News
Get Ready for Challenge Month!

We know it's been a challenge having to wait for our April site event. However, we're only a few days away! We can't help but show our excitement for challenge month. No, really, you can see it with our brand new event skin, which will be our featured skin through the entire month. If you want to make it your default skin for the month, make sure to change it in your preferences page.

In order to make sure everyone understands all that's going on, we'll try to cover everything here. If there's something you're not sure about, please let us know in the comments. There's a lot of information in this post, but please read the whole thing to be sure you know what's happening in April.

How and when do I post my story so that it's part of the event?
After midnight on April 1 (site time, which is Eastern US time-it's listed under the shoutbox), post your story as you normally would. Once you've added your story, find the challenge you're responding to on the challenges page or in your saved challenges list (if you've already saved it to your personal list) in your Account Info page. At the bottom of the challenge, you'll see a Respond to the challenge! link. Click the link, put a check in the box next to the story which is the challenge response and click submit.

Your fic does not need to be complete prior to posting. In fact, it doesn't even need to be completed during April. You have the whole month, during which you only need to BEGIN posting the story.

If you have a banner artist or beta that you worked with as part of your event challenge response, you must credit them in your story notes in order for them to be counted as having participated in the event. If they aren't listed in your story notes, we have no way of identifying that they were part of the event.

How do I find the stories that are being added to the challenge?
Stories that are part of the event will be easy to spot because they'll have a little umbrella icon (That class protector umbrella comes in handy to avoid April showers):

Also, don't forget that we have a site events browse page where you can view all the stories from previous site events, as well as the ones from this event .

Will you be featuring regular stories while the challenge is going on?
There won't be any mod-chosen featured stories in April. For the first half of the month, the usual feature spot will showcase responses to challenges posted at Elysian Fields, no matter when they were published. Starting on the 15th, the featured area will display stories that were created specifically for this event.

Is there a comment aspect to this event as well?
Of course there is! If you write at least 20 comments in April that contain at least 5 words, you'll meet the requirements of the commenter challenge! You'll see a link to the comment challenge leaderboard on the homepage under the Members of the Month where the all star commenter list is usually located.

Besides an amazing sense of pride, do we get anything for participating in the event?
Of course you do! We have some amazing awards that will be given out after the end of April. Our amazing angelic_amy created the following awards for participating authors, artists, commenters, and betas (this is our first event with beta awards, and we're so glad to have them since betas need love too!):

That about covers it. Please let us know if there's any additional questions. Get ready for some amazing new stories!



--The Mods on March 28, 2019 11:14am 14 Comments
Comments

Yay! applause

I’m so excited to see what everyone comes up with! 

-- angelic_amy on March 28, 2019 11:49am

Yay beta badges!!! It's my first time finding betas thru the site, and they are KILLIN' IT. Glad they'll get award badges!

-- KillerSnotMonster on March 28, 2019 12:10pm

Squee! Beta badges! Love <3

-- Twinkles on March 28, 2019 12:18pm

Oh this skin is lurvely! The colours are just fantastic hearts

-- Twinkles on March 28, 2019 12:20pm

I LOVE those April themed participation badges. PERFECT! And the little umbrellas are darling too. I don't have plans to participate, but all these delights are getting me itchy to be part of things...

-- Cryptwarmer on March 28, 2019 12:32pm

The April graphics are ADORABLE, and so is the umbrella!! I can't wait to see what everyone else does!

-- Fancyflautist on March 28, 2019 03:28pm

I cant wait! applause

-- -Carrie-Ann- on March 30, 2019 10:37am

Oh, can I just ask, do the people who posted the challenge's we're responding to not get an award too? Its a bit late for me to have thought of it in the scheme of things, but dont they deserve one for their hard work? I just thought that they deserve a part in things, especially if we're awarding beta's this time too. *Runs to hide in case I've opened up a whole can of worms*

-- -Carrie-Ann- on April 01, 2019 08:54am

@Carrie-Ann: Since the majority of site challenges weren't written with the intent of being included in this event, it doesn't denote a level of participation in the same way that authoring, commenting, bannermaking, or beta'ing does. And specifically, the challenge here is to *answer the call* of a site challenge in some way. (Also, since the challenge month has already started, it would be a little too late for that this time around)

Thank you bunches for the thought, however!

Best,
OYB

-- OffYourBird on April 01, 2019 09:03am

People who posted challenges that get responded to this month do get an award! They get a brand new story that abides by their wishes biggrin.

-- Susan on April 01, 2019 09:29am

Aww, thanks for getting back yo me OYB and Susan, I totally get it now you've explained :D

-- -Carrie-Ann- on April 01, 2019 06:13pm

So, I'm very new here and this might be a silly question but.... is there a limit on how old a challenge is that we can respond to for Challenge Month? For it to actually be included and not seem silly, I mean. Like... say I've started this Christmas themed fic, and say I responded to one of the seasonal challenges... would it still count?

-- Kittenshift17 on April 04, 2019 11:33pm

@Kittenshift17: Definitely not a silly question - it can be Christmas every day in April if you so choose! biggrin Any and all EF challenges are up for grabs. 

-- OffYourBird on April 05, 2019 01:46am

So many wonderful stories so far! I've enjoyed reading all of then, and can't wait to see what others come up with. biggrin

-- angelic_amy on April 05, 2019 11:19pm