Amph SFF Writer's Guild Writing Contest 2: April/May 2006 -- Results Inside

IMO it'd be a real shame if these had to be discontinued. Part of the fun is entering a half-baked story three minutes before time . . .

Are we allowed to know how many people we got this time? Last time we had 3 on time and 7 total - 7 seemed a reasonable enough turnout. How many entries would a Summer Contest need to avoid being shut down?

 

The final decision as to how many is needed for the summer contest would have to be down to the sponsoring mod.


For judging purposes I'm happy to be involved as long as is needed as I enjoy reading those half-baked stories entered three minutes before time.



The continuation of the contest is entirely down to the competitiors though.

 

There were two entires this time.

I could extend it and see if we could get more, but I don't want to be dragging stories out of people, and it's also unfair to those who got it in on time... and my life's about to get super busy as I am graduating and having relatives and boyfriend arriving for visits, and then in 3 weeks i start my new job.

If there is a bunch of people that proooooomise to enter, we could extend the deadline.

 

Would it be possible to advertise in fanfic to see if you could get more if you extend it?

 

I have a just barely useable fifth of a short short story - ok it's more like a part of a vignette or something which is part of why I didn't manage to finish it on time. However, if there is a global desire to have more entrants for this time around, then I will promise that if you extend the deadline by a week I will at a minimum submit something half-baked with three minutes to spare. I should probably have just done that on Saturday but I just couldn't get the "vicious editor" voice (the one that's always saying, 'this is awful - you can't submit this') to shut up long enough for me to get any more of the story out.

I will also promise right now to enter the next contest on time and with no excuses. And ideally with something closer to fully-baked.

KD

 

If it's extended until the end of the month, I'm sure I could come up with something.

 

I think a month is a bit too much of an extension. This contest was posted way back in April.

 

Well, it's only half a month, but I see where you're coming from. Next time is fine for me.

 

Two entries



This doesn't bode well for a continuation of the competition.



It may be an idea to review how it is broadcast out. I know we have a thread on it here and it's been mentioned in the Mod Squad update in comms before today. Is it mentioned in fan fic at all? would anyone in fan fic want to take part?

 

I'm always over in fan fic. That's my JC home. I could do the mentioning over there if everyone thought that was okay.

 

I think there's a good chance we could get more folks interested if it is announced in FanFic when it starts. There's a very appropriate thread over there, Serious about writing-- A support group for fan fic writers, who want to publish original fiction, which has been somewhat slow after a goodish start. The thread owner (tatooinewizard) hasn't been posted in a long time so it might be time to see if she'd like someone else to start a new version of the thread. She has been on within the last month though so I could ask if she'd be willing to edit the header bar when there is a contest here or if she'd rather someone else started another thread. Or Nem could, since they are on each other's WUL they must know each other, eh?

Also, the FanFic Mods would undoubtedly add it to the FanFic update over there. It'll get more attention if it is in the actual update rather than added as a later post but even that would add exposure. We could possibly even have a thread for each one - not certain though - we'd have to ask the Mods. I know there was a limit a while back on new challenges within fanfic because the thread clutter got so bad. But that seems to have been resolved now.

KD

 

Well, not as T-wiz, but she's been in this very thread.

tatooinewizard = the_wandering_shadow

I agree that the Original Fiction thread might be a good place to post up the adverts. They've been in the MSU, correct me if I'm wrong, and that could continue

 

Yeah, I am going to just close this competition and cut the losses. I need more judges though. There's only two stories so it won't take you a lot of time to read!!

Next contest we'll try advertising like crazy. Hopefully that, combined with it being summer, will help the contest out

 

Nem

Well, not as T-wiz, but she's been in this very thread.

tatooinewizard = the_wandering_shadow

I was going to say something just like that

I agree that the Original Fiction thread might be a good place to post up the adverts.

That is a good idea, Knight. It's my thread and I didn't even think of it

They've been in the MSU, correct me if I'm wrong, and that could
continue

MSU? I sure hate when I can think of what an abbreviations stands for.

droideka27

Yeah, I am going to just close this competition and cut the losses. I need more judges though. There's only two stories so it won't take you a lot of time to read!!

I'll judge; no problem.

Next contest we'll try advertising like crazy. Hopefully that, combined with it being summer, will help the contest out

That's good. Summer is good for writing, just not putting on plays in small towns. Trust me, never try that.

 

MSU = Mod Squad Update, posted weekly in comms

 

I think the first contest had an announcement in a seperate thread in fanfic. We could do something like that again, and do the same in the JCC, since a lot of people don't read the updates. Also, we can ask the tv and film mods if we can advertise there, since we're all sff and they're more popular than we are.

 

I would have entered one, but I never had enough time to write, so sorry

 

I wondered whether it was just a name change thing but didn't have time to hunt around and see if I could figure it out. Undoubtedly there is something obvious I overlooked. For example, I'm not certain I went down to the bottom of the bio for tatooinewizard.

I think in the fanfic mods' updates would be a good place to advertize as well as the ones in comms. And the orig fic thread in Fanfic of course. Also, the Original Character thread in Fanfic probably since they're part way along to original fiction at least but might not read the original fiction thread. Plus there's a fair number of participants iirc.

This time was just a bad one for me. Lots of DRL and DWB combined with DarthEditorsVoice kept me from completing much of anything since before this iteration of the contest started.

I don't feel qualified to judge or I'd happily offer to assist. But I mean it when I say I feel unqualified. Maybe after I study for a year or so...

 

Are judges still needed? I'd be willing to help.

 

I have recieved the two entries and will read them and do my judgings this weekend.


I hope to hape the scores with Tracy for Monday.

 

I've read the stories, and all I have to say is, "Bravo!" to the both of you. They were very enjoyable. I still have to tally my numbers, but when I do I'll PM them to droideka, and then my job will be done.

Again, congradulations on a job well done

 

My results are in! Great job to both writers, I had a good time reading and judging your entries. Can't wait to see the results!

 

Judging results:

---

[b]Healer_Leona[/b]

[u]Absolution[/u]
Overall Creativity - 10
Writing Ability - - - 9
Grammar/Mechanics - - 9
Use of the prompt - - 10
Entertainment Value - 10
Total = 48/50
I was drawn into this story immediately and thoroughly. The story was wonderfully descriptive you created a fascinating and totally believable world.

[u]Wrong Choices:[/u]
Overall Creativity - 8
Writing Ability - - - 8
Grammar/Mechanics - - 8
Use of the prompt - - 10
Entertainment Value - 7
Total = 41/50
You started out the story with a bang. (OPun intened ;*} ) This left me very curious how Zack had reached that final point. A very well done story.

[hr]

[b]the_wandering_shadow[/b]

[u]Absolution:[/u]
Overall Creativity __________ 10
Writing Ability _____________ 9
Grammar/Mechanics _________ 8
Use of the prompt ____________ 8
Entertainment Value __________ 9
Total: 44/50

[u]Wrong Choices:[/u]
Overall Creativity __________ 6
Writing Ability _____________ 7
Grammar/Mechanics __________ 7
Use of the prompt ____________ 8
Entertainment Value __________ 7
Total 35/50

[hr]

[b]Master-FatBurt:[/b]

[u]Absolution[/u]
Overall Creativity: A very interesting idea. I'd have loved to know more about the background of the war and why they were there. The "spore" weapons were very good and the descriptions of how they work was inivoltive. 8/10
Writing Ability: Clear and concise but I felt it got a little garbled at the end. A read from start to finish still but the ending felt a touch flat 7/10
Grammar/Mechanics: Very easy to read, basically as the other story 8/10
Use of the prompt: I couldn't really see how the war changed the man, I didn't see who was supposed to be changed. I can see how one man forced another man to be involutarily changed but thats not as a result of the war, sorry 6/10 for including a war and allusion to changes
Entertainment Value: It was a very enjoyable story, aside for the slightly garbled ending and again this is a story that can easily be expanded on 9/10
Total: 38/50

[u]Wrong choices[/u]
Overall Creativity: Smatterings of Independance day, the inclusion of the armour was a good idea and the use of the fifth column resistance movement was effective as well. Although none are hugely original ideas, the way they were incorporated here was excellent. 8/10
Writing Ability: Very good. Kept me reading from start to finish, a sign of a good story. I liked the use of the ending at the start along with a final prompt to the start at the end. 8/10
Grammar/Mechanics: Very easy to read, no notable spelling issues (hyphens and apostrophes aside but I don't really use them either. 8/10
Use of the prompt: Exceptional, really really good story charting the downfall of a man and how his choices impacted both himself and others. 10/10
Entertainment Value: Excellent, I really anjoyed this and feel that this could easily be fleshed out into a large story. 9/10
Total: 43/50

[hr]
[b]ImperialMarchFace[/b]

[u]Absolution[/u]
Overall Creativity 8/10
The story was unique. I liked the fact that the war wasnÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢t a textbook definition of a war; it was something larger. At times I felt like the creativity became too much, and the setting got confusing to understand.
Writing Ability 9/10
The story was well-told and clearly envisioned well. I really enjoyed the writing quality of this story.
Grammar/mechanics 7/10
I only found one grammatical error, which is good. I gave you a 7 because I realized that throughout the story, you called Alex by four different names: Alex, Alexis, telepath, and psychic. I think that four is too many name variations to use for one character and you should try and keep it down to two.
Use of the prompt 9/10
There was clearly a war going on, so you were fine in that department. I deducted one point because I didnÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢t realize that what was happening in the story was a war until a good amount of reading had occurred.
Entertainment Value 8/10
I found the story hard to get into at the beginning, and I thin

 

Congrats!