Romarch: The suggestion for the challenge as put forth by nocturnesch is for the writer to remember being a person but suddenly in an animal's body. This could either be handled by switching places with your (or someone else's) pet or just waking up being a pet. It would be very lonely if you woke up as a pet without anything else being around, however. So I'd suggest placing yourself (or your character) in some type of household. The other household members don't have to switch places, just you/your character. For instance, you're married and have a few children as well as a cat, dog, and some fish. You wake up to realize you're the dog and the dog is you (now your spouse's mate and children's parent). BUT you remember being married and having the kids, not the dog. You might still think like a human, but being in an animal's body will not allow you to express your thoughts as you would being a person. You will most likely need to keep in mind physical differences (movement limitations/advantages, verbal/non-verbal communication styles, and so on). That's a little twisted, but I hope it helps. 2) This brings up a point about the contest in general. In the challenge I have included this statement: "Describe the events of the day from your new perspective and your feelings, desires, hopes, dreams, etc." This statement is meant as an aid to help people frame their story - it's not required that submissions follow that exact recipe. Just make sure your story deals with the theme of role reversal and you'll be fine. I apologize for any confusion my challenge wording has/may cause. Feel free to discuss the matter in this thread. 3) Capitalization of breed names. I'm not sure how to handle this either, so don't fret it. I suspect caps would only be used when referring to a breed by its full, formal name. As dialyn pointed out, Boston terrier should be capitalized while beagle probably wouldn't be, since there are varieties of beagles. It's more confusing for cats (I think) since breed names are not always proper names. Siamese, Persian, Russian blue, Maine coon, and so on are proper names. However, domestic short-hair, long-hair, calico, and tabby are not. Sometimes, when I can't find anything else to watch, I'll catch some of the best of breed shows on Animal Planet. It seems that when animals are being judged the breed name is always capitalized since it's a classification instead of just being a description. In other words, use whatever form you feel like and don't factor that into your decision when voting.

Forum: Writers

Subject: January/February Forum Challenge: Role Reversal