Amph SFF Writers' Guild Writing Contest! VERSION THREE --- contest closed

I've only got one; my thinking cap is malfunctioning.

Idea 1: A low-level person (like a grunt in the military or a janitor for a major corporation) goes postal.

 

Well, I already came up with a bunch earlier. So I'll pick three of those.

The main character has just been pushed into a deadly situation.

It's 3am, do you know where your son/daughter and heir is?

The main character has just escaped from prison/a POW camp/the enemy.

 

So what's going on with the judging and results? have we hit another snag? Well, that would be par for the course this time around, wouldn't it

 

I've had 3 of the 4 results in.


I'm giving it one final hour forn the missing person to send me their results then I'll post the results anyway as 3 results gives a sufficient spread anyway.





The next one WILL be smoother due to Pc being new and improved

 

Here are the results for the Contest.


Sorry for the delay for yesterday but I dozed off and with me living in Britain that meant a huge delay for you American folks so please accept my apologies (again).


//note to self. Must have working PC and Alarm Clock for next contest

---

We had a grand total of [b]TWO[/b] entries this time round [face_plain]

From the looks of things, this was in the main down to a convoluted prompt, which many felt was too restrictive. I hope to have more discussions on prompts for the next contest that I hope to have up soonish (Mod approval and interest permitting)


Our entrants were:

[b]Knights Dilettante[/b] who wrote [i]Reflections[/i]

And

[b]The Wandering Shadow[/b] who wrote [I]The Lucifirian Sword[/I]


A big thank you to them for their entries.

We had 3 judges in the end

[b]DBrennan3333
JediNemesis
NYCitygurl[/b]

I will post their judgings in no particular order.


[hr]

[color=seagreen][hl=red]The Lucifirian Sword[/hl][/color]

[b] Judge one[/b]

Overall Creativity: 10
Writing Ability: 9
Grammar/Mechanics: 8
Use of the prompt: 7
Entertainment Value: 8


I love the story. It was very creative; quite an original idea. You did a great job showing the flashbacks, and I love the detail you included. You had some grammar issues, mainly comma errors and run-ons. I don't feel that you followed the prompt fully, because at the end it wasn't clear that either Ian or Yvonne was going to have a successful ending and the other a bad one. You left it sort of unfinished, but it left me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next. Good job!!

Total 42/50


[b]Judge two[/b]

Overall Creativity: 6

The vividness of the individual scenes was definitely a testament to a vibrant imagination....but the overall . The juxtaposition of a contemporary Western youth with this fantasy world didn't necessarily make the story any more fresh. Having said that, I praise the morality of the tale and the author's seemingly joyful engagement of these fantasies.

Writing Ability: 5

The writing was a little bit overwrought. It lacked rhythm.

Grammar/Mechanics: 5

There were at least a dozen clear-cut grammatical mistakes. This score will be judged relative to the competition.

Use of the prompt (A tragedy happens and two people react in opposite ways): 3

The characters didn't react in opposite ways (Yvonne said no to the devil/dragon/wizard while Ian ultimately did, as well) and the tragedy wasn't totally defined as far as I could tell. I also don't think that the story was true to the spirit of the prompt which, I think, was meant to demonstrate how different choices lead to different results.

Entertainment Value: 5

I'll be honest and say that raw fantasy isn't totally my cup of tea. But even allowing for that, this story feels less like a complete story than a fun daydream or bedtime fantasy for a youngster (and it would be a healthy, fun daydream at that).

Total 24/50


[b]Judge three [/b]

I enjoyed this. The relation to the prompt wasn't that strong, but doesn't damage the story in itself; there were a fair amount of technical wibbles, but they don't detract from the creative blast behind the story. Vivid description, happily over-the-top, and with some killer black humour - both in terms of dialogue and in the sheer inability of Ian to get his head round what Yvonne perceives as normal. It's got an offbeat tone that's disconcerting but deeply fun once things go pear-shaped. [Longer review follows by PM after the results go up].

Overall creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Writing ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Grammar and mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Use of the prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Entertainment value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Total 37/50




Grand Total = 103/150



[hl=red][color=seagreen]Reflections[/color][/hl]

[b] Judge one[/b]

Overall Creativity: 10
Writing Ability:

 

Congrats, KD ! Can't wait to read your story.

And I'd like to thank the judges for their feedback. It's much appreciated, both the positive and negative. Not really surprised that I didn't win, though. I'm well aware that I screwed up the prompt royaly, and I was only able to read through my entry once before the deadline hit. That's where the grammar and flow problems came in ... Just to let everyone know that I'm not a bad writer... I hope.

 

Thank you to Fatburt, and to both the participants and the other judges. to KD

 

Congrats KD!

And thanks to FatBurt and the other judges. I must say I greatly enjoyed both the stories and it was a shame there were only two. But still, great contest

 

**shoots confetti cannon**

Congratulations again, KD!

 

The stories are available to read somewhere?

Could someone please post a link?

Because I know, personally, a huge lure for me to write stuff for these kind of contests has always been the feedback/discussion possible after I'm done. So I think being able to read others work or talk with the author about their's might encourage people to participate.

 

The stories aren't linked anywhere, but I could email mine, and KD could email hers. Or one of the judges might still have them both, and they could do the emailing to anyone interested in reading the entries.

 

I'm feeling a bit like I'm in a parallel universe myself actually. I did not expect to come even close let alone win. Somebody's maths need work. My score should be only 114 not 115. Not to mention there should have been some sort of deduction taken for being late which might easily have been enough to change the order of the entries since they're pretty close as it is. So I'd like to suggest that the time in colors be split between the_wandering_shadow and myself, if that is feasible. I've sent off PMs to Master Fat-Burt and NYCityGurl asking about that.

I'm very much looking forward to reading your story, the_wandering_shadow, I'm PMing my e-mail address. The hints from the feedback above are quite tantalizing, so I can't wait to read it.

As for my own story, I'm happy to e-mail it to anyone who wants to read it, but I don't really want to post it anywhere publically accessible since I want to retain all rights to all the elements in case they make it into something else I might right later and actually try to submit for publication. My e-mail is listed in my bio but I don't post it to keep the spam from web-crawlers down. It's <my username here> at yahoo.com if it's too hard to find it in the bio.

KD

 

SO, new prompt yet or are we waiting for something?

 

Waiting




As always there will be a new thread for the next contest but I'm currently deciding on the three possible prompts for the next contest.



Plus the mods are in discussion over prizes ATM as well.




It likely to be an October start.

 

The next contest will be starting on the Sunday 1st October.


In preparation I shall list the prompt suggestions (and a couple more I've had below)


the week before I shall post a list of 3 prompts and it will be one of these prompts that will be used for the contest (This gives you a weeks "prep" work)



I would like people to put forwards their preferred 3 from the list for consideration for the contest.

---

The list.

1. Your on a ship thats the first to be able to do long distance exploration

2. You have just escaped from a prison camp

3. You have just recieved an unsolicited message

4. You're in a war and your unsure whether you are fighting for a side you believe in

5. The final choices of a dying person

6. You're in a war and the good guys are losing

7. You've been invaded by an unknown agressor and you hold the key to defeating them

8. You're world is due to have a major extinction event and you are not aware of how to avoid it.

9. A routine exploration/survey goes horribly wrong

10. You've been accused of a crime and you don't know whether you did it or now.

11. You're a subject in a nation where your leader has gone insane

12. you witness something you weren't meant to

13. Someone you know has gone postal.

14. It's early morning and you don't know where your child is


[hr]



So there's the list.


Put forwards your 3 preferred and the ones which have been largely ignored will be discounted for the next installment.

 

In no particular order:

11. You're a subject in a nation where your leader has gone insane

9. A routine exploration/survey goes horribly wrong

13. Someone you know has gone postal.

 

Some good ones there

I'm going to go with:

6. You're in a war and the good guys are losing

10. You've been accused of a crime and you don't know whether you did it or not

11. You're a subject in a nation where your leader has gone insane

 

in order of interest to me,

4. You're in a war and your unsure whether you are fighting for a side you believe in

13 Someone you know has gone postal.

11. You're a subject in a nation where your leader has gone insane


id really like to do 4 the best, however.

 

7, 9, 10. In numerical order, not order of interest.

 

Here are mine in numerical order:

6. You're in a war and the good guys are losing

11. You're a subject in a nation where your leader has gone insane

12. you witness something you weren't meant to

 

So this has gotten me interested in writing my story/book again, and i have skipped ahead quite a ways to an interesting part in the story so that it motivates me to write again. If it fits one of hte prompts, would i be able to submit what i have written in there for the next contest?

 

It would mean you have an unfair advantage in the fact that something is already written but as we can't actually police whether you do that or not it then boils down to your own concious.





I'm also thinking on a couple of things regarding prior prompts and discussions over them.


I've admitted that the last prompt was designed so I could see whether the writers would look to do a happy or sad story (for want of a better description) but I think a post contest discussion over the prompt may be an idea for between future contests as it would allow all writers to pool their ideas and share thoughts (It all helps with the creative process)

I'll wait till the weekend and get my thoughts on the prompt up then (after I have a load more preferences in)

It may help increase traffic in here a little as well (Which is always a good thing)

 

If im writting it right now would that not be proper? If it isn't, im still going to write it because it's a good idea lol and i like what im doing with it. I can submit it early if you want and if it fits a given promt that is chosen.

 

You're not allowed to start your entry until the challenge starts.

Raven and I have talked, and decided that for now we're just going to keep it to one week of colors for the first-place winner.

 

Ok. I'm still gonna write what i am writing now, but thats for my story/book thing im writing and i guess when the other thing is announced ill start writing another story.