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The Weekly is a community project in the form of a series of micro-fiction contests, inspired by the discontinued Community Writing Competitions on Halo Waypoint. Each week, users can challenge themselves to write a short prose response to a prompt chosen at the start of the week by the competition's judge. At the week's end, the judge selects a winner to receive a shiny new Weekly Winner eraicon on their entry's page, and the entry will then be displayed on Recent Changes for the next week for all to easily see and read.

The project was conceived in response to a long-standing downturn in prose writing on the site, in hopes of encouraging more prose by presenting a painless, easily-attainable length as a target instead of a hopelessly-long novel length. The ideas the writers incorporate to hone their craft under such constraints might then become the seeds for events their own characters go through, or even be worked into whole other long stories.

How To Participate[]

At the beginning of each week, a new prompt will be posted on this page, for users to write in response to. Working with in the length and topic restraints (which could have to do with the theme, or subject, or writing style like "only dialogue"), users then write their response and create a new page on which to post it. Remember to include a Writer Template ("{{Writer|your username}}") at the top and categorize it "The Weekly" ("[[Category:The Weekly]]") at the bottom. A paragraph at the top can be added to introduce the piece and context for it without going towards the word count, so long as there's a horizontal line ("----") between to make set them apart distinctly. The word length for each entry is variable and set by the prompt's judge, but typically ranges between 500 to 1000 words. While you may submit multiple entries for each week, they must be individual entries (while having multiple entries be sequels/prequels to one another is a grey area, they must still work as stories on their own, rather than multiple-part stories).

Once an entry is complete, simply add a link to your entry's page in the scrollbox for the appropriate week for it to be counted. The judge in charge of that week's prompt will then read the entries and pick a winner for the }}week. The judge will also provide feedback for each entry. Bear in mind, the judge's decision may be based on subjective judgements, but good spelling, grammar, and punctuation go a long way towards impressing by presenting a professional and easy-to-read appearance. Winners will then be given a unique Weekly Winner eraicon and displayed on the Recent Changes page.

Judges and Prompts[]

In order to facilitate community involvement in the Weekly project, any active site editor may put themselves forward to write a prompt for a given week. That individual will then be responsible for selecting a winner from among the entries provided as well as providing timely feedback for each entry. Administrators and site patrollers will hold primary responsibility for selecting prompts and ensuring project stability. If a prompt receives no entries, a new prompt will still be submitted for the subsequent week. Prompt suggestions may be submitted on the talk page.

Weekly Challenges[]

Week 311: In The Bleak Midwinter[]

Judge: Actene

Here we are, the end of another year. It's been a long year and I congratulate everyone who has contributed to the Weekly project in 2023. As the days get darker and the weather gets colder (for those of us in the northern hemisphere, at any rate) the holiday season provides ample opportunities to reflect on the things that matter most. For this final prompt of the year write a holiday or Christmas-themed story to deck our digital halls. I encourage you to look up some Christmas short stories out on the broader internet. Even a brief perusal of the literature will show you that a Christmas story does not necessarily have to be a cheery affair (But don't let that stop you if you want to write something jolly!). Write something that inspires you during the Christmas or winter season.

As this will be the final prompt of the year, write a full-fledged short story for this one. Hold your entries to within three thousand words in order to keep things under control. Good luck, Merry Christmas, and thank you for all your work and creativity!

Start Date: 9 December 2023

End Date: 31 December 2023

Week 312: So That's Our New Number Six[]

Judge: Ahalosniper

Welcome to 2024, folks! The lead-up to 2023's end already got a prompt about changeovers and new beginnings out of the way, so with this being one of those special Halo numbers, I want to take advantage to look back a little at SPARTAN-B312, and the game that got quite a few of us today into Halo and the background story Reach hinted at.

So the prompt is simple: give me a story about some minor character in Halo: Reach brushing up against Noble 6 during the campaign. It could be one of those civilians in Exodus waiting for the elevator as B312 holds off Brutes, an Army trooper holding out just long enough to be saved by Noble Six's arrival, or a Covenant soldier trying not to get killed by the hyper-lethal vector. Readers will be familiar with the scenarios you describe, so use it too hook them in! You can feel free to specify Six's identity in your own work or not as preferred. The 1000 word ballpark is the target as usual; try for within 100 words of the goal in either direction.

Start Date: 1 January 2024

End Date: 7 January 2024

  • Subject Carbon by Arminius Fiddywinks: So, wanting to start off by saying your characterization of different team members is strong here. Serious concern for the mission from Kai, aloofness from Basab, the voices are unique to each. And, while surprising for a moment, I actually kinda like the reversal of typical human-Sangheili interactions during the war with Noble Six professing a kind of faith where Kai doesn't seem very reverent. It definitely deviates from the end of Halo: Reach as we see it, but not by too much. Six still ends up dead, just a few seconds later than that last camera cut from Lone Wolf. But, here's where I really gotta have it out. You're very able to convey different personalities between characters, but the specific voices you choose to give these characters aren't Sangheili voices. I've remarked before they sound like Generation Kill characters, which I was actually told you may've included as one of your inspirations? Good series, but those voices don't make for very convincing aliens. It pulls me out of suspension of disbelief when every canon source portrays Sangheili diction so differently. I encourage you to read The Flood or Cole Protocol, or even review some of the Arbiter cutscenes from Halo 2. That's the culture which Sangheili come out of, and their speech is result of it. You could maybe say Kai, Mik, and others are from a Sangheili colony world with a bit of a different speech pattern, but the Covenant's religious monoculture doesn't make a lot of allowance for dissent. Even with that excuse, you'd still end up with aliens that just don't sound alien. Heck, replace "boss" with "excellency" and you're already a decent amount of the way there. On a technical level, the prose is great--it's just this insistence on a human speech pattern that really throws me out of enjoying the story.
  • Black Ink by AlphaBenson: Descriptions are solid here, from greasy hair in waves to Julia's nail-biting habit. It does, however, leave me wondering where to place it a little bit. Since it's not about familiar characters and is circumspect about what exactly the "Party" is, this could be happening at a lot of points in the timeline, though I do think of the "heard Noble Team had an interesting morning" line from the old Gamescom trailer. Though I guess that morning, Six wasn't part of the team yet... anyway, this might actually be a good time to use a Time Stamp template, mimicking the Halo novels' giving of Military Calendar times and locations. Gives the reader their bearings at once without requiring anything inserted into the prose's flow. I do end up wanting a bit for description of Noble Six, since the prompt was about rubbing shoulders with them, but this does allow us to see them in action from the other side. And what's more, having them completely unseen thanks to Active Camouflage means everything from gender to armor configuration remains unspecified for the reader, which may have been your intention. If it was, the lack of specificity for the time and place and Party in question makes more sense. It's been thoroughly considered for its audience, and for that, it's got my support for the week.

Week 313: Recollections May Vary[]

Judge: Actene

Last year I kicked things off with an attempt to create a series of interrelated prompts, an effort that I thought pretty well during the time I kept it up. I hope to do something similar once my schedule quiets down a little. In the meantime, here's a prompt I've had banked for a while now. Perspective is an important tool to use in prose, conveying nuances in character through how individuals understand what's happening around them. Just because you and your friend witnessed the same thing doesn't necessarily mean you have the same perspective on what happened. Prose can be a powerful tool for exploring this fascinating reality. A grizzled Marine veteran may experience a battle briefing on the Infinity very differently from one of the "egghead" support scientist. For this prompt, come up with a single scene and then depict that same scene from two different characters' perspectives. Do your best to show how the characters pick up on different things that may completely change the direction of the scene.

Since you're essentially repeating the same events, aim for brevity on this prompt - allow about 300 words for each of the perspectives you're depicting, with a combined total of approximately 600 words. As always, if you have any questions about this prompt feel free to ping me on Discord.

Start Date: 12 January 2024

End Date: 19 January 2023

  • Two Sides of the Same Coin by TheAussie1417 (Winner) : You jumped into the core concept of this prompt, offering two perspectives on the same terrible battle while making good use of the prompt limit to quickly give your reader insight into both Hari and Glikbap’s character. One suggestion I would offer would be to switch the order of each POV segment, offering Glikbap’s more triumphant perspective before switching to Hari to unveil the full horror of the Covenant’s victory.
  • Pelahsar and Rassiron by Arminius Fiddywinks: This is a tough piece for me to provide feedback on, since in my opinion it is one of your best entries to date and meshes beautifully with the prompt while also falling well outside the word count I set. I’m willing to take most of the blame here as in hindsight the limits I set didn’t give writers much space to work in. While I must ultimately decide in favor of “Two Sides” by virtue of staying closer to the word limit, this is a wonderful piece exploring the lesser-touched aspects of Sangheili history. I particularly liked your concise prose surrounding the fight itself, which conveyed the swiftness of the violence while leaving yourself more space to explore the characters and motivations. Well done and I hope to see more entries like this in the future.

Week 314: To New Beginnings[]

Judge: Actene

The New Year is a time for resolutions and new beginnings. These resolutions are sometimes the hardest part of enacting change. It takes courage to change our circumstances for the better. This is doubly truth with writing, where sometimes the hardest part is simply creating space and time to put words to paper (physically or digitally). For this prompt, write a piece in which a character resolves to change something--either externally or internally--and takes steps to change it. Be sure to make it clear to the reader what it is the character is after as well as to include some challenge to their plan of action to make the entry more interesting. Aim for around 750 words with this one.

This is a prompt I'm shooting out on my way out the door to go out of town; next week's prompt will return to something a bit more thematically Halo in tone. I'll also get feedback in to entries for previous prompts next week.

Start Date: 19 January 2024

End Date: 26 January 2024

  • Resolve by Brodie-001 (Winner): Magnus is a character with a lot of history behind him and this piece serves as a good refresher for his unusual presence within the Halo Fanon pantheon. The action here is largely passive, limited to Magnus’s own internal ruminations, but his recollections work to establish not only his character but the ruthless party of killers he leads—characters who in some ways serve as extensions of Magnus’s own violent but constrained position. The final imagery of broken chains is also a great way to help visualize Magnus’s own visceral nature.
  • Departure by Valikeitel : I think I say this every time I encounter an entry dealing with the Banished, but more Banished on the site is a net positive. I also liked seeing you work your entry into events on Zeta Halo. This was a solid entry, but it felt a little rushed considering there was a higher word-count on this prompt. The brief exchange between Takra and Karth conveyed your story well enough but there was room to expand on this piece a little more, even if you just added more descriptive text or extended their dialogue a bit. You set up interesting future events here, but the piece left me wanting just a little more depth.
  • DT 2024: For My Friend by Distant Tide : I’ve noticed a few Roland-centered entries from you, an interest that took on an added poignancy when I double-checked my lore and realized that Roland has been MIA since the /Infinity/’s destruction. Your exploration of Roland’s efforts to stay in touch with the ship’s embattled crew, especially poor, comatose Murphy was quite enjoyable and served as an interesting window into the grind of ship-board life amidst the chaos of staying free in a Created-run galaxy.

Week 315: This Timeless Place[]

Judge: Actene

One of the most compelling components of the Halo universe are the eerily beautiful Forerunner ruins that make up the majority of the games' locales. From the very first scene in Combat Evolved we are invited into the haunting legacy of profound alien power. The organic environments of Combat Evolved, the overgrown temples of Halo 2, the incomplete ring in Halo 3 and the damaged superstructure in Infinite all tell a story that stretches beyond the science fiction battles raging on the screen. For this week, use whatever language you can to harness some of this sense of wonder and mystery at the heart of Forerunner technology. Feature any characters or situation you want. My one stipulation is that you not write any scenes featuring the Forerunners themselves and instead work to evoke the celestial mystery their absence evokes through what they left behind.

1000 words or so for this prompt.

Start Date: 29 January 2024

End Date: 5 February 2024

  • DT 2024: Hibernation Promise by Distant Tide (Winner) : I was already intrigued by your earlier focus on Roland and this piece serves as an excellent follow-up to your previous entry. Writing for AI characters is always a mix of challenge and opportunity, and you captured the poignancy of Roland’s uncertain fate in the aftermath of the Infinity’s destruction. Your descriptions are often the strongest part of your writing and you did a great job of conveying Infinite’s beautiful Zeta Halo environment in prose form. There was a sense of awe and grandeur in Roland’s recollections that I think did a wonderful job tapping into this prompt.
  • The Temple by Arminius Fiddywinks: Another remarkably evocative entry that did a great job conveying both the mundane and the alien. The discussion around the temple reminded me of the scene in Glasslands where Sangheili farmers detonate a previously sacred shrine to clear away farmland. You put a lot of work into throwing out a lot of alien terms to ground the reader on the planet and to convey the life Prin and Kre are living. My only substantive criticism is that this entry was almost double the prompt word limit. Great job all the same.

Week 316: Spy Games[]

Judge: Actene

Despite all the action-heavy set piece battles encountered in the Halo games, a good chunk of the lore we enjoy in this universe is centered around espionage and cloak and dagger affairs. ONI plays a massive role in the Halo canon, influencing galaxy-shifting events from the shadows and inspiring countless concepts and characters present on this site. For this prompt, write a scene involving clandestine activities or backroom machinations. Naturally you don't have to limit yourself to ONI--there's also the quiet movements of Insurrectionist cells, corporate skullduggery, and even the vast machinations of the Covenant and other alien entities. Challenge yourself to limit the action and instead craft an interesting scene through more subtle methods.

1000 word limit for this prompt.

Start Date: 5 February 2024

End Date: 12 February 2024

Week 317: Seasonal Hearts[]

Judge: Distant Tide

Actene requested I take over the Weekly this week while he takes a break to catch up on his backlog. It's that week this week, that day of the year again. Valentine's Day is here. Romance isn't a pillar of Halo fiction, but fanfiction certainly weaves romance into any and all fandoms through shipping wars and occasional canonical stories featuring B-plots about some relationships, even for Halo. Some are more steamy than others, of course. That said, this week, write a short story of about 1000 word-target featuring a theme relating to romance. This prompt does not require actual romance, but anything related to the genre is acceptable: heartbreak, one-sided attraction, etc.

Start Date: 12 February 2024

End Date: 19 February 2024

  • Confessions by StribogE17 - Winner: I had hoped for more entries but if it feels of anything special, I'm glad you offered me a Valentine's Day story to read. It's very natural feeling, the characters of Ava and Vilmos (mentions of Yvan are always appreciated too) are animated, subtle, and conversational - I really enjoy their back and forth dynamic, talking about what might be of little importance, daily chatter but for these characters, its a matter of dear life. They're all Headhunters, and being special and sent out into the galaxy to do nigh-impossible things gets just darn lonely. Then, the tech comes down and the walls with them. I love seeing your characters' backstory lore come to life this way, a step forward from summaries on a wiki page and exploring who your characters are dynamically, meeting them at their most honest and most vulnerable. I would say this piece ultimately doesn't do much with romance, but it does focus especially on intimacy and vulnerability, and makes mention of faux-romance. For those elements, I'd say this piece fits well enough and is the winner this week. Great work! - Distant Tide: Hunter - Killer

Week 318: By The Waters of Babylon[]

Judge: Actene

There's been a tonal shift in recent Halo lore that seems to minimize the destructive nature of the Human-Covenant War. Decades of war, dozens of colonies glassed, and billions of humans dead, yet most of human society shrugs its shoulders, makes peace with the Sangheili and other ex-Covenant species, and moves on. While there is some historic precedent for the human desire to just get on with life it can be a little disconcerting when Olympia Vale starts chanting Sangheili prayers in front of HCW veterans like Locke and Buck. For this prompt, write a scene in which a character reckons with the destruction wrought by the "Great War." They can be a colonist grieving over lost home and family, a soldier coming to terms with the cost of war, or even a former Covenant warrior reckoning with what their holy war wrought. Hew to about 1000 words here.

Start Date: 26 February 2024

End Date: 4 March 2024

  • Helping Humanity and How We Failed the First Time with Pud B'Scul (excerpt) by Arminius Fiddywinks (Winner): Seeing as this is your third entry in recent weeks that has slipped well over the prescribed wordcount (nearly triple, this time), I feel obliged to point out that I do check these things when I read entries. This was a reasonably interesting piece with the creative setting of a late-night talk show, though the viewpoint character's removal from the conflict limited the emotional engagement somewhat.

Week 319: Strange New Worlds[]

Judge: Actene

After a few more specifically honed prompts, I'm in the mood for something basic this week. Write 1000 words or so of a scene featuring the sci-fi staple of an exotic alien locale. Do whatever you want thematically, just make sure to incorporate a strange planet or alien culture into what's going on. I'll narrow the scope a little bit by saying that if you choose to focus on the strangeness of a culture, use an existing Halo species and be creative within the bounds of established lore. Use your imagination and do something interesting!

Start Date: 4 March 2024

End Date: 11 March 2024

Week 320: A Face in the Crowd[]

Judge: Actene

Sometimes characters surprise you. Sometimes a character you invented just because you needed a name dropped in somewhere or a minor detail smoothed out grows and takes on a life of their own - and maybe becomes one of your favorites in the process. For this prompt, take a minor character from your work and flesh them out. Think about things from their perspective, give them hopes and dreams and motivations. Do whatever you want as long as you aren't focused on your "main" characters. And if you don't happen to have anyone who fits the bill, create someone out of whole cloth and start writing fresh with them. 1000 words or so, please.

Start Date: 18 March 2024

End Date: 25 March 2024

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