Hello all,

There have been a few questions about excerpts so we are giving examples of them below. As you can see, we do include the link to the post so that if the passage you select is more than the 1000 character limit, the voter will be able to go back and read more if they choose to.

An easy way to find out if your piece is within the 1000 character limit is to use a word counter. I have listed one below for easy reference but you are free to use any word counter of your choosing. As long as it says 1000 or less the piece is perfect. These programs do count spaces as characters.

https://www.charactercountonline.com/

Examples of excerpts are:

https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf3/dresden/posts/128509/
Renveer signaled to the science station to compile the sensor readings requested by the chief medical officer. “Get those scans sent to Dr. Janvier as soon as possible. This is a rescue mission first and a first contact mission second.” He turned to Forgrave and Harris. “Assemble an away team, they head to our umbilical docking mechanism. Prepare to board the alien vessel when engineering gives us the all-clear. Find Chief Hsull and take him with you, we can’t discount the possibility that there are dangerous beings aboard the station that may have caused this phenomenon.”

Nervously, NE Johansson’s flew across the terminal, pulling up the scans and sending them to the requested console. “Aye, Sir. I’m on it.”

The comm call interrupted her thoughts. Glancing for a moment at the Ensign standing and picking up on Renveer’s orderes, she quickly pressed her commbadge, to reply.

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf3/outpost42/posts/127663/
“Thank you,” she let out a laugh. “This is my fourth.” Chloe paused taking a deep breath. It still sounded weird to say that after Maddie’s death last year. Lt. Warren would find out eventually. The Outpost was too small for information about a staff to go unnoticed or unlearned. Setting the device down on the bed Chloe looked at Lt. Warren with a soft smile.

“Thank you for the congratulations. Most people only get it when they have their first. It’s all baby showers and balloons but then the second kid or third kid comes along and people are like dude how many do you have now,” she laughed. “We did not find out the sex because we have one of each already. We decided to go with a surprise on this one. Are you from a big family,” she pulled out the tricorder to scan Warren.

Chloe Harland

https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf5/saracen/notes/45411/
Jarred paused as he listened to what Elizabeth said, his face sunk as he took a deep breath, “Official baby… official is just a grown-up term in some ways. There is though important in the term, it means that I want to live with Kalani till I grow old and grey like papa. It also means that Kalani, who loves you with all her heart, wants the entire galaxy to know that you are her daughter. That she loves you and she is your mommy. Official may be a grown-up term, but it simply means we are going out of our way to love someone so much, we just want the entire galaxy to know that these are the people we love.” he said hoping that this made sense to her. He wasn’t quite sure how else to explain a topic like this, but he felt the need to elaborate more.

“For me, and I am sure for Kalani too peanut… becoming official this way is an act of love. It is a way to show this love, Lani and I tell you we love you all the time and Lani tells you she loves us all the time as well. I know you feel…”
Alindor, CE
....

An excerpt does not have to be the whole piece as you can see in the last one by Alindor, CE. It can trail off mid-sentence because the link WILL BE included so that the reader can go back and read more of your fabulous piece.

ALL excerpts must have a link so we are able to verify the piece submitted is within the June 2020 to March 2021 awards period. Excerpts without a link will not be included because we will not be able to verify that they are within the awards period.

As always if you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact either Steven Sigle( Darth Tadpole), Kate O’Neill, or Ben Z (BenZ10) in email or discord.

Thanks,

STF Awards Team