LITERARY OUTBREAK: Survive or Die One-Shot Writing Contest

Heartless Outbreak: Round One

Love, the best feeling one could ever have. But, what if that special feeling was taken away from you? What would you do? What if you learned that "something" was living inside you, preventing you from feeling such emotion?

Meet CARDIOPHAGO SPECIOSUS, a parasite that secretes a certain chemical that destroys the entirety of your hypothalamus, the part of your brain that is responsible for your emotions. It is capable of corrupting the production of hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and vasopressin, removing a person's ability to feel love... until you feel nothing at all.

You feel numb. You feel empty. You feel lost. Unknowingly, the parasite starts to feed on your heart, slowly killing you of heartbreak.

A case of the heart... an outbreak of deadly proportions. Can you survive the outbreak? Or will you just let the parasite consume your precious, little heart?

The Genres
It is already announced from the start that ACTION will be the main genre all throughout the competition. Why Action? Because basically, this competition is a five-stage war that you need to survive, and that is your number one challenge. Then, just to add some spice, another genre will be paired with Action every round. So, this time, because the parasite affects our emotions, specifically "love", our subgenre will be ROMANCE!

This round aims to tackle not just about "kilig" and "hugot" lines, subjects. You have to use the genre, Romance, in a more substantial way. Create a romantic action entry that will blow us apart! Body, mind and soul! Mix it well with Action and you'll have a very dangerous cure, enough to kill the parasite! Think for Love! Write for Love! Fight for Love! Live for Love!

The Themes
Maybe you're all thinking now that because the subgenre is Romance, this round will be easy. Well, sorry to disappoint you all, but you have another challenge.

The parasite is maybe "eating away" all your love ONLY, but that doesn't mean that it does not affect other types of your emotions, as well. Before it renders you emotionless, it first creates havoc in your system, tampering with your other emotions. Because of that, you have exaggerated reactions to things around you and we have indentified three most common reactions that you have shown since you were infected (You have been infected the moment you conquered Cirvak virus and passed the auditions):

1. Exaggerated grief and anger that resulted to extracting VENGEANCE;

2. Extreme longing and sadness causing the condition, NOSTALGIA; and

3. Envy and lying that lead to TREACHERY.

These three actions resulting from the influence of the parasite will be the themes for each team that you will be assigned to. This is your second challenge.

GUIDES AND TEAMS
A team will not be functional without someone that leads and guides it, because of that, members of Team Baliw will be assigned to each teams as "Guides" each round. They will help you in your cures.

They CAN: 1. help you proofread your finished entries; and, 2. give you an honest advice and suggestions on how to improve your entries.

But, they CANNOT: 1. help you think of or give you a plot or concept; 2. demand you to change anything from your entry.

It is up to you if you will follow the guide's suggestions or advices, but your entries should already be finished and on the stage of proofreading, before you let your guides read it. Every decision should be based on your own will.

Your guides will just be "guides", they won't be your assistant or personal editor. They will direct you to the right path of creating your cures, but they will not spoonfeed you. You can treat them as your friends, but remember that they are still your guides, and members of Team Baliw that organizes this competition.

Every round, we will have different sets of Guides, and that means, different teams, too.

The theme that is assigned to each team will be its name. They are:

TEAM VENGEANCE: Chichi_Louise (Guide)

1. yourpapergirl
2. TheGirlLookingAtYou
3. EclipticStar
4. GreatPretender04
5. HotNovember23
6. Alexandrea29
7. CheaterCatcher
8. CallMeBoss
9. Jurisan
10. jhavril

TEAM NOSTALGIA: Bolpena (Guide)

1. misaholmes
2. BarangayTanod
3. JustPlainlyMe
4. TECHKILLA
5. MoonlightMaester
6. Kyrian18
7. ClareFontana
8. JLorenzWP
9. Sim_Ordanes
10. emgeeZERONYN

TEAM TREACHERY: hannah_shinn (Guide)

1. deeeym
2. EyDzey1
3. yumi_aya
4. darknoble23
5. iammeakira20
6. RHMDELeon
7. MaiMaying
8. Sektha
9. Youniqueen
10. xenna_mae

After this mechanics is posted, your guides will add you to your team's group chat in facebook. You can interact with your teammates and Guide there.

Every round, there will be different teams, so if you pass this round, your teammates now may or may not be your teammates next round. It all depends on the next batch of Guides next round. Also, the Teams' group chats will be deleted once the round that it is created for ends.

ELEMENTS
We want you to be challenged more and we want to see your full capacity in surviving this Outbreak, so, we added one more challenge for you. You will be given two (2) elements that you need to use in your entry and they should play significant roles in your plot.

Once you are added to your team's group chat, you need to go to your respective Guides because they have your assigned elements. So, you really need to be included in your GCs if you want to continue on this round.

Rules and Mechanics:
Obviously, you must be one of the Top 30 survivors of this competition's audition round to participate. So, here are the things you need to do and remember.

Procedure in creating the cure:

1. Write a One Shot Story within the range of 1500-2000 word limit following the Microsoft Office Word count.

2. Genre should be ACTION-ROMANCE.

3. It must be WRITTEN FORMALLY, FRESH, NEW and NOT POSTED or COPIED from any sites/ books/ magazines. We slice the throats of those who plagiarize.

4. File format should be .doc or .docx.

5. Language use should be in Tagalog/Taglish/English. No alien language, please.

6. Remember to proofread for a perfect cure.

7. Name the file with: TeamName-Username

The Formula:
Content (Plot, execution, genres) - 30%
Creativity (concept) - 20%
Relevance to the Theme - 20%
Requirements (Elements) - 15%
Technicalities - 10%
Impact - 5%
----------------------
100%

Salvation points:
1. Take note of our email add: tkseriouslyinsane@gmail.com

• Input in the subject area of your email: TeamName/Username

2. Take note of these dates:

• July 29, 2015, 12:01 am - Start of Submission
• August 14, 2015, 11:59 pm - End of Submission
• August 15, 2015 - Posting of Entries

WARNING:
• No multiple entries.

• No multiple accounts.

• No collaboration.

• No plagiarism.

• No changing of username.

• No replying to comments or commenting on your own entry. Be anonymous. Don't tell others which is your entry.

Any violation of any of the above-mentioned rules will result to DISQUALIFICATION.

Eight (8) infected subjects from each teams will be cleared from the outbreak and will advance to the next outbreak, next round.

This round is dangerous for your heart, so, hurry! You only have less than three weeks to submit the cure! Will you survive? Or will you die?

Goodluck!

-Team Baliw

07/27/15