Somehow, September is almost gone and our next event is right around the corner. If you missed the announcement, you can find it linked here. 

Before I get too far into fine details, though, I want to acknowledge that the site has undergone some teething pains due to having switched web hosts, resulting in limited access for some folks. With the exception of email, the Mod Team believes the issues are now largely resolved. Please see the post linked here for more information, and if you still are experiencing any issues, you can report them or any error messages you have to us at elysianfieldsarchive@gmail.com.

Now, without further ado, here are the deets for the event itself: 

• Kick-off is at 12:00 am site time on the 1st. (Site time can always be found under the Shoutbox on our homepage.)
• Written submissions must meet a minimum word count of 100 and must include or address a truce in some fashion (if you’re unsure if you’ve done enough to satisfy this requirement, please ask a mod).
• Your first chapter needs to be posted during October––no earlier, no later––but that does not mean you need to have the entire thing finished and uploaded by month’s end. 
• One-shot fics are of course acceptable, as are artwork-only and multimedia works. 
• There is no word count minimum for artwork-only or multimedia pieces, and no upper limit on any works beyond the site limitation of one-shots being under 15k. (Anything over 15k needs to be posted as multiple chapters, therefore making it no longer a one-shot by definition.) 
• You can earn the artist award for creating a banner for any work submitted for the event and/or posting a work with artwork or multimedia elements.
• To earn the commenter award, you must leave at least 17 comments containing at least 17 words (because it’s our 17th anniversary). The comments can be on any fic or artwork across the EF site (comments on news posts don’t count). 

At the start of the event, you will see a tickbox appear when adding a new story. This is to indicate your story is part of the event, to make sure it appears in the official list of event fics, and so it can be featured alongside the others throughout the month.  It looks like so:

Additionally, when you’ve ticked that box, a white flag icon will appear beside your story, as depicted in the example here:

Note: while sequels (or indeed prequels, or companion stories) to existing fics and artwork are eligible for this event, it’s important that submissions are new works, as in not previously shared elsewhere already. 

Once you’ve written and shared your new fic to EF, you can share it on any other site you wish. We do not require exclusivity. 

The dimensions for banners are the same as they’ve always been, as outlined on our FAQ page. All we ask is that you add a small line of text stating “Designed for the 2023 Elysian Fields Truce Challenge.”

Please, please (we cannot stress this enough!) credit your beta(s) and/or banner artist by listing their Elysian Fields username in the story notes. If you have made your own banner, include something along the lines of 'Banner by me' so you get credit for it. If you do not list your credits, we can’t issue awards. The mod team will not be chasing down this information.

Artwork-only and mixed media submissions should include the Artwork category, but please do not tick the ‘artwork-only’ box for event works, as site coding would prevent the work showing as part of the event. If you forget, or accidentally tick the artwork box, contact the Mod Team and we can resolve this. 

The awards, lovingly designed by DeathTheKat, are as pictured at the top of this news post and there is a custom site skin for this event also designed by DeathTheKat which will be the default during the entire month of October.

Any questions, comment below!