☀️ /wg/ Summer 2025 Chuuba Fanfiction World Championship☀️

🌴No not everything with Matsuri counts as Summer themed🌴

Also briefly known as the 2025 Inaugural Holotower Vtuber Writing Contest

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Questions

The fuck is this?

This is a board-wide fanfiction writing contest hosted by /wg/ with a focus on making shorter stories themed to the season. This is blatantly an attempt to fish for new writers via an easy to join contest a writing contest with a twist to shake up our older writers and make an easy format for newer writers to try making fanfiction for the first time.

What are the rules?

1. Submitted stories must be between the maximum wordcount of 5k and the minimum wordcount of 300 for prose fiction, and 10 for other kinds of stories (poetry, greentext, etc). Stories are preferably published via one of the given methods below but given the low length requirements can be submitted fully within the length of a holotower post or two. Though in such case it will be manually archived here via a rentry page created by the contest runner which will be linked below in the archive (and our own /wg/ archive of course).
   

• Note: This also means proving authorship should you win near impossible so if you want to claim secondary prizes you might want to save a screenshot.
  

2. Your story must star a vTuber in some way or form. Fans, cosplayers, roleplayers, OC Children or fusions, etc. do not count as vTubers. As long as they are a vTuber (i.e a virtual youtuber in real life, and not just an OC you made specifically to tell a story.), you can have them do whatever and act however you like. The chuuba also does not have to be the main character in the story (obviously just don't write a fic full of OCs then only mention them in one sentence). If it doesn't pass a smell test of "could you count this as vtuber fanfiction?" then it won't be qualified for our contest.
3. Submission and Voting Period:
   

• The submission period for stories is one month, starting on July 1 and ending on July 31 (23:59 UTC-12 time). You can submit a story at any time during this period, and all stories that have been submitted will be available to view in this archive.
• An additional week August 1 to August 7 will be given after the end date for voters to read some stories and decide on their favourites.
• The voting period will last five days 8 to 12 and will be completed via Google Forms.
  

4. This contest will have one main category of a themed constrained writing. The theme is Something Summer, and all entries must at least be vaguely in theme . Additional categories may open up to accommodate other categories if it warrants such. If enough submissions are there such that having only a top three isn't enough then additional categories can open up based on tags.
5. For fairness sake, we will check that anything you're submitting is newly made and not something that has been published prior to the contest period.
6. Due to conceit of the contest word count should be noted or marked in your submission post. Otherwise the wordcount will be verified for you by the contest runner.
7. While the 5k word limit isn't as tight as you think, you can't cheat out extra words with your title. If for some ungodly reason your title is longer than 50 words it will be mocked in thread, and disqualified.

How do I submit my story?

You should see a WRITING CONTEST STORY ANCHOR at/near the top of the thread, which you can reply to with a link to your story. Make sure to properly tag your stories, as your story will be archived DISCUSS IF WE NEED A CONTEST TAG. Popular websites for hosting fics include Google Docs with its publish function and Rentry; if you don't care for being anonymous AO3 is also an option as well as that old dinosaur fanfiction.net. More details about tagging and hosting stories can be found in our main archive at https://rentry.co/VTCFFCD. For this contest please mark your word count when you submit to the thread.

Can I submit multiple stories?

If you have the drive to write more than one, please be our guest.

Is there a central theme?

Yes, The theme this contest is, Summer. Yep just Summer. Whether it's the Summer Heat, a Summer Vacation or Summer Freedom. As long as it is vaguely summer themed it counts.
Remember for this contest the theme is mandatory. We encourage you to take inspiration from the thread, or think of summery things like Swimsuits, Barbecue, Flip-Flops, Thongs, The Beach, Mosquitoes, The Sun, Summer Colored Festivals, etc.

So do I have to write something close to 5000?

You don't have to, but yes by nature those working under less restrictive word counts will have an advantage due to having more room to work with. Though if it makes you feel better, those who willingly challenge themselves by working under even more restrictive word counts will get a special place in this archive.
Though fair warning, do keep the maximum wordcount in mind when you try and draft your idea. 5k words may seem like a lot but anything with a plot summary longer than a paragraph is probably not going to fit.

Who can vote?

Anyone. Though if you plan on voting , do try to read at least a few stories before deciding. The stories this time are all going to be short so if you're making an effort to vote, then please try to read some or all of them.

Is this chuuba allowed?

If it's a vtuber it's allowed, no questions. We may be on holotower but we will continue accepting fics of any vtuber.

Do I get a prize?

Bragging rights?
Additional Prizes:

• If you win (place within a category) I (The contest runner) will be willing to write a vtuber fanfic of equivalent length or greater than your winning entry, details to be settled via email alongside proof you own the given fic.
  ->Offer from previous contest is still valid and unclaimed by winners
• An anon has offered to draw cover art for the top three

When can I start?

Now, we can't really stop you from starting a fic outside of gentlemen's honor,

Some pointers for new writers

If you need help with getting started on a story or happen to be void of any ideas, read on.

Tips for getting started

• We recommend reading some published stories or even fics from our main archive to get an idea of formatting and the type of prose you want to write with, as well as some possible inspiration. Take notes of what you like and what you don’t to craft your own style.
• Try reading your sentences and dialogue out loud to see how they roll off the tongue. By nature you'll be working with established characters so having some clips or streams handy can help you tune dialogue better to their voice.
• Keep a thesaurus handy to mix up your vocabulary, though don't be afraid of your first draft being bland. You can always edit later.
• If you’re short on ideas, start by imagining a scene you want to see played out with a chuuba and building your story around it. What's the setting? How do you get your characters to that scene? What happens after it?
• Ask the thread. We can recommend stories that did particular aspects well, or bounce ideas off of each other and generally assist you in crafting a story.
• The best way to improve is to just start writing and receive some feedback. Don’t be afraid to throw your hat in the ring, we all had to start somewhere. Who knows, you might be better than you think, and good enough to take a shot at the title of champion.
• If you need help with getting a beta reader the thread's writers have their emails listed on a link in the main archive. Check it out, if they're on there they're open to getting emailed for helping you with beta reading. Beta Reader Emails
• In this contest you will have a word count limit. X000 words isn't as restrictive as other flash fiction formats but you will start to feel the limit if the scope of your story starts expanding.
• Making an outline can help scope out the story you want to make. It doesn't have to be extensive. A simple sequence of events, and notes can make all the difference in making your idea go from an indeterminate blob to an achievable goal to write.
• Don't get too ambitious with your concept. You're not going to be writing an epic and while there is room to experiment, you are still working under a word count limit.

/wg/'s prompt archive

If you're still short on ideas for your story, you can check out our prompt archive and see if anything catches your eye (keep in mind a lot of it is quite old). Prompt Archive

Contest archive

Here will be everything submitted for the contest during the submission period. With special sections marked for those voluntarily aiming for a tighter word count limit. Tags in bold are added by the archivist to help the main archiver with adding these fics to the archive.