes, our readers do not know this because you distance them by robbing them of the only opportunity they have to share my experiences, my emotions, my thoughts, and my life.

Sam was walking through the woods. He saw an orange glow and some smoke. He felt the cool winds blowing through the trees and heard strange voices. Sam saw two big men sitting next to the campfire as they warmed themselves. He had surprised them but then quickly showed them he had no weapons and watched as they settled back down. To his surprise, he heard one man offer his spot to him. Sam was so cold and scared. When he stepped closer, he felt the heat of the fire and could smell the burning wood and began to relax.

I remember when this happened to me, but our readers do not. Our readers didn’t experience this because you stole the scene from them. If you had written the scene in a way that allowed our readers to stand right next to me, they would have remembered, too!

Do you see the words in red? This is where you stepped in and didn’t let our reader experience what I was experiencing. Instead, you told them what I was experiencing. You didn’t pull them into the experience, instead you laid it out for them like an outline. If your friend was eating a slice of pie, would you want to watch them eat the pie or would you want to eat the pie yourself?

You shouldn’t tell our readers what I’m facing. You become redundant when you do this because our readers already know that they are reading about my experiences. Instead, capture our readers and let them experience my life as if it were their own!

The moon hung high in the sky but its silver light did not penetrate beyond the trail that led into the dark forest. Chill winds bit deeply into Sam’s flesh and the small hairs on his tanned arms rose. Branches reached out, like skeletal fingers, to scrape at the man’s cheeks and entangle themselves in his hair. Winter snows had fallen earlier this night to coat the bare, frozen ground with a thick, white carpet that crunched heavily beneath his boots. An orange glow of a campfire permeated the darkness and the promising warmth called to his cold, aching muscles. Sam’s hand brushed aside low-growing brambles as he stumbled into a clearing. Two startled faces, swathed in brown fur-trimmed hoods and illuminated by the light of the fire, stared up at him. Their strange, foreign words filled Sam’s ears and his body trembled with fright. Empty hands and a calm, friendly face eased the foreigners of their worries and the largest of the pair scooted over. A bright, weary smile spread across his rugged face as he nodded his head. The warm, earthy scent of burning wood soon eased Sam’s weary body as he sank onto the fallen log and he and his newfound companions shared their stories by the heat of the campfire.

When you describe how my senses react to my surroundings rather than tell our readers that my senses acknowledge them, our readers' will be able to experience these same reactions as if they were right next to me! They will want to know more about me and will want to continue experiencing my life!

After all, isn't that why you created me?

I hope you keep this in mind when next you share my story.

Best regards,

Your Creation

Writer - Disco Lemonade (Nette)
Editor - supernal (Carlos)
Word Search - Archival
GFX Artist - Kaijin (Ava)

Valucre Newsletter: 11/16/2011