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WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread


HalcyonSpirit
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Well, shoot. I discovered this thread a few weeks back and wanted to get an account here but my computer didn't let me register until today. I even started a short story, but never finished it because I kinda felt like this would happen. Next time, I guess. Darn.

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Do we have to award all six point?

That's a... that's a really good question, actually. I would recommend doing so, but... technically, there isn't a rule about it specifically...

Let me get back to you on that. There might be informal precedent somewhere regarding it. Possibly during Imagery's reign.

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OK, first up, just a couple days left to vote! I've received three votes so far, plus mine. Let's have a good showing with votes by getting a few more in!

Second, Jam, I'm going to go ahead and say, for now, you don't have to award all of the points you are able to assign. I strong, strongly recommend it, but I don't see why you can't withhold points and there hasn't been any precedent. Unless there's any objections/suggestions from others, that's my ruling for now.

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I agree. As an amateur writer, I don't think you can have enough exposure to the styles and ideas of other non-published/semi-published writers. And like you said, the readings themselves were enjoyable.

But I don't think 'difficult' is a strong enough word for the task of voting on these...

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THE RESULTS ARE IN!

The winners of the March 2010 Short Story competition are:

1st Place: Uncaptured Jewel by HalcyonSpirit

Runner-Up: Nostalgic by Imagery

Here's the point distribution:

Uncaptured Jewel by HalcyonSpirit - 11

Nostalgic by Imagery - 8

Seraph by Soul Splint - 5

The Munchies by Jam Stunna (Jamil Ragland) - 4

You've Built Worlds, Haven't you? by Random Hajile - 4

Reaching Out by SoulinEther (Yousef Reda) - 2

Reunion by Darklink42 - 2

Congratulations to the winners, Imagery and Ha... wait. ... wut? *shuffles papers around* How'd that happen? I must've miscounted something - where's my abacus?

... Ah well. I won't argue with the votes, just the sanity of the voters. :-P

All-in-all, definitely a wonderful showing by the participants, and it certainly was difficult placing some of my points. Goes to show you how diverse the field of creative writing can be, and how hard it is to compare and rank compositions from different styles. I don't envy people who run professional competitions.

That all said, it's 1:30AM for me; I'm going to sleep. I'll come back later to give a somewhat better reaction to the pieces.

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Okay, time for some micro-reviews. If you want more, ask and I'll get to you as I have time.

You've Built Worlds, Haven't You?- Interesting concept, but the execution didn't do anything for me. Maybe there's another way to describe your plot without actually discussing it?

Seraph- I liked this piece alot. The thing that holds it back is that it's not a short story. It works well as a first chapter, but it doesn't have the same feeling of cohesiveness that the other short stories did.

Nostalgic- This was my first place vote. You pretty much reviewed your own piece with your non-qualifying paragraph, so I'll just echo that ;)

Reaching Out- The emotion of the piece just never hit me.

Uncaptured Jewel- Nothing happens in this story. The writing is good, but there's no plot. I guess there's the recollection of their meeting, but those scenes only serve to reinforce the chase aspect of the relationship. I think juxtaposing tjhe main chase against some totally different aspect of their relationship could really improve this piece.

Reunion- Maybe I just don't like private eye stories.

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Reunion- Maybe I just don't like private eye stories.

:(

I would actually like a bit more critique, not just from Jam but from anybody that wants to give me some. I will, in turn, give my own critique to anyone that wants some on theirs. I may just do the micro-critique thing here too, as that would be the fair thing to do.

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The only thing I can add is that it just felt really...standard I guess? Saying that I don't like private eye stories was me tryig to be nice, but the truth is that the story was so uninteresting to me that I didn't even form an opinion about it.

Like I said, that may just be a preference thing.

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That's fair enough, I think I can see where you're coming from on that. You are entitled to your own preferences, and I won't take offense if it didn't catch your interest. In fact, if anything, that's probably an indicator that I dropped the ball early on and failed to really carry the story through to the end. Thanks for being honest, I appreciate it.

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I would actually like a bit more critique, not just from Jam but from anybody that wants to give me some. I will, in turn, give my own critique to anyone that wants some on theirs. I may just do the micro-critique thing here too, as that would be the fair thing to do.

Well, I'm still in the middle of the microcritiquing, but I was pretty saddened to see that you tied for last place with me (I wasn't saddened that I came in last though). I thought the story was well-contained and the "walk and talk" (more like walk and backstory, lol) approach worked for me - leading well into the main event of the plot.

Something about that conflict and the climax didn't sit well with me. Things didn't seem to be happening at an even pace, I think, and the fairly long remarks by Jason coupled with the fast and brief action in the surroundings didn't help on that front. Plus, it seemed a little unrealistic, too perfect that the protagonist evaded all harm?

---

Maybe I should try to qualify my story before the microcritiques pour in, so that maybe I could get more constructive criticism on what I feel I'm weak on (though I might be weak in more ways than I think). I was aiming for something short with fairly open-ended characters in a situation that people could relate to on an issue. Am I mistaken in not giving my characters more depth? Should I be putting in more narrative and past events so that the characters and the emotions seem more... real? Or, as Jam Stunna put it, was the emotion just not strong enough on its own?

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Take a better look at Seraph, SoulinEther. Soul Splint gave us concrete examples of the kind of relationship his father/son characters had, so that the reader can appreciate the emotional loss the main character has.

His story is different in the particulars (his is happening in real time whereas your protagonist is looking back), but you might be able to glean some tips from how he established his character's relationships.

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Take a better look at Seraph, SoulinEther. Soul Splint gave us concrete examples of the kind of relationship his father/son characters had, so that the reader can appreciate the emotional loss the main character has.

His story is different in the particulars (his is happening in real time whereas your protagonist is looking back), but you might be able to glean some tips from how he established his character's relationships.

Thank You! I think that is the best complement I have ever received :-o, though I can't take full credit for my characterization. I had an awesome Creative Writing teacher (who is a published author; his book is a best seller in Germany) who really helped me in a lot of ways.

I'm sorry I don't have time to give critiques right now (I'm in finals); I want to give them full justice, and not just a word or two. But if anyone can leave feedback, you don't know how appreciated it is. I will do my best to follow suit after my final papers and tests finish raping me.

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Great Job everyone!

Congratulations to the winners ^^.

I actually liked everybody's pieces alot.

Uncaptured Jewel was great.

regarding my story -

I was trying to describe the story as a dream, you see. Kind of a removed first person I guess? I was trying to desegregate the real and the dream until there was only the love left. It was kind of fail, but I liked the idea ^^.

If you look closely, I think I did a good job at removing reality from the story.

I don't want to point out anything, but perhaps anyone whose interested can give it another look? I threw in some stuff in there that is pretty hard to pick up on a cursory run through - I had a few people re-read it a few times and then go, "Oh wow".

Maybe you caught it, but if you didn't it might be worth a look. I'll explain a little bit more if anyone cares :D.

I thought it to be one of my best works yet, even if it does need some tidying.

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