Amph SFF Writer's Guild Writing Contest: February 2006

A couple of points to make in this regard:

1) I asked for a PM because I and/or other hosts may not be reading this thread at all, or may not want to have to sift through every post to see if someone said they'd be a judge. If you volunteer to be a judge in this thread, it may not be seen, so PM the host. Case in point, I had no idea Fatburt had volunteered until Dark Lady Jada mentioned it.

2) When you see something like this:



It generally designates that preceding comment(s) were said less than seriously.

M. Scott

 

Just a reminder, as THE DAY is upon us:

- Entries are to be submitted to the host via e-mail at SFFWritingContest@gmail.com. Submit your entry as an attachment, and include your JC username, and wordcount, in the body of the e-mail, with the subject line "February Submission."

- Entries are due by MIDNIGHT (board time), FEBRUARY 21.

There has been some confusion as to this second point, and I guess I should have been more clear. I meant the deadline is the end of the day Feb 21st. I guess I should have said 11:59 PM.

Sorry for the confusion, you have approximately 22 hours to get your stories in!



Also, do any of the entrants have an objection to me making the Writing.com portfolio name publically known? It would still require Writing.com membership to view, preserving all first publication rights, and will give the people watching this contest something to chat about while the judges do their thing.

Obviously the main rule would be that you cannot reveal which entry was yours in discussion, but other than that would anyone mind if we let everyone look together?

M. Scott

 

I don't have any objections.

- Entries are to be submitted to the host via e-mail at SFFWritingContest@gmail.com. Submit your entry as an attachment, and include your JC username, and wordcount, in the body of the e-mail, with the subject line "February Submission."

I don't know if I'll be submitting, probably not, but about those attachments... what if one, like me, doesn't use Word or txt (uses an Apple) and can only give you a cwk (Appleworks) document?

 

Appleworks should also be able to save in .doc format, last I recall.

If that's not the case, Apples come pre-loaded with TextEdit, which can save in .txt format. Cut and paste to TextEdit, make sure the formatting is okay, and save it that way. I cannot accept anything but .doc, .txt, or .rtf.

M. Scott

 

Well, I shot off a submission. I had to really hurry it along to get it in on time, so I hope it doesn?t suck too badly.

 

WHEW!! I thought I'd missed the deadline. I'll work as hard as possible to get this baby done in time.

 

Testing the "board time."

 

How about a Homer Simpson-style "WOO-HOO!" I got an extra three hours! (Now I can watch the end of the Pistons game!)

 

Let's get some submissions, folks. Time is running out and there was a much larger number of people praising the prompt than are currently in the contest e-mail account.

M. Scott

 

Aye. Talk about your all-nighter! I'm beat.

Don't describe your story. It defeats the purpose of anonymity.

 

I gotta say I'm disappointed in this first contest. Not for the quality of the entries (I haven't read them yet), but by far for the quantity.

Three weeks to write 2000 words minimum (about 4 pages in MS Word), and two people turned in entries. With all the fuss and bother and impatience and drama that led up to the competition, I'm really very disappointed in the outcome.

I'll be formatting the entries tomorrow for Writing.com. I'll speak to the judges about it and, if neither entrant objects, I'll make the entries available for public viewing as well.

On the upside, congratulations to the entrants. Whether you get "first" place or not, you've already proven to be the cream of the crop.

M. Scott

 

Two entries


Thats poor, really really poor.



It makes judging easier because of the limited numbers but it makes the competition a bit of a lame duck



I'm dissappointed people.

 

This could be a product of many things, including NOT having the rules that certain users wanted, or just that when the conversation started, people had the time to participate and then recently didn't... or that the way the contest is set up needs to be reevaluated. Maybe more time needs to be given for the writing, or the entries shortened, or something.

Anyways, it's clear that it should be adjusted, and I highly doubt berating the users is going to improve participation.

 

Myself, I just got busier with school work then I thought. I'll try to enter the next one.

Droideka is correct I think, perhaps something in the rules should be changed. More time might be a good idea.

I propose, however, that rather than being annoyed by these turn of events, that we be amused. I mean think about. A lot of us, myself included, spent a few days in all that crazy debating, and after all that, only two people enter! Is that annoying? Sure you can take it that way! It will be more fun though if you look at it and think it is hilarious. I mean, it's so ridiculous! Ha ha ha ha.

 

I'm not berating people, I'm just dissappointed that all the hype and talk and build up and we got two entries.


So while yes it is humerous in a twisted sort of way it is also annoying.



However, positives can potentially be drawn from this.

We had two entries.

We need to find out why.

Was there a time issue?
Was there an issue with the rules out out?
Was there an issue with the prompt?
Was there an issue with the time limit?


I think before the next game begins we should discuss what went wrong this time, Those who were up for entering but haven't can tell us what prevented them (not in great detail as we don't need to your life story) but if there was a problem with what was put forwards then the host needs to know before the next one.


So whilst the lack of entries is frustrating, we can look on the fact that this was the first attempt at the game and can look to improve it for the March/April game.

 

The first obstacle for me was trying to come up with a story based solely on a simple prompt that in no way led to a particluar plot direction (which is probably best anyway).

Once that was done things flowed somewhat freely, and then it was finding free time to write something up (and in fact, not all of it was free ? some of it was stolen).

I don?t suppose you could issue an extension for others to get their stories in? Perhaps by the end of the month?

 

I'm not writing this just to make myself look better for entering, but I think that the entire litany of excuses is bunk. The reason I say this - besides simple common sense - is because a year or so ago there was an essay contest at the TF.N "Saga" forum and the entire thing ran the exact same way: clear, well-defined rules, a month (approx.) to write the submission, and about thirty regulars boasting about how great their entry would be.

Out of maybe fifteen people who gave concrete promises to participate (this doesn't count all the people who merely said they were interested), guess how many ended up doing the work?

Two.

The reason people didn't participate in that contest is the same reason they didn't participate in this one. It wasn't the time, it wasn't the minimum wordcount, the prompt, or anything else having to do with the contest itself. We all know what the reason was, but I don't want to get kicked off for flaming. Let's just say it's word with eight letters which begins with "L" and rhymes with "Haziness."

If there wasn't enough time, than why didn't anybody note that one or two days before the contest ended? If 2,000 words is too much, then consider that most short stories you'll find in any collection - Haran Ellison or Isaac Asimov - are FAR more than 2,000 words.

 

That may be true in some instances, but considering how prolific some of the authors are in FanFic I'd be suprised. Of course, it's not like the heads-up in FanFic regarding this contest drew much feedback - which also suprises me.

 

In NaNoWriMo, the goal is 50,000 words in 30 days. That translates to an average of 1667 words per day. That's almost the minimum wordcount, and most writers can manage that in about an hour.

Even assuming that it would take two or even three hours for someone to write 2,000 words, I find it difficult to believe that no one was able to find those hours in 21 days. In NaNo, you would want to have around 35,000 words around this time.

I wouldn't even mind, and there were many people who wanted to casually enter and, I suppose, decided just as casually to wait for next time. On the other hand, in some cases SUCH a big deal was made of it, PMs asking me what was going on, PMs asking that I hurry it up, posts wondering why we were waiting for February, etc, etc.

None of those people completed an entry.

So while I do hope for a better turnout next month, and if discussion or revision of the rules could help then so be it, I wanted to state for the record, and without naming names, that I found this month's participation to be in extremely poor form.

M. Scott

 

I'm really sorry to hear that. This sounds like it has so much potential.

 

It has loads of potential IMHO but it is only as good as the sum of it's entrants.



Hopefully a revision will help things but we really need people to commit to it this time.



It's possible people went off the boil with the wait for it to start but even then I still expected more entrants

 

Yeah but the Saga Contest kept going. So maybe you should talk to them about what they did to keep it going.

My problem with this contest is that people like me can't enter. I mean, honestly, what percentage of the JC is writers? It's making a large part of the population unable to enter. The more open the game is, the more participants you get. This is why I like the Census Tournaments so much. Anyone can participate, and all it requires is checking in daily, and if you miss a day? no big deal! The more inclusive the game is, the more participants you'll get.

 

Good point. It should be something more inclusive. I actually do enjoy writing and would have liked to have submitted something, but why would I be trying to win colors? I'd rather leave that honor to someone else.

 

Why does it have to be about winning colours?


Just because your a mod shouldn't stop you from enetring.


If you win it give you bragging rights over us plebs

 

Maybe there should be specific colors assigned to this game, so the winner (even if he or she is already a mod) gets to change their colors for a week to those specific ones (and that sounds kinda stupid, but I was thinking about the House Cup game, where the winning team, even the members who already have colors, get their House colors for a week).