General Information

• Why the "1/3"? It's one of my favorite Infinite songs. This contest will last for four months, or one-third of the year. Participants will write about one of three enchanted objects, and they will be competing with one-third of the total participants. Winners get to choose one out of three prize options.
• Please subscribe to receive updates and announcements regarding the contest. I will be reposting the chapter with the entries regularly so this contest will keep popping up for people browsing AFF. I apologize if this spams your AFF notifications.
• Please make sure to read through the entire foreword before asking questions, signing up, etc.
• Questions, comments, and concerns regarding this contest may be communicated via comment, wall post, or PM, whichever one you prefer. Any questions regarding information that is clearly stated in the foreword will be ignored. I apologize if this sounds harsh, but if you are interested in participating in this contest, then you should be willing to put in the effort to read the details pertaining to it. If I don't reply to your question within 24 to 48 hours, that means you should probably reread the foreword and FAQ.

The Challenge

Write an Infinite fantasy alternate universe fan fiction that focuses on one of the following:

• An enchanted ring
• An enchanted sword
• An enchanted mirror

The enchanted object must feature prominently in the story. You may incorporate other genres, such as romance or angst, into your story, but remember that the focus should be on the fantasy aspect. Your task is to be as creative as possible with how you write the enchanted object into the plot. Let your imagination run wild with the object's origin, its history, the nature of the enchantment on it, etc.

Depending on the number of completed entries I receive, I will choose either one or two winners from the entries for each enchanted object, meaning each participant's competition is the other people writing about the same object. If I receive over fifteen completed entries for each category, then I will pick the top two stories from each category as the winners. In addition, I will pick one honorable mention winner, which will be my personal favorite out of all of the entries that didn't win top (or top two) in a category. That means there will be a total of either four (one per object plus one honorable mention) or seven (two per object plus honorable mention) winners.

Sign Up

This contest officially begins on January 15th, 2013. The sign-up will continue until May 15th. After that, if you want to participate, I will place you on a waiting list and substitute people in by order of sign-up if anyone drops out.

If you are at least 90% sure that you want to participate and will be able to complete the challenge, please comment below to say you are signing up. I will assign you one of the three objects to write about. I would let participants choose, but I want to have about an equal number of entries per object to make things fair. Within twenty-four hours after signing up, I will update the Entrants and Entries page with your assigned object.

Rules and Guidelines

If you do not follow the rules, your entry will be rejected until you fix the problem.

1. One entry per person.
2. Your entry cannot be an existing story of yours. It must be a story posted after January 15th, 2013.
3. You must link back to this contest in your description or foreword to help spread the word on the contest.
4. Collaborations are not allowed. Your story should be entirely your own work. You may draw inspiration from existing works, but do not plagiarize. If I find that your story is plagiarized, whether from a published story or not, AFF author or not, I will disqualify you from the contest and report you to a moderator. You may and are encouraged to have someone proofread and edit your story for grammar and spelling errors. You may request content-related feedback from people after the contest ends.
5. Your story should feature Infinite. You may choose to use or not use as many members as you wish as long as at least one of the Infinite members is a main character. You may use other idols as supporting characters. OCs are allowed as main characters and/or supporting characters.
6. Any pairing type/combination (Infinite member/Infinite member, Infinite member/other idol, Infinite/OC) is fine, but I will not accept entries containing .
7. There is no minimum length, but your story should be 20,000 words maximum (it's okay if you're around 100-200 words over). You may submit your entry form with the link to your story as soon as you post the foreword (the password is 3분의1). However, your story must be completed and posted on AFF by the deadline. If you submit your entry before it is finished, after you post the final chapter, please notify me that you have completed your story.

Deadline

The deadline to submit and complete your entry for this contest is the end of July 31st, 2013. I will accept entries up until 00:00 am Central Time (GMT-06) on August 1st, no extensions, no exceptions. Here is a countdown timer for your reference. The contest winners will be notified and announced later in August. The exact date will depend on the number and length of received entries.

Note: Those who submit their entries by the original deadline, May 15th, will receive priority passes at my review shop. Details on how I review can be found at my review shop over here.

Judging Criteria

Part of the evaluation will be based loosely on my reviewing criteria*. The most important thing I will be looking at is how creative you are with writing about your enchanted object. If you are not a native speaker of English, I will take that into consideration when judging your story. However, please make sure to proofread and use a spell-checker before submitting your story. If it is obvious that you did not proofread your story for spelling errors, I will disqualify your entry. As mentioned in the rules, you are encouraged to have someone else proofread and edit your entry for grammar and spelling errors. The hierarchy of evaluation looks like this: creative use of prompt>writing style>grammar.

*The title, description, foreword, and presentation will not be considered because the main objective is for me to judge how well you write rather than how well you market your writing. However, please do not use excessive customization. Simply leave your text in the default settings for font type, size, and color to make life easier for me. Also, do not use insert images within your writing. I am judging your ability to use words to portray what you want the readers to imagine, not your ability to find pictures that match what's in your head.

Prizes

Each winner will receive karma points (the amounts listed below are tentative; the final point amounts will depend on how many karma points I have at the end of the contest; I will maximize the amounts) and have their story featured at my review shop, on my blog, and in my profile. In addition, each winner will have a choice of ONE of the following Infinite merchandise* from my friend's shop Cafe Bunny (go check it out!):

• An Infinite button (size 1.5" or ~38 mm). The designs are pictured below. The actual products look like this.

• An Infinite keyring (size 28 mm x 48 mm). You have a choice of either the Nothing's Over era or the Be Mine era (see designs below). The keyrings are double-sided, meaning you can choose two designs from the same era (ex: Hoya+Dongwoo for Nothing's Over, Sungjong+the "INSPIRITS BE MINE" text for Be Mine, etc.). The actual products look like this.

• An Infinite acrylic charm (size 1.5" or ~38 mm).

(from left to right: Dongwoo, Myungsoo, Sunggyu, Woohyun, Sungyeol, Hoya, Sungjong)

Category Winners: 700 karma points, feature, one Infinite button, keyring, or acrylic charm

Honorable Mention Winner: 500 karma points, feature, one Infinite button, keyring, or acrylic charm

*Availability not guaranteed. Also, if my friend makes buttons, keyrings, or acrylic charms for their Man in Love concept before the contest ends, I will add those to the prize options.

Entry Form

Please fill out and post this entry form in a comment. You must sign up and wait for me to assign your enchanted object prior to submitting an entry. Entries submitted by people who did not sign up will be disregarded.

Author: [username]

Story: [title]

Link: [url]

Status: [completed/incomplete]

Password: [make sure you have read the rules!]

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Entrants and Entries

Chapter 2: FAQs

Chapter 3: Updates and Announcements

Chapter 4: Winners