The Olympics of Writing

It has been a while since I posted something on Ye Ole Blog. It isn't for lack of having things to write about, but rather my focus on fiction writing that I am trying to finish up. Lately I have been thinking about the Olympics (Who hasn't?). Specifically I have been thinking about how Godzilla would win nearly every event if he entered, but which country would he represent? Applying the Olympics to writing is another idea I had.

Obviously this isn't a sport like those we see at the Olympics, unless competitive sitting has become an event. There are also many different awards available to writers awarded annually. The physical nature of the Olympics limits the age of competitors, but with writing there is no age limit. It could be argued that with age comes experience and an established narrator voice that gives practiced writers an advantage.

For writing I would also like a return of amateur status as a requirement similar to what the Olympics once had. This could be a competition to help undiscovered amateur authors get discovered and perhaps launch a career. Of course that only comes with the competition gaining a measure of prestige. This could also be considered a team event with editors, beta readers, etc.

Difficulties

The Olympics has always been an international competition and there are many different languages that are spoken around the globe. This means that there would be a need for judges that speak every written language for the stories submitted for judging. How can we overcome this? If the competition is limited to one language then that gives an unfair advantage to native speakers of that language. How can you capture the true spirit of the Olympics without it being a just and fair worldwide competition?

Forming teams would be problematic in itself. Just starting out you can't expect nations to spend money to put together teams of writers for this kind of competition. Without national backing who would compete as an amateur writer? Who would organize the team then if given the opportunity? In Olympic competition they have national competitions to help decide who moves on to compete with the best in the world.

Events

In spite of these difficulties, I can't help but to think of how these events would go. If you look at Wattpad, they have many competitions going on all the time. I'm sure they probably have their own Olympics of writing going on that has probably concluded by now. Imagining a competition event based upon a writing prompt for each genre with a word count limit is relatively easy at this point. Word sprints are a regular occurrence on social media as well. Coming up with a plethora of events to compete in would be easy. This sort of thing makes me wonder What if?

Progress Updates

Virtual Wars Booting Up (currently in editing hell)
Final edits: On page 109 of 168
Putting edits into computer: On page 101 of 168
Custom Chapter Headers: 27 of 41

Virtual Wars Running (Book 2)
Outline: 20%