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

[HalcyonSpirit]

I'm surprised no one's started pestering me about the next competition already.

The May 2010 Poetry Competition is underway!

For those of you from the previous competition, I know I haven't yet reviewed your pieces. I'm trying to get to it, but I'm very, very busy and behind schedule with my college work, which needs to get done so I can, you know... graduate. So give me a little more time, m'kay?

[Nintendude794]

The following is my work, and secured as such by a Creative Commons License. For more info regarding your rights with this piece, PM me. Thanks and enjoy.

__________________________

"Knitting Time"

Days by hours and minutes by seconds,

passes time with splendid wonder.

Every stitch an ounce of thought,

many rows some pounds of pondering.

With great care, hands have beckoned;

waves of stitches, a web of thoughts,

they all concur like lightning and thunder.

If you live everyday to its fullest

-as if it were your very last-

someday you'll be proven right.

Tragedy not that life ends so soon,

but that we wait so long to begin it.

We've all been birthed with such great purpose,

to wonderful lifetimes made for living.

Shame when breath is only sustenance,

we go on to live but for nothing.

Years by months and weeks by days,

days by hours and minutes by moments:

we shall leave none to spare,

for just as naked trees lack fruit,

life without living is much too bare.

Luxuries that fulfill our time here

inevitably end up depriving us of it.

Millenia by centuries and decades by years,

months by weeks and days by hours,

all the seconds of every minute

no more than faded memories.

Thought per thought and stitch per stitch,

a knitted scarf is nothing more;

Stitch per stitch and thought per thought,

ideas in flocks like leaves in fall;

a world of wonders all we've got,

so much beauty, all in all.

[Xiad]

It may be a stupid question, but how about material in foreign languages? There is no restriction in that way but it would be hard to vote on if no one understands it XD

[HalcyonSpirit]

Xiad, this much is true. There is no restriction, so if you wanted to, go right ahead. Don't be surprised if it gets few votes, though, since this is a primarily English board.

Now, if you were to translate it, that'd work better for the competition. Is there any particular reason you'd want to have it in a language other than English?

[Xiad]

Not really, it was a question out of curiosity hehe. I have some material in spanish but translating things in this kind of writtings usually doesn't transmit the original "feeling" or intention of the author.

I'll come up with something, I'm also graduating so I'm a little busy right now, but in a few days I'll be finally free. So I need to put that pen to work!

Thx for the quick reply Halcyon!

[HalcyonSpirit]

I hope everyone's working hard on their submissions! I've been fairly busy lately, especially since I GRADUATED THIS PAST WEEKEND, but I've never been much of a poetry person, either...

In any case, I've got here a submission from ZeaLitY!

Not me! ZeaLitY!

The Course Unreal

by ZeaLitY

The ice can thunder in its crippling grip,

And snow can quiet all the life of earth

As naked tree-bark shivers in the wind –

But draw the breath of March on warming lips;

The eve with rosy golden hues conferred;

The ground, the mirror of clearing daylong rain,

As currents purple thunder eastward send;

The blades of hardened grass with sparkling drip

And dreams renewed by drops of em’rald birth,

And you shall stand where time with meaning blends;

The middle space between the seasons’ grain

Where waking beauty runs the course unreal

And crosses life to where there has been lain

The heart of spring and summer’s burning zeal.

[SoulinEther]

cognrats on graduating. we'll see if i end up writing one of my poems - my life is pretty conducive right now.

[Mirby]

Here's something I whipped up just now in this window for fun. Enjoy! Obviously, it's somewhat freeform, but with RHYMING!

The Armageddon Can

Inside the house of a certain man,

Lay the chest containing a can,

Open it and you will see,

Inside of a catastrophe.

Destruction, despair, and all that,

Fire and flames laying all flat,

Locusts, roaches, and other bugs,

Definitely not giving out hugs.

Hurry up and close it fast,

Before what you saw last,

Is released by breaking free,

To destroy all you see.

Here's an external link I just made to it: http://metakirby.110mb.com/index.php?p=4_1

[Random Hajile]

These are some ridiculous poems right here. Hooooo boy :0. I am going to have to do something about this. Can I compete? Who knows :0

[HalcyonSpirit]

A little under three days left for submissions this round. We have enough for a vote, but if we don't get at least one more, the submission period will be extended another week. But don't put off finishing; after all, if someone else submits before the deadline and you haven't been working on yours, you may not have time to finish anymore!

[HalcyonSpirit]

Submission period extended by a week. Hopefully we'll see a few more entries from the writers around here, hm?

[HalcyonSpirit]

Voting starts now for the May 2010 Poetry Competition!

We've got three submissions this time:

Knitting Time by Nintendude794

The Course Unreal by ZeaLitY

The Armageddon Can by Mirby

Good luck to the participants!

[ProjectSpam]

I knew I'd forget about the extended deadline.

[Mirby]

Yes! There's no possible way I could get worse than third!

[HalcyonSpirit]

It's certainly possible if no one votes!

Seriously, no one's voted yet. There's less than a week to go. Get moving, people!

[Mirby]

There. I probably guaranteed the results.

COME ON PEOPLE! VOTE FOR THIS SHIT!

VOTE!!!!

[Mirby]

I tried drumming up support in the IRC. I hope it worked...

VOTE!!!!

[HalcyonSpirit]

Thanks for the help.

I have two votes in my inbox now. So three in total if you include my vote. Voting is almost over; I want to see more votes! Especially from the people who actually entered this and previous rounds!

[HalcyonSpirit]

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

The winners of the May 2010 Poetry Competition are:

1st Place: The Course Unreal by ZeaLitY

Runner-Up: Knitting Time by Nintendude794

Here's the point distribution:

The Course Unreal by ZeaLitY - 5

Knitting Time by Nintendude794 - 4

The Armageddon Can by Mirby - 3

Congratulations to the winners! I wish we had a larger pool of votes to go by (and a larger pool of submissions, of course), but the round went well regardless.

The July 2010 Freeform Competition starts in nine days! Remember, practically any sort of writing is allowed for the freeform rounds, so feel free to experiment or submit things you wouldn't otherwise submit! Let your creative juices flow!

[Mirby]

YAY! I GOT THIRD!

Now if a person could give 2 points to their own entries... I had to do 3, 2, and 1...

Meh, I helped with the advertising. And there's no prize, so I can't complain, now can I? It was fun. I might enter the next one too!

Still, I got a quarter of the votes; not bad for a poem I wrote on the spot.

[Nintendude794]

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

The winners of the May 2010 Poetry Competition are:

1st Place: The Course Unreal by ZeaLitY

Runner-Up: Knitting Time by Nintendude794

Here's the point distribution:

The Course Unreal by ZeaLitY - 5

Knitting Time by Nintendude794 - 4

The Armageddon Can by Mirby - 3

Congratulations to the winners! I wish we had a larger pool of votes to go by (and a larger pool of submissions, of course), but the round went well regardless.

The July 2010 Freeform Competition starts in nine days! Remember, practically any sort of writing is allowed for the freeform rounds, so feel free to experiment or submit things you wouldn't otherwise submit! Let your creative juices flow!

The Course Unreal definitely earned that one extra vote.

Seriously, it's really nice, I like it.

[SoulinEther]

I wish I had internet to vote, or time to compete. I digress. I freaking love Knitting Time. Not to say that The Course Unreal is undeserving, but just out of personal taste Knitting Time just jumps out at me. The long time period by shorter time period, and the "minutes by moments"...and the imagery and the symbolism and the analogy and the message. Excellent.

[Jam Stunna]

I know Freeform doesn't start for three more days, but I wrote this yesterday and I'm submitting it for the Freeform competition.

Crossing Paths

By Jamil Ragland

It’s hot. I’m sitting in the office at the gas station in basketball shorts and a blue wifebeater. Two fans are circulating the stuffy air, taking the edge off the office’s greenhouse effect. I’m bored. There was an interesting story about internet culture earlier on NPR, but the words have gelled together into a monotonous buzz.

A customer walks into the office. A white man, a little chubby, with sandy brown hair. He’s wearing a pink and red striped button up with blue jeans. He looks like he could be in his mid twenties, but I’m not sure. If he asks for cigarettes, I’ll card him. I say good afternoon, and he returns the nicety while inspecting the sodas in our freezer. He grabs a blue Mountain Dew with World of Warcraft characters on the bottle and stares at it, apparently amused by the absurdity of a corporate marriage between a soft drink and a videogame. He hands me exact change for the soda, $1.25.

“It’s hot as balls out there,” he says.

I laugh. “Yeah it is.”

“I’m just going to stay in here and stand beneath the fan if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, knock yourself out.”

He points to our display of cigarettes. “That’s a shit ton of Newports. That the most popular brand around here?”

“Yes sir.”

“I’m a Marlboro man myself. Newports are okay, but it’s too hot for menthol today.” I don’t say anything at first. I smoke on rare occasions, and when I do its Marlboros. I bum them from my wife.

“Yeah, it’s hot, but it’s better than winter I suppose,” I say after a pause. “I don’t know what I ever saw in cold weather.”

“Oh, I love winter,” he says. “But I’m a skier, I spent every weekend going up to Vermont when I was a kid, so I guess I got used to it. Plus the blubber helps.” I laugh as he takes a swig of his soda. “Next summer I’m going to be in Afghanistan. It’s going to suck, it’s hot as fuck over there.

“You’re in the Army?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “Navy. It’s going to be so hot over there. Plus the bullets flying around.”

I’m not sure what to say. “A friend of mine just got back from Iraq. Hopefully by next summer Afghanistan will have calmed down like Iraq did.” I hope that my weak attempt at solidarity and wishful thinking come across as slightly more than worthless.

“I’ll be doing Blackwater over there. You heard of them?” I nod my head. “It pays well, really well. You make $50,000 for two months, that’s more than some people make in a year. But you have to guard diplomats and officials. So you walk next to their cars, with your weapon like this,” he demonstrates the proper way to carry it, “looking around and wondering ‘What the fuck is going to happen next?’”

“But it’s fucking hot. I’m going to die over there, or at least a part of me is. They just gave us our hot weather gear. There’s these boots that keep your feet cool. I wear flip-flops everywhere, unless I’m running or doing exercises, so I’m thinking boots? But they have this special insulation. You think you’d be walking around in puddles of sweat, but they really keep your feet cool! It’s crazy.”

I want to say that I thought about joining the Army, and that I did ROTC in high school, but it sounds pathetic even as I think about it. I listen and nod instead.

His soda’s about halfway gone. He’s ready to go. “What’s your name, man?” he asks as he extends his hand towards me.

“Jamil. And yours?” I ask and shake his hand.

“Matt. Take it easy.”

“You too. Keep yourself safe over there.”

He stops in the door and turns back towards me. “I’ll do my best.” I watch as he pulls out of the parking lot. He’s driving a gold Volkswagon station wagon, probably his parent’s car. He stops at the red light not five hundred feet from my office. The light flickers to a green left turn signal, and he’s gone.

[HalcyonSpirit]

I know this is a tad late, but the July 2010 Freeform Competition has begun! Let's see some entries!

[Diodes]

Hmmm... I'm thinking about entering this. (Because I don't have enough to do between FBRC, project tracks, and everything else in life ) When I met HalcyonSpirit in person, he mentioned the writing competition, and I remembered that I've been thinking about doing it for quite some time. I have something that I've been planning on writing for a very long time, and it's not poetry or a short story, so this would be the perfect category for it. If anybody can make any sense of it.