We here at the Magespace have always had a secret fondness for good bad fan fiction. I'm not talking about stories that simply don't work, or stories written by authors who are still learning their craft. I'm talking about those pretentious, over-the-top, highly amusing bits of literary effort that are (a) so bad they're funny, and (b) totally unaware of their badness. The kind of badness we really admire contains one or more of the following elements:

• Plotlines cliched to the point of absurdity
• Hopelessly powerful characters with no weaknesses
• Pretentious, overblown language
• Awkward phrasing
• Jarring continuity
• Astonishingly improbable coincidences
• Stilted dialogue
• "Mary Sues"--that is to say, some permutation of the author included in the story to save the day, fall in love with the hero/heroine, or otherwise perform no useful function other than to stoke the writer's ego

Good bad fan fiction lends itself nicely to the "MST3K" treatment. Although good manners prevent us from bringing up any examples of bad fan fiction for your reading pleasure, you might try wandering by some of the MiSTing newsgroups. One of our favorite bad fanfic authors is famous for his really awful Star Trek stuff, and another has succeeded in turning the Star Wars universe on its ear. Further, there's a yearly contest (the Bulwer-Lytton contest, named after the author who originated that deathless phrase, "It was a dark and stormy night") that offers prizes and fame for the writer who can pen the worst bit of stinky fiction.

In the Magespace's latest contest, we're going to try to foster that bad creative urge in a few of those normally good Shadowrun writers out there in Matrix-land. Send us your best effort at a bad Shadowrun story, and you might win our latest prize, along with eternal fame and renown (okay, okay--we'll post your story on our website...but hey, it's sort of like fame!)

What we're looking for:

• Humor! That doesn't mean it has to be a funny story--just that its badness should amuse us.
• Stories of at least 500 but not more than 3,000 words. This limit is flexible, but don't stomp all over it.
• Style! Don't be afraid to stink with reckless abandon!
• Above all, BADNESS! Trot out all those Shadowrun cliches, scenery-chewing characters, and over-the-top plotlines!

What we're not looking for:

• Stories with intentionally bad spelling and punctuation.
• Simplistically bad stories. Don't send us the Shadowrun equivalent of Dick and Jane. Have fun with it. Pretend you're an author who thinks this is the best thing you've ever seen, and the world should be pleased that you've decided to share it with us mere mortals.
• Stories with explicit sex. Yeah, there are plenty of bad sex-related stories out there, but we don't need 'em here.

Prize

NEW! The prize for this contest, graciously provided by our sponsor: Dragonscroll, is a brand-new copy of any single Shadowrun book they offer.

Contest Rules:

1. DEADLINE EXTENDED! Entries must be submitted to winterhawk@magespace.net no later than Wednesday, June 9, 1999. Entries received after that date will not be considered. Winning entries will appear on the Magespace approximately two weeks to a month later.
   
   
2. All entries must be the original work of the submitter.
   
   
3. All stories must take place in FASA's Shadowrun universe.
   
   
4. Entries should contain between 500 and 3,000 words. Don't worry if you go a bit over or under, but try to keep as close as possible.
   
   
5. Stories will be judged on how well they achieve "good badness." Criteria for this will be: humor; use/abuse of Shadowrun concepts, characters, and situations; skill; overall appeal.
   
   
6. Each entry must have a title.
   
   
7. Entries must be submitted in plain-text format or vanilla, non-fancy-editor-produced HTML. The keyword here is simple. Italics, bold, paragraph, and line-break tags are okay, but please don't send stories indented with numerous nonbreaking spaces, stories set in your own choice of font, and so forth. When I go to post the stories on the site, I don't want to have to work around your formatting.
   
   
8. Each person may enter only one story.
   
   
9. Please mark each entry "BAD SHADOWRUN ENTRY" so I can keep track of them.
   
   
10. As always, this contest is in no way affiliated with FASA.
    
    
11. The judge for this contest will be me--Rat. Judge's decisions are final.
    
    
12. Employees of Dragonscroll and anyone directly connected with the Magespace are not eligible to enter. (That second part shouldn't be too hard, given that the only two folks directly connected with the Magespace are the judge and the judge's spouse...)
    
    
13. If you are well known to me, please submit your entry using a different email address (such as Yahoo or Hotmail).
    
    
14. Have fun!

As with all previous Magespace contests, you retain all copyrights to your work, but we reserve the right to post any or all entries on our site for as long as we like. (Naturally you can post them wherever else you want as well).

Oh--and thanks to JJ for the idea!