If you haven't read the anniversary post yet, please do so here (https://rwbyfanon.com/index.php?topic=1693.0).
There's some group specific info so I'll go over that first.
Guests
Those who joined the site from other sites and only for this, this applies to you. A RWBY setting is required. This means it can be the canon rwby universe or any AU you can think of, just make sure you have permission to write in the AU if it's something made for an existing fic or something. No sexual content or graphic violence. You don't need to worry about writing canon or what-if on your submissions, that's users-only but you do need to specify opt-in or opt-out.
Users
People who actually have characters, this applies to you. I don't have to tell you no sexual content or graphic violence, you should know. If your submission is canon, proceed as usual, if it is what-if, this seems like a good time to remind you that the rules generally don't apply in that kind of response. Canon characters are all fine for what-ifs as well as whatever else you want as long as it's not from another IP and doesn't violate what I've already said. In addition, this is a reminder that no matter what, canon or what-if, you are required to have permission of the creator before using another's character in your story at any capacity.
General
The prompt is a general prompt, just write about what comes to mind.
No word count minimum or maximum.
The submission can take the form of a poem, written song, hell you can sing a song if you want but I can’t exactly put that in a book.
At the top of the submission you must include: A title, self-explanatory; your name or internet moniker, you can really use whatever name you want since it’s nothing official; “opt-in” or “opt-out”, opt-in means you want the submission included in the collaborative project, opt-out means you don’t but you just want to participate; “Canon” or “What-if”, this really only applies to people with proper characters on site.
Canon means it happens within the canon of the site and you need to have it either be from the perspective of your own approved character or an NPC where the focus of the story is on your approved character. An example of this would be if I had a specialist character and wrote a story from the perspective of their CO about how they keep messing up. Additionally, you may have other characters or NPCs in your story but if they're other's characters you must have approval from the user.
What-If means it's basically an alternate universe or timeline or whatever, this allows for a stronger focus on writing because you aren't constrained by site rules or RWBY, you can have anyone or anything as the PoV but you still need permission to use others' characters. That said, What-If scenarios, while not being canon on site, can still say something about the character PoV it follows if the character itself is effectively unchanged from canon, it's just that the events never happened on site.
(Don’t worry, there’s a submission format at the bottom)
Voting for the winner will begin shortly after the beginning of October as a one week grace period will be allowed for anyone close to finishing who hasn't by the end of the month. Voting will be done by giving members of the staff sets of submissions to pick their best from and then picking the best from the best. The submissions given will not have any names attached and will be given out randomly with the exception of no member being given their own submission. I will be giving them the sets and will not be voting myself.
The main focus of all this should be on writing itself and giving tribute to Monty and everyone on the CRWBY team with character development as a beneficial side effect, we should be striving to write something that we can look back and think, "Yeah, I'm actually proud of that." This is an excellent chance to improve your own writing as well as give criticism to or get criticism from others.
Just because you have a month to write doesn't mean you should spend the entire time writing new content. A short, well crafted story can mean much more than a long, poorly crafted one. Once you have what you like, spend the rest of the time editing and shining it up.
If you have any questions, do not post here, talk to the staff on the discord server we set up here (https://discord.gg/dfUWzJd). Only official responses can be posted here, anything else will be deleted.
In addition, this thread will be locked until the last week of September in order to encourage putting more time into refining the submission. If you feel like you genuinely might forget to submit it and feel entirely done with your submission you can private message it to me here on the site.
The prompts are
Keep moving forward.
Celebrate Creation.
Sing a song of the Future.
Remember, the best outcome of this is people who work on RWBY reading some of these stories. Don't write anything too tasteless.
Format
Title
Username | Name
Opt-In | Opt-out
Canon | What-if | N/A
Submission