SECTIONS
purple heavens • a writing contest >> REVAMPING -- COMING SOON
belong
ing
ing
Do you belong to me? Do I belong to you? Where do we belong? How? Who are we to say we can belong to someone, with, and what does it take to be granted this right?
To qualify for this section, you are to define our place in the world, explore who we are, what creates our relationships with others and different settings, and how we react to that.
To qualify for this section, you are to define our place in the world, explore who we are, what creates our relationships with others and different settings, and how we react to that.
the human condit
ion
ion
In a story there is a hero, and in a hero there is tragedy. A story follows the life of a character, whom is flawed, distinct, irreplaceable, and hopelessly conflicted. What creates the downfall of the hero? The harm caused by others? The trauma provoked by situations? Or simply the chaotic mess inside us all?
Humans see darkness. Why do we feel sad? What makes us feel irritated, infuriated, and, in some cases, insane? Why do we humans feel such powerful emotions, living organisms that trespass our systems, sending us into overdrive and compelling us to undertake drastic measures - how do we live with it all?
Beyond all the hurt, the mental games, hot tears, and physical turmoil, passion inevitably makes us human. Define happiness.
Humans see darkness. Why do we feel sad? What makes us feel irritated, infuriated, and, in some cases, insane? Why do we humans feel such powerful emotions, living organisms that trespass our systems, sending us into overdrive and compelling us to undertake drastic measures - how do we live with it all?
Beyond all the hurt, the mental games, hot tears, and physical turmoil, passion inevitably makes us human. Define happiness.
SPARK
A bit brighter, this one. I hope I haven't drained you all yet, still three more to read through!
Self-love is one of the most prominent focuses of today's generation, and I'd like to give you the opportunity to explore it. Whether you're constantly struggling to accept the person you are, already accomplished a paradise of peace and solace, or haven't considered loving yourself at all; I want you to express this hardship in your own words, through fictional but believable characters, and create a moral you stand by in the conclusion of your story of which has the power to leave an imprint on the readers.
Self-love is one of the most prominent focuses of today's generation, and I'd like to give you the opportunity to explore it. Whether you're constantly struggling to accept the person you are, already accomplished a paradise of peace and solace, or haven't considered loving yourself at all; I want you to express this hardship in your own words, through fictional but believable characters, and create a moral you stand by in the conclusion of your story of which has the power to leave an imprint on the readers.
slice of life
'Slice of life' is a very realistic depiction of everyday experiences in art and entertainment. The narrative may have little plot progress and often no exposition or conflict, but rather, an open ending.
Teach me something.
Teach me something.
new lights
Below I have a list of quotes, either from a song or a person. I have found some of these lingering in the back of my mind, others changing my perspective of the world we live in, a few even influencing the ideas behind the SECTIONS above. This is essentially a SECTION of prompts, if you will. Choose one, identify it in the Foreword of your entry (you can just use the 'title' ie what comes after the arrow), and write away. I have my own interpretation of it, and I'm interested to see yours. Surprise me.
> 'GLORIOUS' - Macklemore ft. Skylar Grey
"You know I'm back like I never left
Another sprint, another step
Another day, another breath
Been chasing dreams, but I never slept.'
> 'COLOURS' - Halsey
"Everything is grey
His hair, his smoke, his dreams
And now he's so devoid of color
He don’t know what it means."
> e e s
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting."
> Mother Theresa
"Alone, I cannot change the world. But I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."
>'JUST GIVE ME A REASON' - P!nk ft. Nate Ruess
"Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent, and we can learn to love again
It's in the stars, it's been written in the scars on our hearts."
> Stephanie Yu @happyandhealthy96 via instagram
"Maybe I've gone crazy, but more and more lately, I just look at me and all my thoughts, anxieties and expectations, and I just want to laugh. Laugh at how caught up I get in these worlds I've created in my mind. Laugh at what a fuss I made over the struggles I went through simply because I couldn't understand the virtue of patience, of slowing down and letting life sort itself out. And laugh at what a fool I was for trying to find love in all the wrong people and all the wrong places.
And I know there are many more mistakes to come, but I do love laughing so I cannot wait."
> '13 REASONS WHY' - Hannah Baker
"Sometimes, things just happen to you. They just happen. You can't help it. But it's what you do next that counts. Not what happens but what you decide to do about it."
> 'PRAYING' - Kesha
"I'm proud of who I am
No more monsters, I can breathe again."
> 'NOTE TO SELF ' - Connor Franta
"You can't change for somebody, and you can't change somebody for you."
> another 'GLORIOUS' - Macklemore ft. Skylar Grey
"En garde, things are just things
They don't make you who you are."
> Henry David Thoreau
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this."
> Stephanie Yu @happyandhealthy96 via instagram
"My hope for myself and for others is that one day, we can all reflect on ourselves and realise that nobody has ever loved anybody as much as we loved ourselves."
> Naomi Judd
"Your body hears everything your mind says."
Which ones make you see the world in a different light?
> 'GLORIOUS' - Macklemore ft. Skylar Grey
"You know I'm back like I never left
Another sprint, another step
Another day, another breath
Been chasing dreams, but I never slept.'
> 'COLOURS' - Halsey
"Everything is grey
His hair, his smoke, his dreams
And now he's so devoid of color
He don’t know what it means."
> e e s
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting."
> Mother Theresa
"Alone, I cannot change the world. But I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."
>'JUST GIVE ME A REASON' - P!nk ft. Nate Ruess
"Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent, and we can learn to love again
It's in the stars, it's been written in the scars on our hearts."
> Stephanie Yu @happyandhealthy96 via instagram
"Maybe I've gone crazy, but more and more lately, I just look at me and all my thoughts, anxieties and expectations, and I just want to laugh. Laugh at how caught up I get in these worlds I've created in my mind. Laugh at what a fuss I made over the struggles I went through simply because I couldn't understand the virtue of patience, of slowing down and letting life sort itself out. And laugh at what a fool I was for trying to find love in all the wrong people and all the wrong places.
And I know there are many more mistakes to come, but I do love laughing so I cannot wait."
> '13 REASONS WHY' - Hannah Baker
"Sometimes, things just happen to you. They just happen. You can't help it. But it's what you do next that counts. Not what happens but what you decide to do about it."
> 'PRAYING' - Kesha
"I'm proud of who I am
No more monsters, I can breathe again."
> 'NOTE TO SELF ' - Connor Franta
"You can't change for somebody, and you can't change somebody for you."
> another 'GLORIOUS' - Macklemore ft. Skylar Grey
"En garde, things are just things
They don't make you who you are."
> Henry David Thoreau
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this."
> Stephanie Yu @happyandhealthy96 via instagram
"My hope for myself and for others is that one day, we can all reflect on ourselves and realise that nobody has ever loved anybody as much as we loved ourselves."
> Naomi Judd
"Your body hears everything your mind says."
Which ones make you see the world in a different light?
hybrid
A different and fun option. Here I'm providing you various sets of three genres, combined, hence the hybrid title. Surprise! I lied when I said SECTIONS aren't genre-centred. I stress it everywhere else because I didn't want to taint your interpretation of the other SECTIONS, which aren't subject to a particular genre at all. This is a different type of stimulus to which you can adapt your creativity, perhaps suitable to authors who don't prefer to explore my ideas above, as they can be interpreted quite philosophically and require explict and intensely meaningful elaborations.
In this SECTION, I'm scrapping any direction of narrative ideas and themes and leaving it all to you. All you have to do is pick one combination and satisfy all three genres. Note that these aren't all the possible combinations possible in a composition, only the ones that I am interested in reading whilst still presenting a challenge.
> ROMANCE, ANGST, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
> ROMANCE, ANGST, ACTION
> ROMANCE, ANGST, FANTASY
> ROMANCE, SUPERNATURAL, ACTION
> ROMANCE, UTOPIA, MYSTERY
> ROMANCE, DYSTOPIA, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
> COMEDY, CRIME, DETECTIVE
> COMEDY, CRIME, ACTION
> ANGST, SUPERNATURAL, MYSTERY
> ANGST, CRIME, FANTASY
> ANGST, DETECTIVE, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
> SCIENCE FICTION, UTOPIA, ACTION
genre excluded: horror (rule three)
As you can see, I am heavily biased towards romance. Totally not a massive hint to spike up your chances of winning. However, you must not make the genre apparent in any other HYBRID set, as popular and adaptable as it is (that's the real challenge xD).
Those are all that Purple Heavens consider as genres. Please note that to qualify for HYBRID, you must only feature the three genres of your chosen set, and not any other listed. Other tags you consider as genres, I don't, so you are free to mix them in :).
Please state in the foreword of your entry which combination you are using.
GENRE CONTROVERSIES
>> fantasy & supernatural
So this is a really common debate, what classifies as supernatural, what's considered fantasy, when really, elements of a story fall under both. Obviously everyone's opinion differs, and there's even a page on AFF with people voicing their inputs.
In my perspective, I don't identify supernatural as a genre. I think it falls under the fantasy genre, which involves the narration of just about anything that's physically impossible, solely because it is imagined, and because the possibilities of the imagination are limitless, sub-genres such as supernatural, goth, horror and paranormal have to step in.
Essentially, fantasy deals with creatures of the author's imagination, but in this nature it's just too broad. Thus, I am shining the light brighter on supernatural, as I see it as a more prominent and popular sub-genre, and throwing it in as a genre option. To clarify when you're writing your story for the purpose of this SECTION: fantasy involves creatures borne from magic: spirits, elves, spell-casters, dragons, fairies, angels (debatable), essentially from a dream-like world. Supernatural would ideally be more contemporary (and still have an ancient history), present in the modern world: vampires, were-wolves, demons, angels, mutants, ghosts, you get the gist.
Don't stress between the two. If you think your story is supernatural halfway through writing when you initially intended it to be fantasy, don't worry so much. Come let me know, and if you're unsure, talk to me about it. I can make exceptions for issues of these types.
>> crime & detective
Similar to the blurry line between fantasy and supernatural, if you read above, detective is a sub-genre of crime. Unlike fantasy and supernatural, this statement goes beyond my sole opinion, that is, many more support this perspective, but here is my explanation of why I included it as two separate tags for this SECTION.
The genre of crime is self-explanatory. I have no doubt that you guys can easily identify your story to this. However, you could be narrating crime without investigating it, and in that essence, it doesn't concern the detective tag. However, the detective narrative is distinct in its nature in which a crime is introduced, investigated, and the culprit is revealed. No point leading readers on only to conclude that the culprit is untraceable. And more importantly, detective stories usually concern the main character being the detective themselves, so whether you want to explore that or simply write about criminals from your characters' point of view (or be the criminals themselves), are decisions for you to make.
>> crime & mystery
Crimes are mysteries but not all mysteries are crimes. An illegal drug organisation on the wanted list, that's crime. A murder, that's also a crime. But a person gone missing, or your character anonymously stalked, hmm mysterious, but not illegal.
In some cases, some crimes aren't mysteries, for example, a ually assaulted victim fighting against their perpetrator in court. Ain't a mystery anymore, right? Best advice is to think it through, and you're always welcome to discuss it.
>> science fiction
There aren't many sci-fi fics on AFF, or ones tagged under this recognised genre label anyway, but I just need to bring up why this genre may potentially be a danger zone for you guys. I put one HYBRID set in including sci-fi only because I don't see it as a popularly explored genre, but I would still like to see some entries if anyone is interested or already has a pre-written story for it.
The more commonly used tag I see around AFF would be 'alternative universe'. Every time I see it, I laugh, because all I think is sci-fi and nothing else. Science fiction is about the future. It involves the exploration of imagined worlds, can concern Earth in the near or far future, incorporates evolving elements of science or technology or both, investigates the implications on social values and the population as a consequence of advanced science and technology, and makes a distinct statement of whether the imagined future turns out to be beneficial and exciting, or destructive and apocalyptic. If you're considering writing in this genre (even if it's not for Purple Heavens), always remember that you're writing about the future, not now, in an imagined setting dominated by science and technology. That's science fiction. Sound anything like an alternative universe?
The danger in submitting an entry for the one provided set, is that I have actually studied this very genre in school for a year, and though I'll do my best to not automatically analyse the elements of your story tooooo much, I'd advise not straying far from what I have explained above. Out of all genres, I am most educated at science fiction; so there you go, are you up for my expectations?
You can take the information on these genre debates to influence entries for other SECTIONS, but it is mainly to clarify for HYBRID entries. And again, if you have queries, please don't be afraid to ask away below or visit my wall/pm!
In this SECTION, I'm scrapping any direction of narrative ideas and themes and leaving it all to you. All you have to do is pick one combination and satisfy all three genres. Note that these aren't all the possible combinations possible in a composition, only the ones that I am interested in reading whilst still presenting a challenge.
> ROMANCE, ANGST, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
> ROMANCE, ANGST, ACTION
> ROMANCE, ANGST, FANTASY
> ROMANCE, SUPERNATURAL, ACTION
> ROMANCE, UTOPIA, MYSTERY
> ROMANCE, DYSTOPIA, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
> COMEDY, CRIME, DETECTIVE
> COMEDY, CRIME, ACTION
> ANGST, SUPERNATURAL, MYSTERY
> ANGST, CRIME, FANTASY
> ANGST, DETECTIVE, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
> SCIENCE FICTION, UTOPIA, ACTION
genre excluded: horror (rule three)
As you can see, I am heavily biased towards romance. Totally not a massive hint to spike up your chances of winning. However, you must not make the genre apparent in any other HYBRID set, as popular and adaptable as it is (that's the real challenge xD).
Those are all that Purple Heavens consider as genres. Please note that to qualify for HYBRID, you must only feature the three genres of your chosen set, and not any other listed. Other tags you consider as genres, I don't, so you are free to mix them in :).
Please state in the foreword of your entry which combination you are using.
GENRE CONTROVERSIES
>> fantasy & supernatural
So this is a really common debate, what classifies as supernatural, what's considered fantasy, when really, elements of a story fall under both. Obviously everyone's opinion differs, and there's even a page on AFF with people voicing their inputs.
In my perspective, I don't identify supernatural as a genre. I think it falls under the fantasy genre, which involves the narration of just about anything that's physically impossible, solely because it is imagined, and because the possibilities of the imagination are limitless, sub-genres such as supernatural, goth, horror and paranormal have to step in.
Essentially, fantasy deals with creatures of the author's imagination, but in this nature it's just too broad. Thus, I am shining the light brighter on supernatural, as I see it as a more prominent and popular sub-genre, and throwing it in as a genre option. To clarify when you're writing your story for the purpose of this SECTION: fantasy involves creatures borne from magic: spirits, elves, spell-casters, dragons, fairies, angels (debatable), essentially from a dream-like world. Supernatural would ideally be more contemporary (and still have an ancient history), present in the modern world: vampires, were-wolves, demons, angels, mutants, ghosts, you get the gist.
Don't stress between the two. If you think your story is supernatural halfway through writing when you initially intended it to be fantasy, don't worry so much. Come let me know, and if you're unsure, talk to me about it. I can make exceptions for issues of these types.
>> crime & detective
Similar to the blurry line between fantasy and supernatural, if you read above, detective is a sub-genre of crime. Unlike fantasy and supernatural, this statement goes beyond my sole opinion, that is, many more support this perspective, but here is my explanation of why I included it as two separate tags for this SECTION.
The genre of crime is self-explanatory. I have no doubt that you guys can easily identify your story to this. However, you could be narrating crime without investigating it, and in that essence, it doesn't concern the detective tag. However, the detective narrative is distinct in its nature in which a crime is introduced, investigated, and the culprit is revealed. No point leading readers on only to conclude that the culprit is untraceable. And more importantly, detective stories usually concern the main character being the detective themselves, so whether you want to explore that or simply write about criminals from your characters' point of view (or be the criminals themselves), are decisions for you to make.
>> crime & mystery
Crimes are mysteries but not all mysteries are crimes. An illegal drug organisation on the wanted list, that's crime. A murder, that's also a crime. But a person gone missing, or your character anonymously stalked, hmm mysterious, but not illegal.
In some cases, some crimes aren't mysteries, for example, a ually assaulted victim fighting against their perpetrator in court. Ain't a mystery anymore, right? Best advice is to think it through, and you're always welcome to discuss it.
>> science fiction
There aren't many sci-fi fics on AFF, or ones tagged under this recognised genre label anyway, but I just need to bring up why this genre may potentially be a danger zone for you guys. I put one HYBRID set in including sci-fi only because I don't see it as a popularly explored genre, but I would still like to see some entries if anyone is interested or already has a pre-written story for it.
The more commonly used tag I see around AFF would be 'alternative universe'. Every time I see it, I laugh, because all I think is sci-fi and nothing else. Science fiction is about the future. It involves the exploration of imagined worlds, can concern Earth in the near or far future, incorporates evolving elements of science or technology or both, investigates the implications on social values and the population as a consequence of advanced science and technology, and makes a distinct statement of whether the imagined future turns out to be beneficial and exciting, or destructive and apocalyptic. If you're considering writing in this genre (even if it's not for Purple Heavens), always remember that you're writing about the future, not now, in an imagined setting dominated by science and technology. That's science fiction. Sound anything like an alternative universe?
The danger in submitting an entry for the one provided set, is that I have actually studied this very genre in school for a year, and though I'll do my best to not automatically analyse the elements of your story tooooo much, I'd advise not straying far from what I have explained above. Out of all genres, I am most educated at science fiction; so there you go, are you up for my expectations?
You can take the information on these genre debates to influence entries for other SECTIONS, but it is mainly to clarify for HYBRID entries. And again, if you have queries, please don't be afraid to ask away below or visit my wall/pm!
want some inspiration? check out the entries to my first writing contest!
theme credit 2016 trxsh
REMEMBER TO COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY, AND AGAIN ONCE YOU COMPLETE IT (RULE THIRTEEN)
REMEMBER TO COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY, AND AGAIN ONCE YOU COMPLETE IT (RULE THIRTEEN)
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