Member-Sponsored Crossing The Streams Contest

Details

Deadline:Jun 21, 2013
Fee:1 karma point

Science fiction and fantasy, in their purest forms, are easy to tell apart. Spaceships is sf, dragons is fantasy. But at the same time, they're also a continuum and they share fuzzy and contested borders, which are constantly drawn and redrawn in the ongoing attempt to divide the impossible from the improbable, or to separate the traditional from the modern, or to distinguish between the respectable and the vulgar. The border is not a sharp dividing line, but a vast and fertile delta.

The Crossing the Streams contest is about disrespecting the boundaries, about inhabiting that territory.

Style, tone and technique are up to you. You can do sf with a dash of fantasy or vice versa, try for a balance of both, go full-on gritty mythpunk or do comic science fantasy. It's a BIG territory, so don't stop at the first obvious thing, like a spaceship which is also a dragon or a wizard who has a time machine. (That would be a bit... touristy.)

No matter what tropes or archetypes you're throwing in the blender, the core of the genres is in the emotional responses they are meant to evoke: wonder, awe, yearning and mystery. That's what science fiction and fantasy have in common, and that's why your asteroid-mining fairies and mecha with seven-league boots (or y'know, whatever) are going to work.

Prizes: 10 karma points for first place, 5 karma points for second place (so far!)

More entrants means bigger prizes and perhaps more than one winner! See the contest thread for updates.

Winning entries

Winners have been announced! Log in to see them.

Prizes

1st prize:10 karma points
2nd prize:5 karma points

Rules

  • Your story must include BOTH a science-fictional element and a mythological/fairytale/fantasy element. You can interpret that any way you like. Go wild.

  • This is a flash fiction contest, so there's an upper limit of 1,000 words. There is no lower limit.

  • There's a 1 karma entry fee, which will contribute to a prize fund.

Submission guidelines

  • To enter the contest, post your work on Scribophile and check the box that says "Enter this work into the Member-Sponsored Crossing The Streams Contest." Your work will automatically be considered. The checkbox will be visible until the contest deadline, which is in UTC time.

  • After posting your work, send 1 karma point to Richard Walker.