Intelligent stories are about change.  Your characters grow or diminish over time, and the reader takes that journey with them.  For our writing prompt this month, we want you to take a character and transform them physically. Write a story where a character physically transforms.  This can lead to him or her experiencing changes in personality or idealistic nature as well, but the core change should be physical.  There is no word limit this month.  As always, please express your creativity.  Good luck to everyone!

Official Rules

1. One Winner will be chosen on the 15th of the month following the start of the contest.
2. By submitting your prompt, you agree that, if selected as the monthly winner, and you are using any established characters, locations or items from the Tellest series, you will be willing to sign an agreement to keep your work exclusive to Tellest and Tellest.com where failure to agree will exclude you from the monthly prize.
3. Prize is $10 payable through PayPal.  Also includes a featured spot on the Tellest website for at least a month following the close of the monthly contest.

The post March-April Writing Prompt appeared first on Tellest.

It’s that time.  We’re now accepting submissions for short stories for this month’s writing prompt.  We asked aspiring taleweavers to write a short, 1500 word or less story that focused on a particular object.  Our winner will be rewarded with a $10 credit to PayPal, and all the glory that comes from victory.

You can submit your prompt by leaving us a link to your work in these places:

• A comment below
• The Tellest Subreddit

Our writers have until the 14th to submit their short stories.  Good luck to everyone!

Official Rules

1. One Winner will be chosen on the 15th of the month following the start of the contest.
2. By submitting your prompt, you agree that, if selected as the monthly winner, and you are using any established characters, locations or items from the Tellest series, you will be willing to sign an agreement to keep your work exclusive to Tellest and Tellest.com where failure to agree will exclude you from the monthly prize.
3. Prize is $10 payable through PayPal.  Also includes a featured spot on the Tellest website for at least a month following the close of the monthly contest.

The post February-March Submission Thread appeared first on Tellest.

For Tellest’s writing prompt this month, we wanted to see what you could come up with when one of the characters you’re writing isn’t necessarily alive. In 1500 words or less, write a story for Tellest that focuses on a particular object.  It can be anything from sentimental to sentient, or completely mundane.  As always, please express your creativity.  Good luck to everyone!

Official Rules

1. One Winner will be chosen on the 15th of the month following the start of the contest.
2. By submitting your prompt, you agree that, if selected as the monthly winner, and you are using any established characters, locations or items from the Tellest series, you will be willing to sign an agreement to keep your work exclusive to Tellest and Tellest.com where failure to agree will exclude you from the monthly prize.
3. Prize is $10 payable through PayPal.  Also includes a featured spot on the Tellest website for at least a month following the close of the monthly contest.

The post February-March Writing Prompt appeared first on Tellest.

Original Post:

Hello fantasy writers! Two months running, and still not a single submission from the outside world. But we’re not worried. Instead, what we’d like to do is up the ante even more.  The winner of this month’s submission will receive a $15 gift card to Amazon.

For Tellest’s writing prompt this month, we want to explore the darker side of things. In 1500 words or less, write a story for Tellest that is from a villain’s point of view. Again, we want to try to be as open to ideas as possible.  As such, the character doesn’t have to be human.  Feel free to let your creativity take wing!  We look forward to seeing your tales!  

Official Rules

1. One Winner will be chosen on the 15th of the month following the start of the contest.
2. By submitting your prompt, you agree that, if selected as the monthly winner, and you are using any established characters, locations or items from the Tellest series, you will be willing to sign an agreement to keep your work exclusive to Tellest and Tellest.com where failure to agree will exclude you from the monthly prize.
3. Prize is $15 payable through PayPal.  Also includes a featured spot on the Tellest website for at least a month following the close of the monthly contest.

The post January-February Writing Prompt appeared first on Tellest.

Last month, Tellest hosted a writing contest where we asked fans of the genre to create a holiday for Tellest.  Unfortunately, due to our still small web presence, we only had one story submitted in time, and that was done by a member of our internal team.

We want to spread the love outside of the established stable of writers.  Kevin Gallagher’s “The Night Before Nadeus”, a tale about a Tellest version of Christmas will release on this website.  But, being as he was already on our team, we’re stealing last month’s prize, and rolling into this month’s instead.  We will send the writer of the best story this month kindle eBook(s) with a total value of $10 or less.

In two weeks we will be celebrating the passing of another year.  We’ll be setting new resolutions for ourselves, and looking back at what affected us the most in the prior 365 days.  For Tellest’s writing prompt this month, we wanted to explore that concept, though maybe in grander fashion.

In 1500 words or less, invent a character for Tellest, and then describe his or her favorite memory.

Again, we want to try to be as open to ideas as possible.  As such, the character doesn’t have to be human.  It doesn’t have to be a happy memory, either.  Feel free to let your creativity take wing!  We look forward to seeing your tales!

Official Rules

1. One Winner will be chosen on the 15th of the month following the start of the contest.
2. By submitting your prompt, you agree that, if selected as the monthly winner, you will be willing to sign an agreement to keep your work exclusive to Tellest and Tellest.com where failure to agree will exclude you from the monthly prize.  The agreement will also allow writers for Tellest to further develop on the ideas, characters, places and events featured in your submission.
3. Prize includes the winner’s choice of kindle ebook(s) on amazon’s store, with a cost up to $10.  This does not necessarily have to be a Tellest branded book.  Also includes a featured spot on the Tellest website for at least a month following the close of the monthly contest.

The post December-January Writing Prompt appeared first on Tellest.

Every creative person has their origin story, and I’m sure that for most it would go back to being a kid and playing make pretend. But, since every kid tends to have this memory (so many “I’m Batman”, “I’m Donatello”, and nerf war memories come from that era of my life), there’s something I like to call the true origin point (patent pending). For me, before there was screenwriting and directing, writing a novel, or even podcasting; there was one of my greatest passions was wrestling.

I’m sure there is a chance that I have lost some of you already, but sit back and read. Origin stories are important and perhaps you’ll connect with this more than you think.

Some of my earliest memories involve wrestling. My aunt was, and continues to be, a fan and we connected because of it. This is when I discovered Shawn Michaels, The Heartbreak Kid, and anyone that knows me, knows that I wanted to be him. It’s such a shame that I fell out of watching the, at the time, WWF prior to 1998; I missed so much of his career. I bring this up, because he was the reason I wanted to be a wrestler and wrestling helped show me that being creative can be so fulfilling.

In the late ’90s, early 2000’s, our group of friends started backyard wrestling (I know, I know! How dangerous! Play it safe kids!) under the organization called Underground Wrestling Federation. At this time, I don’t know that wrestling is what you could call what we did. Punches, kicks, stomps… that was mostly what we did. As my creative juices hadn’t really started flowing yet, I came up with the brilliant gimmick of Heartbreak Kev. Go ahead, judge; I would.

At some point, we met up with another group of friends who had also started their own wrestling organization; Trampoline Wrestling Federation. When I first saw a suplex… on the ground, I was amazed by these guys. Little did I know, that I would spend the next four plus years of my life wrestling, on the ground, in a ring… professionally. But, I’m getting a head of myself.

This is where the name Steel Tip was birthed. After losing the HBKev gimmick, I developed Steel Tip (which, ultimately meant nothing) into a multi-media personality. It’s a name that the Tellest fan base if familiar with; to my understanding, he’s one of the fan favorites of The Child of the Stars trilogy.

Steel Tip isn’t the only thing to come from the wrestling world. I learned how to tell a story from wrestling. At the end of the day, that’s all wrestling is, right? Each match is telling it’s own story of hero vs. villain, villain vs. villain, and even hero vs. hero. Crafting story lines in wrestling can be, at times, the most interesting part of the business. They may be no “writing” of dialogue (though at times, there is) or any kind of screen play, but you have to make the audience care about the characters who are telling the story to get them engaged.

Acting and directing are HUGE parts of this world. EVERY wrestler is doing some sort of acting during their matches or promos. It may just be an over exaggeration of the persons own personality, or it may be an over the top act. As the heel (usually), you are helping direct the match. You make the decisions that help shape what the audience sees and, hopefully, embraces.

I learned to talk here, and that’s one of the things I do MOST in hobby form now. Mike and I host a couple of podcasts (shameless plug 1 and shameless plug 2) and I built a network of podcasts on the back of Steel Tip. I certainly don’t go by that name anymore, but hidden in initials and meanings, podcasting (for me) can find it’s roots deep in the wrestling world. I think that podcasting and wrestling are so closely linked by evidence of guys like Steve Austin and Chris Jericho each starting their own show, post-wrestling career.

Aside from wrestling leading me to all these great, creative, different things; at it’s heart it was creative freedom. It was a dopey dream that I worked hard at, and it paid off. I may not have made it to the big leagues; but in reality, that was never the goal. The goal was to entertain people, and I did just that. When you are on a creative kick, it’s a kind of high. You get super excited about something that you are so passionate about, and others may balk at, but at the end of the day YOU have to be proud of what you’ve done.

The post Guest Wednesday: Creative Origins appeared first on Tellest.

For this month, we’d like to lean on the time of year.  A lot of fantasy focuses on tragedy and conflict, but we often forget that even in the darkest of times, there can be cause to rejoice.  In 1,500 words or less, create a holiday for Tellest from scratch.  It can be something that any race would celebrate, and it can be as jovial or as dark as you prefer.

Our submission preference is Google Docs, but we want you to be comfortable.  As long as we can read whatever you submit, and it doesn’t cause any unwanted viruses, we’ll accommodate you!

Official Rules

1. One Winner will be chosen on the 15th of the month following the start of the contest.
2. By submitting your prompt, you agree that, if selected as the monthly winner, you will be willing to sign an agreement to keep your work exclusive to Tellest and Tellest.com where failure to agree will exclude you from the monthly prize.  The agreement will also allow writers for Tellest to further develop on the ideas, characters, places and events featured in your submission.
3. Prize includes the winner’s choice of one (1) kindle ebook on amazon’s store, with a cost up to $5.  This does not necessarily have to be a Tellest branded book.  Also includes a featured spot on the Tellest website for at least a month following the close of the monthly contest.

The post Monthly Writing Prompts appeared first on Tellest.

Sitting around and not expressing yourself is a one way ticket to the land of What Ifs? Anxiety builds and builds and builds, until you explode. There’s a difference between expressing yourself by screaming at the top of your lungs and being that guy who’s an asshole, that is unhappy with his life and the only satisfaction felt is causing misery for others. No one likes that guy, and I’m pretty confident one of the most basic human needs is to feel liked.

Being creative may not be your ticket to fame, but that should never be the goal. When you create something, it’s a way for you to relieve some of the stress of life. It’s a way to express yourself and show your individuality; your uniqueness. The chances of seeing your name in the spotlight are slim and an ineffective way to promote your own creativity. Who want’s to go on and create more things, when you have yet to meet your goal?

That doesn’t mean you should set your goals low, as that also hinders your creativity; lacks the challenge you present yourself. The simple goal of your creation should be that you feel good about it once you’ve produced it. It makes you smile, or cry, as you see your creation come to life. It moves you in ways that you can’t describe, moves you to the point to do more. And as you express yourself more, you stop sweating the small things (and sometimes the bigger things), and live a much happier life. Sure, you may not be the next Spielberg… but why be the next anything, when you can be the first you?

I’ve been part of this world, Tellest that is, for a very long time. I’ve seen it grow, get broken down, and rebuilt. I’ve helped grow it, I’ve helped break it and I’ve helped rebuild it. And during all this time, I think I can safely say that I’ve seen someone who is 100% happy with the creation, no matter what detours had to be taken. Mike has done a phenomenal job at showing me what it means for him to be creative.

Simply put, creativity breeds creativity. And, in a world where the reboot, the retelling, or the adaptation runs the strongest; we may be low on creativity. And, that’s what I think Tellest is for; to help breed creativity. It only starts with Mike, but the world is in your hands. Mike has already told you that this world is open for all to play in, so instead of stories being rehashed, why not create your own hero, who just happens to live in the world of Tellest?

Over the next few months, as I continue to work on other projects (some of them Tellest related!), I’ll be writing a series of blogs, here, on Tellest.com, about different forms of creativity. The who, what, where, when, and how of it all. Whether it be Tellest related, or something completely original, I hope that you get inspired to try your hand at something. There is a natural high from being creative that everyone should get to experience and I truly believe that everyone has something to say, so why not you?

The post Guest Wednesday: Creativity appeared first on Tellest.