The writing challenges occur on a bi-monthly basis and give members of the fleet a chance to really show their creative writing ability. This area explains the guidelines of the contest, and also showcases the winning entries of each challenge.

Challenge Guidelines

• To participate, an entrant must create a new thread in the challenge forum. The subject of the thread must be the title of the story. If it is a Work in Progress, the thread should be denoted with the heart post icon (). If the work is complete, the thread should be denoted with the horizontal arrow post icon ().
• All works must be original and entirely the work of the entrant. No co-authoring.
• Entrants are welcome to create any character they so desire, but they must be from the Star Trek universe. No "canon" characters allowed. (i.e.- No one who has been on a show.)
• Length: No more than 3000 words accepted.
• Entries posted after the end date will be moved to the "Character Cafe" forum where they can be read, but not considered for the challenge.

Previous Winners

As time goes by and more challenges are done on a regular basis, there has been a need to create a list of guidelines regarding to previous winners. A group of previous judges have come up with the following guidelines:

1. A challenge winner may not participate in the challenge directly after the challenge they just won. Runners-up, or Honorable Mention recipients are exempt from this rule.
2. Any entrant who wins two challenges in one calendar year will be considered the "Champion" for their year. If there is more than one, both will be considered "Champions."
3. An entrant who wins their second challenge in one calendar year must wait three challenges before they may again enter their work. For example:
• Jan/Feb '00: Jane
• Mar/Apr '00: John
• May/Jun '00: Jane
• Jul/Aug '00: Tom
• Sep/Oct '00: Susie
• Nov/Dec '00: John
• In the setup above, Jane cannot enter the competition until Jan/Feb of '01. John cannot enter another competition until Jul/Aug '01. Both are considered Champions. Both must judge at least one competition before entering again.

The Prizes

The winner receives a mini-banner for their forum signature denoting that they have won the challenge, as well as a large banner for their ship's website. Each winner is also announced on the Community News, and may choose the next challenge's topic.