There is no restriction to the type of entry here.
Prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, photography, art, audio, video...
if it fits the Muse, it is welcome.

Monday, February 1, 2010

1st Annual "River of Mnemosyne" Challenge

It's time to separate the Spartans from the Helots...

RIVER OF MNEMOSYNE



Welcome to the first annual "River of Mnemosyne" Challenge at The Tenth Daughter of Memory, where creativity comes to play. Today we're going to explain the rules and tomorrow we'll float the first Muse down the river.

Here's how it works:

The Challenge

1. For the challenge, you are creating a single overall work (in any format) that will encompass all of the posted Muses this month. Basically, the entry for the first Muse is your "Chapter 1," the entry for the second Muse is your "Chapter 2," etc. There will be a MAXIMUM of nine (9) Muses.

2. The goal is to tell a complete story over all nine Muses, but you can end your story at any time; after any Muse. To designate your ending, just write a big "The End" at the end of your final entry.

The Muses

3. Though we'll be posting the first Muse, the second through ninth Muses will be chosen based on the fastest submissions. Basically, the first person to link an entry picks the second Muse. The second person to link an entry (regardless of which Muse) picks the third Muse, and so on. In all likelihood, this means that the people who link in positions 1 through 8 on the link widget will be picking the follow-up Muses.
  • To submit a Muse, simply post the suggestion in a comment or email an admin (comment method is probably better).
  • New Muses will be posted at 12:01 AM, GMT, the day after an admin receives the submitted Muse (and no more than one Muse will be posted in a day). Multiple-part entries for an individual Muse will only count as one link for determining who picks the following Muse (sorry, JeffScape).
4. Participants will link their blog entries per the usual procedure, but since we're going to be using one widget for the entire exercise, participants need to denote the Muse number of their specific entries each time they link. Example: Johnny Fresh (1st Muse), Linda Linda (1st Muse), Johnny Fresh (2nd Muse), Johnny Fresh (3rd Muse), Linda Linda (2nd Muse), and so on.

5. Do not skip Muses or do them out of order. This is a challenge, after all, and should you accept it, you should play along. However, we will not disavow any knowledge of your existence should you skip or jump, but you will be ineligible to win (you can still vote if you participated in the first Muse, however... see Rule #7).

6. Other than that, do as much or as little as you'd like. You can dictate your own pace; approach this at warp speed or just mosey along. It doesn't matter how far along you are compared to how far along the other challengers are. The first Muse goes up tomorrow.

The Vote

7. Voting begins on the 22nd, no matter how many Muses we get through (be it one or all nine), and you'll be voting for the participant's overall body of work. Our usual rule of "don't vote, can't win" still applies. Anyone who submits an entry for the first Muse is allowed to vote, regardless if they continue on in the challenge.

8. In addition to normal voting, every Muse you complete will add one point to your finally vote tally. 

9. The winner will be announced on the 27th and will receive the "River of Mnemosyne, 2010" trophy to post on their blog. We'd love to offer more substantial prizes, but we're cheap and unimaginative. Sorry.

As this is our first go-around, things are bound to be a tad clumsy and/or confusing. Feel free to barrage the admins and comment sections with questions.

Start that brainstorm. And have fun.

-10thDoM

6 comments:

  1. Glad the header is changed.

    As for the challenge... Well, we will see, I suppose!

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  2. Gawd this sounds complicated...do we have to research the list of muses, or are you going to supply them? The four major ones i know of...

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  3. @ Tom - don't fret. "Muse" is just our term for topic/theme here. The first one will be up at midnight GMT tonight.

    After that, the first eight people to submit entries will pick Muses #2 through #9.

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  4. Question- Is there a due date for each muse or are they all do at they same time?

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  5. I think I'm giving this a shot. I like the muses but don't understand much of anything else. But that hasn't stopped me before.

    The Simple Things Challenge

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