The main thing to remember is there are rules in this joint!

one entry per person, and your entry must be a new Static Item created specifically for this contest. Any Writing.Com member is welcome to enter!

your entry should consist of only dialogue or internal monologue, and should be classified as a Short Story.

must not exceed 500 words and must be within E to 18+ rating. Please include your word count in your entry post!

And yes, it must be a b-item or c-item link!
(please refer to "The illustrated guide to linking"  if you are not sure how to link your entry to the forum! No entries by email, snail mail, smoke signals, telegraph, or carrier pigeons will be accepted in this establishment. )



Other things to keep in mind:

I encourage branching out and interpreting the prompt as loosely as you like, but show evidence within your writing that your work is derived from the given prompt.

grammar, spelling, and correct punctuation are absolutely essential for top rated stories. This contest is about craftsmanship. As a side note, your judge is patently biased towards stories with some kind of conflict and some kind of resolution.

bribery will not improve your odds of winning! However, I'm open to giving it a shot. Think you can buy me out?

Entries edited after the contest deadline but before results are tabulated will be disqualified from receiving prizes.

Make sure your post title includes the word "ENTRY" for all contest entries. Non-entry chatter, banter, smack-talk and encouragement is definitely acceptable; chat posts should be marked as "chat" or "OT." Posts in this forum must adhere to the 13+ rating.

unless otherwise noted, the deadline for all D500 entries will occur on the Sunday nearest the end of the month, at 11:59 PM WDC time, and at the present time the contest runs monthly rounds.




Prizes
As always, all entries receive a full review to help better their skills at writing dialogue, and all eligible entries get 500 smackers just for playing.
In rounds with fewer than five entries I reserve the right to award only First Place.

First place receives:
Merit Badge of my choosing to define the winner's heroic feats of dialogue and 10,000 Gift Points.
Second and third places receive:
7500 and 5000 gift points respectively in honor of outstanding work.
There may be special rounds here or there with extra prizes-- all the more reason to enter early and often.
I am also instituting Rally Bonuses in rounds where 10 or more players compete. Rally Bonuses are random prizes of my choosing in order to allow me to reward more people for more writing.
At the present time, all rounds will post results during the round following that round so as to allow me adequate time to read, rate, review and reward our contestants. I take pride in my reviews and in my judging criteria.





Due Saturday the 30th December 2011 at 11:59 PM:

Write a dialogue-only story and post it here with a c-item link in a new forum post. {c-item:itemnumber}

Your Static Item should be a Short Story 500 words or less.

Write a story about a New Year's Resolution that comes out all wrong.

Remember that you still need this to be all-dialogue and that it needs to be a story, with a plot, not a vignette.




Donations to this contest can be sent to: "The Winners' Purse for the Dialogue 500"