Quote from Gavin Smith on June 23, 2024, 9:13 am

There are three players in this game: The Writer, The Artist, and The Critics

The Writer:

1. Choose a prompt within a genre (or create your own prompt within a genre) that interests you
2. Select the “+ New Topic” Button
3. Add the Title of your Short Story in the Subject Line
4. Write your Short Story in the text area under the Subject Line (For this format, 750 to 1,000 words is ideal, but I’m not here to tell you how to write so feel free to write to your heart’s content)
5. When you’re done, Select “Submit”

The Artist:

1. Choose a prompt within a genre that interests you
2. Browse and read through some of the Short Stories that have been written for that prompt
3. Choose one or many Short Stories and create a Picture based on your interpretation of the Short Story (choose whatever form you prefer, whether that’s hand drawn, painted, illustrated, digital sketch/painting, or whatever you’d like as long as it’s not AI generated)
4. When you’re done, select “Reply” on the Short Story you created the picture for, upload your picture, and select “Submit” (This works best if you only reply with your picture and no additional text or explanations)

The Critics:

1. Choose a prompt within a genre that interests you
2. Browse and read through the Short Stories that have been written for that prompt
3. If you think the Writer of the Short Story wrote an awesome story for the prompt, give it a Thumbs Up; If you think there were better Short Stories for the prompt, give it a Thumbs Down (to keep the prompt threads clean, don’t post any replies of your reasonings. These can be posted in the Discussion Threads)
4. Now Browse through the Pictures related to the Short Stories you critiqued with a Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down
5. If you think the Artist created a masterpiece depicting the Short Story, give it a Thumbs Up; If you think there were better depictions of the Short Story, give it a Thumbs Down (to keep the prompt threads clean, don’t post any replies of your reasonings. These can be posted in the Discussion Threads)

The Critics’ Thumbs Ups and Thumbs Downs for Short Stories and Pictures drive the community score for The Writers and The Artists. The higher the score the better!

But at the end of the day, everyone’s Short Story and Picture is Awesome!

This is just a simple, collaborative pen to palette community game that isn’t so much about winning than it is about escaping from AI for a bit to immerse ourselves in what we love to do most: Write and Create