Format for Official Mastermind Competitions (Seasons 8+)
Every few months, the Mastermind Creative Writing Community will host a two-week-long competition on the discussion forum. We will let everyone on the discussion forum know about any upcoming seasons by posting an announcement at least one week before the season premieres.
During the two weeks of the competition, any member is welcome to participate in writing and posting responses to a single writing challenge, which will take place in the Mastermind Season Submission Thread. All participants who choose to compete and respond to the writing challenge must attach their file submission/link to their reply on the same thread post.
After the two weeks, all opportunities for submissions will be closed and any community member (including members who did not participate) is welcome to take a look at everyone's submitted work and discuss them on the Mastermind Season Discussion Thread. This is a good opportunity to read, explore, and review other people’s craft by giving and receiving constructive feedback.
More importantly, the judge(s) will grade each submission and post scores and feedback on the Mastermind Season Results Thread. Please give our team at least two weeks to return the feedback and scores. Once the scores are finalized, the results thread will become available. Scores are assigned based on the following marking criteria:
Communication /50
Creativity /50
Total /100
Communication:
For example, how well does the submission follow conventions of spelling, grammar, and structure? Are all formatting points followed?
Creativity:
For example, how interesting are the ideas? How well are they executed?
At the end of the competition, we will contact you via email from info@mastermindbp.com if you are eligible to receive a prize. We will not use any other email address to give out the prizes.
All prizes come in the form of PayPal donations so you need to have an email that is connected to a PayPal account to receive the award(s).
The submission(s) with the highest average will win the 1st place $100 USD prize. The submission(s) with the second and third-highest averages will receive a $50 USD prize each.
Rules for Official Mastermind Competitions (Seasons 8+)
Respect everyone on a basic level. This includes but is not limited to avoiding harassment and spamming.
Plagiarism and any use of AI is strictly prohibited and will result in immediate disqualification.
You can submit your response any number of times before the deadline but we will only grade your most recent submission. If possible, please delete your previous submissions from the same season so then we can identify which file we want to grade.
In the Season Submission Thread, your submission can only contain your file submission. You cannot reply to anyone's submission in this thread but you can address their work in the corresponding Season Discussion Thread if you want to give and/or receive constructive feedback.
Prizes come in the form of PayPal donations. If you are eligible to receive a prize, you will be contacted by email or through the chat system on our website.
Please direct any questions you have to the Mastermind Season Discussion Thread.