We've entered the last 7 days before the 'World Building With Words' competition finishes.

If you're polishing your entry ready for submission then I wish you all the best and look forward to your entry. However, if you haven't started yet then there is still time to write an entry and get it submitted before the deadline.

For more information about the competition please see the launch post:

Competition: World Building With WordsHi WBGuild,
I’d like to welcome you to the first competition held by The World Builders Guild. The aim of this competition is to encourage the world builders out there to collaborate with the groups artists and create a description for a new environment/location.
Prizes
The winner will be announced in the WBGuild journal along with a link to their website and a bio about both themselves and any story or world they are creating. Added to that I’m also offering to draw a map of the winner’s world worth £80.
1 Free Map commission worth £80 - view examples or Map Commission Page
Promotion on the WBGuild Journal
Promotion article on WBSchool website
Promotion on our social media
The sweet smell of victory!
What You Need To Do
We have selected 10 images o

and you can find tips and advice in the below article:

World Building With Words Competition TipsHi WBGuild,
I’d firstly like to thank you for the great support we’ve had for the launch of this competition. Many of our affiliate groups have sent messages out to their members as have a number of the top writing groups on DA. So we’re looking forward to a rather exciting competition.
Now I know this is not your typical writing competition - where you write a story or poem about a number of characters experiencing a set of events - so I’ve written this article to provide examples, tips and help with your submission.  
If you don't know anything about World Building With Words then please see the below article for more information on the rules and how to enter.

It’s not a story competition?
You’re first question may have been “No stories? What do you mean no stories?” well this group’


So get started today and submit your entry.

Wishing you all the best from myself and the WBGuild Mods.

Hello there everyone,

It's time for our first ever set of features!
First off I'd like to say that I honestly have no idea when a majority of the art featured here was submitted. <_<
Since this is the first set of features, I think it's an excuse for being lazy on the time stamp...
Also, if you weren't featured here, no hard feelings, please! D: I love all the art you guys submit, but the ones listed here we (the mod team)  think are the ones that stand out the most.

Now, without further adieu, I give you our handpicked list of features from March 2013:

Hi WBGuild,

I’d firstly like to thank you for the great support we’ve had for the launch of this competition. Many of our affiliate groups have sent messages out to their members as have a number of the top writing groups on DA. So we’re looking forward to a rather exciting competition.

Now I know this is not your typical writing competition - where you write a story or poem about a number of characters experiencing a set of events - so I’ve written this article to provide examples, tips and help with your submission.  

If you don't know anything about World Building With Words then please see the below article for more information on the rules and how to enter.

Competition: World Building With WordsHi WBGuild,
I’d like to welcome you to the first competition held by The World Builders Guild. The aim of this competition is to encourage the world builders out there to collaborate with the groups artists and create a description for a new environment/location.
Prizes
The winner will be announced in the WBGuild journal along with a link to their website and a bio about both themselves and any story or world they are creating. Added to that I’m also offering to draw a map of the winner’s world worth £80.
1 Free Map commission worth £80 - view examples or Map Commission Page
Promotion on the WBGuild Journal
Promotion article on WBSchool website
Promotion on our social media
The sweet smell of victory!
What You Need To Do
We have selected 10 images o

It’s not a story competition?

You’re first question may have been “No stories? What do you mean no stories?” well this group’s main focus is the creation of fictional worlds. However, for clarity, let’s first define what a story is and then I can explain what we mean by “no short stories or novels”.

In “Avatars Of Story” Marie-Laure Ryan defines 8 rules of narrative as a way to determine if a series of events can be classed as a narrative (story). They are as follows:

1. Narrative must be about a world populated by individuated existents.
2. This world must be situated in time and undergo significant transformations.
3. The transformations must be caused by non-habitual physical events.
4. Some of the participants in the events must be intelligent agents who have a mental life and react emotionally to the states of the world.
5. Some of the events must be purposeful actions by these agents, motivated by identifiable goals and plans.
6. The sequence of events must form a unified casual chain and lead to closure.
7. The occurrence of at least some of the events must be asserted as fact for the story world.
8. The story must communicate something meaningful to the recipient.

So what does that have to do with the competition?

Essentially, your submission should read more like an encyclopaedia entry and not a narrative as described above. There may be narrative sections in the entry such as when you write the history of your location but this should not be the main or only focus of the submission. You should also include topics such as “who controls the area?”, “who lives there?”, “why is this location important to the wider world it’s set in?” etc.

Examples

The easiest way to show you the kind of thing we’re looking for in this competition is to show you some examples from the web. The four examples below are taken from Wikia and will hopefully give you a good idea.

Rivendell’s from LOTR

The Shire from LOTR’s

Tar Valon from The Wheel Of Time

Dragon Mount from The Wheel Of Time

Any other tips

I will add other tips and guides to this journal as they are thought of or arise but for now I wanted to get the above published to help you get started.

We wish you all the best with your world.

Hi WBGuild,

I’d like to welcome you to the first competition held by The World Builders Guild. The aim of this competition is to encourage the world builders out there to collaborate with the groups artists and create a description for a new environment/location.

Prizes

The winner will be announced in the WBGuild journal along with a link to their website and a bio about both themselves and any story or world they are creating. Added to that I’m also offering to draw a map of the winner’s world worth £80.

• 1 Free Map commission worth £80 - view examples or Map Commission Page


• Promotion on the WBGuild Journal


• Promotion article on WBSchool website


• Promotion on our social media


• The sweet smell of victory!

What You Need To Do

We have selected 10 images out of the environments folder. What you need to do is choose one of the images and write a description for that environment. Feel free to set it in your own world or create a new one.

When writing the description you should consider questions such as:

What is this place? Who lives here? What is its purpose? Does it have a history or a special significance for someone or something?

Note: This is not a novel or short story competition. Please see our Writers Corner for examples of acceptable description submissions or the tip's and examples article mentioned below. If you are in doubt then please send me an email or comment below and I will be happy to explain further.

Competition Tips and Examples

To help you with your submission to World Building With Words there is a second article that further explains what we're looking for and provides links to some examples. You can click on the thumbnail below to view this article:

World Building With Words Competition TipsHi WBGuild,
I’d firstly like to thank you for the great support we’ve had for the launch of this competition. Many of our affiliate groups have sent messages out to their members as have a number of the top writing groups on DA. So we’re looking forward to a rather exciting competition.
Now I know this is not your typical writing competition - where you write a story or poem about a number of characters experiencing a set of events - so I’ve written this article to provide examples, tips and help with your submission.  
If you don't know anything about World Building With Words then please see the below article for more information on the rules and how to enter.

It’s not a story competition?
You’re first question may have been “No stories? What do you mean no stories?” well this group’

The Images To Choose From

These are the images you need to choose from when selecting the inspiration for your environment. All of the artists have kindly granted us permission to use their images for this competition; however you will need to provide credit to the artist.





Providing Credit To The Artist

When you upload your submission to our DA profile please include a link in the description back to the image you’ve used for inspiration. This will help us to judge the entries and also give the artists the credit they deserve.

Who Can Enter The Competition?

The competition is free to enter though you need to be a member of The World Builders Guild. This is easy to do - either log into your DeviantART profile or create an account and then visit the WBGuild page and click “Join”. You will then be free to submit artwork to our group.

Where to submit your location.

Once you have finished the location description upload it to your DA profile and then submit the piece to the “Competition 2013” folder in the WBGuild. Submissions should be submitted as a “text” entry.

Judging

The winner will be chosen by the WBGuild moderators. In the event of a tied decision we may create a poll for the members to help choose however the moderators decision is final.

Descriptions will be judged on the following criteria:

• Writing quality


• Interpretation of the image


• Quality of the idea


• Believability of the environment (i.e. how well do you make us believe this place is real, even if it would never exist in our world)

Deadline

You have until the 30th April 2013. Judging will then take place in the month of May with the winner announced shortly after depending on how many submissions we get.

Submission: Don't forget that in order to qualify for entry your location needs to be submitted to the “Competition 2013” folder in the WBGuild gallery and submissions should be submitted as a “text” entry.

Only articles in the Competition 2013 folder will be judged.

Other Questions

How much should I write?

Feel free to write as much as you'd like about your location though a good benchmark would be around 500 - 2000 words.

Can I submit more than 1 entry?

Entries are limited to a maximum of 3 per person however each entry must use a different image for inspiration taken from the selection of images provided in this article.

Questions Below

If you have any questions or comments about this competition then please leave them in the comments below.

So I was recently approached by Steven Sanders to help promote his new project Symbiosis. Steven is an experienced illustrator who has worked for Marvel on comics such as Wolverine and the X-Men however he is now creating a creative commons world building artbook. This book will provide everything you need to start writing stories, create games and run role playing sessions in the wonderful world of Symbiosis.

It's a world where technology and biology are inextricably linked, where man and technology need each other to survive. Think of it as ”1940’s Bio-punk” - a fusion of technology powered by organic engines.

I've interviewed Steven for the WBSchool which you can read here or you can go straight to Kickstarter and support him by clicking here.

He needs $50,000 to complete the project and has so far raised $31,863 (as of writing this article) with 18 days left to go. I know you're a great community of world builders and it would be amazing to see this project receive it's full funding and get published so please head over to kickstarter and support this World Building Project.

Click here to visit the Symbiosis Kickstarter.

Thank you for your time and all of your support,

Nate

P.S. We don't receive anything if you do go and support this project, except the warm fuzzy feeling that a great world building project is about to succeed.