"Gather round, little ones, that I may tell you about the great battle..."
"I don't want to hear about the great battle today, grandfather. Tell us about Demerazade..."
"A great challenge of wits?"
"Or a great sporting event, like Willim Taller. Just no killing for today..." The child sat and hugged his knees.
— Notes from around a grandfather's campfire.
Hey-ho! I have an unformal challenge to propose to you.
Every day, pick a template from worldanvil, and write an article about a challenge, or the challengers meeting a challenge, or a place related to a challenge, or a species defined by its meeting challenges, etc, using that template.
Clearly this will require an example:
I chose a template at random, and came up with technology.
So one way I could meet the challenge would be to write about how electrical scorekeeping is used in this sci-fi world to score fencing...
If I choose a different template, Item then I could come up with one of the swords themselves.
If I chose character, I'd describe how one character is defined by his approach to challenges. Sadly, I can't use
Michael Goldenrod, who's at least 55% Charlie Brown by weight, and could qualify, trying to kick the football, or trying to get his team to win at baseball, or a thousand other things. Not because he'd not apply, but because I wrote him already, and this challenge expects you to try to come up with something new.
If I chose Geography, I could say the mountains K2 and Everest had a rivalry(a form of challenge), until K2 was leveled, and the Everest became part of the Imperial Palace.
If I chose tradition, I could have a challenge to tell the truth, a challenge to a joust or tourney, some other sport, to battle, to a race, all good options.
Ideally, at the end of this unformal challenge, you will have a different challenge for each day in february, and some templates might even be left over, or you could feel inspired and write more than one template per day. Be kind to yourself, this is a friendly competition, a friendly challenge, if you will. If you leave some uncovered, please tell me, that'll be reason for us to do this again next year.
Here's a bunch of thematically related words, hoping this helps spark some inspiration for all:
Challenge, Rivalry, Duel, Nemesis, Contender, Dojo, Martial Artist, Participant, Player, Referee, Observer, Arbiter, Judge, Ecclesiarch, Tennis, Jeu de Paume, Racket, Puck, Stick, Piton, Rope, Tug, Autodafé, Ordeal, Gauntlet, Joust, Tourney, Trial, Testimony, Veracity, Plea, Bargain, Haggling, Response, Sign, Countersign, Passphrase, Surpass.
I won't say: 'avoid conflicts, as they're boring', but I'd say... you know your worlds, challenge yourself to come up with the less obvious forms of challenge, if you can make them work in a particular world. I for one, know I don't need to explore 1:1 duels in my The Secret Convention world, as that world is steeped in rpg mechanics, and duels are a feature of it. To rehash them for this challenge would be boring, now, in part, that's why I have other worlds.
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