ForestBoard

The most serene republicans wrote:

I legalized human sacrifices on a puppet. On accident. This is not ideal.

I really didn't want my citizens to forge signatures in my peace-loving main. So bad, that... ugh. Just check my Law&Order tab and find an element that does not fit :P
nation=santa_joanna/detail=policies

Terrabod wrote:

Today marks the start of another new tradition for Forest; I'm pleased to announce the first annual Forest Interregional Writing Contest, an opportunity for writers from Forest and our embassy regions to share their creativity and battle it out for one of our region's most prestigious honours. That's right, with a new interregional event comes new interregional accolades - the writers of the best entries submitted to the contest will be awarded the Forestian Literary Prize!

fork

what to write what to write—

Einswenn wrote:

All these news about rage on Canada Day are new for me since I always believed famous Canada’s niceness™ includes fair treatment of indigenous people and that its history wasn’t as bloody and unfair as their southern neighbour’s.

Hell no! We have and continue to commit atrocities against indigenous communities, including ignoring the thousands of missing indigenous girls and women, using their reserves as industrial areas such as mines and dams (without their consent) and ignoring past treaties and their wishes. This was really shown when the Canadian government went through with the infamous pipeline that would go through indigenous lands.

Alcantaria wrote:

So bad English is not my native language... I fear my lack of literary vocabulary would not allow me to write good poetry :/

To which I say 3 things;

1) You will never improve your English if you never practice it.

2) You don't have to write poetry. There are multiple categories you can set to work on, all of them very welcome. I myself am awful at writing poetry, so focus my creative efforts towards stories and art instead, and still find it very rewarding.

3) Even if the poetry is bad, send it anyway! I am one of the judges and yet (confession time) used to have a picture collection of bathroom stall poems. Always had a thing for bad poetry, maybe because I see someone who's like me on it, maybe because it's a devil may care attitude I admire. But either way, I for one gladly look forward to submissions of all kinds.

New ladavia wrote:

I just want to quickly say that I will temporarily be leaving NS for the summer with plans to be back before the fall. Thanks for a great year and have an amazing summer!

You too! I will also be less active during the Summer because I want to get outside and get involved in the community.

The most serene republicans wrote:

Introductions are a bit different in Portugal and Brazil. They say "Boas" a lot, and we say "Oi" a lot, etc... Maybe Gloriosya would be a better fit for this one than me.

Let's put a pin on this idea for the future...

(I say, as I frantically try to figure out how to make the flag of MSR as a minecraft banner)

Terrabod did just good XD

but don't mind it, we all speak english there

Shalotte wrote:

What does 'outside' mean?

I've heard rumors about this. It's supposedly just like being inside, but there's no walls or ceiling. I'm not convinced such a thing exists, though.

Probably some kind of liberal hoax.

Ruinenlust wrote:

I've heard rumors about this. It's supposedly just like being inside, but there's no walls or ceiling. I'm not convinced such a thing exists, though.

Probably some kind of liberal hoax.

So it's like an "outernet"? How terrifying

Terrabod wrote:

Forest Interregional Writing Contest 2021

by The Incorporated States of Terrabod

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Forest Interregional Writing Contest 2021

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Forest's Ministry of Culture is proud to present the first annual Forest Interregional Writing Contest, an opportunity for writers from Forest and its embassy regions to share their creativity and compete for one of our region's highest accolades.

This handy guide should cover everything you need to know about how the contest will play out. There's lots of important information, including the lowdown on this year's theme, the rules, the members of the judging panel and (perhaps most importantly) the prestigious prizes available. Please take the time to have a read, then maybe read it again - and then read it one more time, just to be sure - before putting your thinking cap on and letting your creative side run wild!

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The Categories

Entries can be submitted under one of three categories:

Poetry	Drama	Prose
Fiction in verse, poetry has been used for millennia to convey deep emotion and contentious ideas.	The immediate nature of works for the stage gives drama the profound ability to change hearts and minds.	Nothing allows readers to escape into another world (or re-examine their own) quite like reading a story.

Writers will be able to submit a maximum of one entry per category, so submitting a poem, a one-act play and a short story is allowed, but submitting two poems or two short stories is not allowed. There is no expectation that writers will submit multiple entries, and doing so won't improve your chances of winning as all entries are anonymised before being assessed by the judges. Writers should be sure to submit only their best work.

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This Year's Theme Is...
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ANTHROPOCENE

For better or for worse, we're living in an epoch defined by human impact on the world around us. With vast improvements in quality of life comes microplastics and greenhouse gases. With social media connecting us to friends across the globe comes online abuse and privacy concerns. With more people fighting for social justice than ever before comes culture wars and far-right extremism. With the longest era of peace in human history comes the threat of nuclear annihilation.

While all entries must address this theme, we expect each writer will interpret the theme in a different way. Other themes may be examined within each entry so long as the above theme is central to the work.

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The Rules

With great writing comes a bunch of rules:

• There's no formal word limit. Use your intuition - if it's too long, the judges won't have the time or patience to read it.

• Stick to the submission limit. Your first submission under each category will be accepted, the rest will be discarded.

• Don't plagiarise the work of others. People who break this rule will be immediately disqualified and may be barred from future writing contests.

• Keep your writing PG-13. All entries must remain in accordance with NationStates' policy on offensive material.

• Don't share your writing or identify your writing in any way until the contest is over. This is so the judges can assess your work without the risk of bias.

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Submitting An Entry

The submission period will open on Thursday the 15th of July (00:00 UTC) and will close on Sunday the 15th of August (23:59 UTC) - late entries will be discarded. Submissions must be sent to me, Terrabod, by telegram. If you choose to submit multiple entries, you can send them all at once (as long as each is clearly delimited) or in separate telegrams. Be sure to include a title for each entry!

Each entry will be anonymised by me and passed on to the judges who will work together to select the best entry in each category. This process is expected to take roughly two weeks, so I hope to be able to announce the winners on Wednesday the 1st of September. The winning entries will be published in the announcement dispatch for all to enjoy. While I wish I could publish all of the entries, this isn't possible - I encourage entrants to instead publish their own entry (or entries) within a dispatch after the contest is over.

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The Judges

This year's judging panel consists of not one, but three Forest Keepers who have each played an esteemed role in Forest's history.

Verdant Haven	Chan island	Uan aa Boa
This ex-Forest Keeper and current Foreign Minister is an experienced issue author and the creator of an incredibly well-developed national lore.	Forest Keeper by day, necromantic dark lord by night; the pirate currently occupying Forest's most senior position has dozens of published issues under his belt.	An influential figure in the General Assembly forums and a resolution writer to boot, this ex-Forest Keeper is one of our region's most respected voices.

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The Winners

The writer of the single best entry in each category will be awarded one of the following:

• The Forestian Literary Prize for Poetry, awarded to the writer of the best work of poetry submitted to the contest.

• The Forestian Literary Prize for Drama, awarded to the writer of the best work of drama submitted to the contest.

• The Forestian Literary Prize for Prose, awarded to the writer of the best work of prose submitted to the contest.

While these prizes are awarded to an OOC player, I don't mind if winners want to also RP/worldbuild it as an IC interregional prize received by one of their citizens.

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If you have any unanswered questions, feel free to telegram me or tag me in a post on the Forest RMB.

Best of luck to all entrants, and have fun writing!

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Terrabod
Culture Minister of Forest

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Read dispatch

Questions:
1) How literal does the theme have to be? Say, for example, I were to write a sci-fi time travel love story between a 17th century person and a modern person and used that to discuss the anthropocene through setting and characters and etc.. Would it still be accepted?
2) Not actually a question, I just realized I forgot to do the ambassador thing and promote the contest, oops.

The most serene republicans wrote:

How literal does the theme have to be? Say, for example, I were to write a sci-fi time travel love story between a 17th century person and a modern person and used that to discuss the anthropocene through setting and characters and etc.. Would it still be accepted?

Uh, yeah. If George Orwell can criticise Stalinism by writing about farm animals and William Golding can argue that humans are inherently savage in nature by writing about some schoolboys stranded on an island then you can address this year's theme through whatever method you see fit. There are lots of different ways of expressing a theme in fiction, and allegory is undoubtedly a powerful tool. I can't tell you what the judges will like, but as long as your writing is centred on the theme of Anthropocene then your entry (or entries) won't be breaking any rules.

I hope you haven't given away what you'll be writing about, though, because identifying your work in any way would be a breach of the rules.

The most serene republicans wrote:

Not actually a question, I just realized I forgot to do the ambassador thing and promote the contest, oops.

Nation of ecologists wrote:

I did the same, though participation in inter-regional activities in Spiritus isn't necessarily that high, I should probably post the contest there anyways.

Thanks, both of you! The more people that see the dispatch, the more fun the contest will be. Even if only one or two people in Spiritus are interested, it's good they get to hear about the contest. If your embassy regions are more active offsite (as I know many are) and you're a member of the offsite community (e.g. you're on the discord) then sharing it there might also boost participation.

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I'm actually quite nervous about our "Drama" category. There are probably a couple of reasons why people are apprehensive about writing for the stage, but I think it stems mostly out of unfamiliarity - I know I was never taught how to write a play at school but I wrote lots of short stories and poems. If I was entering the contest, though, that would definitely be the category I would choose (maybe that and a short story too heh) because if I'm right and people do find playwrighting daunting then I'd be in with a better chance of winning one of the prizes (less competition, y'know). It might be worth thinking about whether your story idea could work as a stage play, and perhaps reading a wikihow article or two on short plays* - it might pay off.

EDIT: *and better still, actually reading some short plays if you can get your hands on them (I'm sure many are available online)

Heyo! i don't want to spam but here we goes:
I am looking for participants in a PES simulated Forest Football Cup, i will stream the matches so you can see the matches of your national team! :D. If you are interested, DM me here in NS or in Discord Bolbon#1932.
Thanks for reading.

The most serene republicans wrote:

I haven't. I made up that scenario on the spot and I'm terrible at kissing books anyway. It's a way better idea than what I'm going with though, but now it's too late

You have a month and a half, so plenty of time to consider which direction you want to take. I doubt anyone else will know exactly what they're doing at this early stage, and rightfully so - your first ideas are often your worst ideas, but giving those ideas time to stretch their proverbial wings might lead somewhere interesting.

Terrabod wrote:

You have a month and a half, so plenty of time to consider which direction you want to take. I doubt anyone else will know exactly what they're doing at this early stage, and rightfully so - your first ideas are often your worst ideas, but giving those ideas time to stretch their proverbial wings might lead somewhere interesting.

I do have a very specific topic I want to adress... But let's not give it away one month before the thing even starts

i've nver felt words adiquite to express either the univese we live in, nor the one inside my head.

inspired by a recent them, not claiming entirely to fit, and like every time i've sequenced words, really no idea where to go with it next:

Nine green anthro cats, wearing white linnen robes, with gold colars and belts, filed through the angry crowd, miraculously unmolested, and very nearly unnoticed, until reaching a flat paved space near the center.

One live news commentator who observed this assumed they were furry costumers, and said as much.

The crowd vacated a circular space around them, none knowing why they did so. Those further away continued to take no immediate notice.

The nine formed a circle facing each other. There was only empty pavement, and whatever lines, shaped and colors happened to have been already painted upon it.

Wisps of colored vapors began to coalesce in the space above and between them as they quietly chanted.

Nearer members of the crowd fell silent, halting in place, their placards still held high, all but forgotten in their hands.

Not a holding of breath, but a slow quieting and lowering of tensions, spreading slowly but inexorably outward from their circle.

Cameroi, being cameroi, was a long way from the center of goings on in the rest of forest.

No one resented, nor even envied those who's fortunes might be better then their own.
Better in what way they'd be as likely to ask.

Cameroi being mostly free from the influence of tone deaf corporate entities nor in any way quite entirely dependent on them. Its infrastructure being mostly the work of local craftspersons, and requiring little in the way of mass produced components, and even those being mostly produced locally.

So for the most part we were merely spectators, but we did recognize a personal interest in protecting our environment's diversity from practices chosen blindly on economic only priorities.

The issue of wealth concentration in other countries,
something most cameroi were aware of,
but it was cultural and environmental implications,
that alone made it a source for sympathy and concern.

A small delegation of citizens formed to personally look into the question.
Nine of them, who had no doubt they'd be able to pass as humans wearing costumes,
clothing themselves somewhat as humans do.

Nine sapient cameroi, accompanied by nine of the little squirrel like 'lion-bears'
riding interior pockets of their robes. Nine little psychic dream shapers,
who, unlike nearly all of their kin, had acclimated themselves to close proximity to large crowds of sapients.