contre la montre

Contre la montre: An expression stolen from the vocabulary of the Tour de France, means: against the clock. Which could tell you that this community is about time, and in a way, that's true.

ARCHIVE: Challenges :: Fictional Fandoms :: RPS Fandoms

Ever heard of an improv? It's the kind of thing some of those geeky fanfiction writers do. They meet up on AIM, (not always) manage to agree on a quote or a certain topic and then everyone hurries off because there are only [insert number of your choice here] minutes allowed to write a story on the given topic.

Some people might wonder why anyone would want to do that kind of thing. Well, reasons vary from craziness and masochism to enjoying a good writing exercise as well as the need to focus entirely on writing for a certain amount of time. As far as reasons go, there really are no conditions to join this community. There are some rules and guidelines, though, to make sure that everyone's having fun.


#1: This community is not limited to a certain fandom. It is, however, limited to slash, RPS as well as FPS. Het elements are allowed, of course, but slash is a requirement.

There's a special community for het and gen stories.

#2: Every Thursday, 3lbsponge will post one topic, one sentence, a quote, whatever, along with instructions on how much time people are allowed to take for the writing process. We trust you not to cheat -- after all, this is about exercise, about practice. What would be the use of taking an hour when only forty-five minutes are allowed? It would defeat the purpose.

You can write your take on the topic whenever you have the time to sit down and concentrate long enough, but all stories must be posted until the following Thursday, before the next topic gets posted. You don't have to participate every time, only when you have the time and feel like writing something.

More than one entry per topic is, of course, allowed, but keep it down to a reasonable number.


#3: Any- and everyone is more than welcome to suggest possible topics. If you have suggestions, please post them in reply to the most recent challenge entry.


#4: Stories should be posted with the following information in the subject line: "Story title, fandom, rating, pairing." Please make use of the LJ-cut as well as of the spell-checker most computers offer nowadays. Excessive editing and/or sending your story to a beta would defeat the purpose of improvs, but reading over it once and making sure that there are no glaring errors is not only allowed, but required.

Headers must include, in addition to the information you should also include in the subject line, a legal disclaimer. And by disclaimer, I mean a disclaimer, in which you state at the very least that there's no truth to your story, and, in the case of FPS, that you're playing with someone else's characters. Disclaimers offer us a shred of protection, so take them seriously, forchrissake! Not doing so will result in a warning the first time, exclusion from the community the second time.


#5: Feedback is a beautiful thing. You won't be excluded if you don't give any, but I strongly ask you to post at least a short comment in reply to every story you read here. You like getting feedback? So does everyone else.


#6: Trust me when I say that no one will be interested in what the weather in your country's like at the moment or what you ate for breakfast. So if that's the only topic of your entry in the community journal, spare us. Exclude the community pimps, quiz results, and virus warnings, as well. OT-posts are not allowed.


#7: Same goes for chat-speak. Do you hate the English language so much that you can't be bothered to make an attempt at correct spelling and grammar? Then this community certainly isn't the right place for you. Smileys are allowed, but keep them down to a reasonable minimum.


#8: I don't care if you're an FPS-er and don't agree with the concept of RPS. Flame anyone and you'll be banned faster than you can say "sick, twisted mind."


#9: As of 3/28/08, anime/video/game slash as well as original stories are now welcome at contrelamontre & ame_soeur, as the other two communities are dead.


That's it, for now. I reserve the right to make additions and changes if more issues arise. Complaints, suggestions, donations, chocolate jaffa cakes, rotten eggs fluffy bunnies and anything else you see fitting can be directed at 3lbsponge.

Co-moderators with the same rights: zarah5 and peak_in_darien


Not reading these guidelines doesn't exclude you from following them.



Sister communities:
Contre challenges are valid in these communities
ame_soeur, for het and gen

Former sister communities:
These communities used to be sister comms, but have since died, and after 3/28/08, these types of fics are allowed at contrelamontre & ame_soeur
petitte_soeur, for original fiction
temps_mort, for anime/manga/videogame slash

Affiliate communities:
againsttheclock: French language version of Contre
fanfic100: The Original Insane FanFic Challenge
show_us_yers: Fanfiction Recommendations
tworavens: Original fiction

We're listed on 150_comms, so go check them out also.

Layout Credit:
passing_girl