Round Themes, Part 2: Creating a Good Story Line

Now that we have some Round Themes to pick from, you need to come up with a good story line to go along with your themes. Why? Well, it is the story line that helps your contestants get the idea you are going for. For example, what if I told you to dress up in a winter outfit? You might dress up for a sleigh ride, winter ball, snow ball fight, ice-skating or a number of other things. 

But if I told you that you have been invited to your friends house for Hot Cocoa, and that you need to dress for a night of talk and jokes by a warm fire, you would most likely do just that. See the difference? 

The first option has the potential to become chaos and the second option has less potential to do so. Story Lines, therefore, not only help your contestants but they can also help you as a judge. 

I have found that by giving my contestants a guide line for what I want to see, the options of what they can dress in are narrowed down. Which of course makes it easier for me as the contest judge to pick who did the best and who did the worst. However, be careful to not make it to narrow or your lower level contestants may have trouble. And that is never a good problem to have when hosting a Fashion Story Avatar Contest. 

To get your story line, go back to what first brought the theme in question to your mind. In the case of the Round Theme: S'mores Anyone?!, I was spending time at my aunt and uncle's house and they just happened to have a fire pit in which they made s'mores, among other things. Ironically, we made s'mores that very night right after I posted this Round for my Fashionista O' August contest.

Not only that, but some of my own neighbors used to invite my family over to make s'mores over their fire pit. To sum it up "In the mind, out the pen". 

If that doesn't work, look at the outfits you made to when fool-proofing the theme or make some new ones. When you see these outfits, what do you think of? What would you dress in this outfit for? If you are still having trouble, ask a friend to help. Sometimes two or even three heads are better than one.

I have found that I enjoy joining contests whose hosts make up good story lines to go with their themes more than those contest whose hosts don't. It may be just me, but I somehow doubt it. 

Hope this gets you to start thinking about coming up with Story Lines to go with your Round Themes! ~ Sky's Limit