Short Story Competition: 2B

[El Russo]

is just writing copyright enough 2 copyright something? not that i'm planning anything.

i would have posted a story i started a year and a half ago but stopped cos of a levels. anyway when i finish it'll b way 2 long. also i only have 2 days 2 get it done and i have a history exam tomorrow. doh!

[ionfish]

In this country, you don't even have to do that... just writing it is enough to copyright it.

[blackjack]

Well, that's the UK, anyhow... US law says that all you have to do is slap "© (year) (whatever your name is)" on it, and it's copyrighted. There is a registration process but all that's really for is to make sure you have solid proof in case there's a legal issue.

[Avalonian]

Ummm.... how worried should I be about the 7,500 word limit? I'm making really good progress on the Karan S'jet story I've been working on, but I'm pretty sure it's going to go over that limit. It's clocking in at over 5,000 words right now, and I just passed the halfway point, I think.

So... will I be out of the running?

[ionfish]

Well, the reason it was raised to 7,500 words (from 6,000 last time) was because it wasn't enough... so... dunno really. If it's not too much over it should be ok, I supppose. Try to keep it under though.

[Avalonian]

Thanks, Ion... I haven't done any real editing yet, so it may still come in under the limit. I was just wondering, in case it doesn't.

Hopefully I can at least finish it in time!

[Bedford]

You have until 12:00 am (GMT) to post today (15th June).

For clarity, that's the very end of this day, again the 15th June. By that time, all entries you want judged must be in, and editing must be completed.

(Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! Not enough time!)

[DurinsBane]

not that anyone cares, but I've decided to trash The Unbound and never write HW fic again... I just can't do non-original works... so g'bye, and thanks for all the fish...
that is all...

[Helix /DB/]

Ouch...

[bluevorlon]

Bugger.

That is all.

[Avalonian]

Crap... it's too long, needs a better title, and needs some serious editing. I'm not going to make it.

I'll post it seperately, maybe a little later today or tomorrow.

I sympathize with you Benford... not enough time.

[ionfish]

Har.

Oh well, maybe next time.

:hmm:

[blackjack]

well damn.

[Bedford]

Well shucks (to use a nauseous American term)...

Congrats to all those who entered: there is no set 'deadline' by which all of the entries must be read and marked. I think that for now, we should all take a breather. I'll set a date within the month, though due to the sheer scale of stories and their lengths, the judging process is going to be a long one.

not that anyone cares, but I've decided to trash The Unbound and never write HW fic again... I just can't do non-original works... so g'bye, and thanks for all the fish...
that is all...

Is this humour, DurinsBane, or are you serious. Dammit, why is it so difficult to tell sarcasm from the truth across the net? I hate having to rely upon smilies...

[blackjack]

Hey, hold on. It's not midnight here yet - I still have... 6 hours!

/me begins jotting feverishly

[edit]oh F it, I give up.

[Bedford]

Just vote for the person you would like to have win the competition (i.e. the best entry in your opinion).

Only one entry per person.
Poll ends when I (or one of the mod's) close it.
Please read all the entries before you vote.

[DurinsBane]

I am, in fact, quite serious... this stuff just ain't for me... I've tried really hard, but The Unbound just sucks too much for me to keep wasting time on... I've got better stuff in the works - stuff that has completely no relation to Homeworld...
that is all...

[blackjack]

6 votes.

You have got to be kidding me. Come on, people. The lack of turnout for this whole compo has astounded me. How much effort does it take to read a few stories and click a button?

[TheGunslinger]

Heck, I'm just happy someone voted for my story.

[Helix /DB/]

Yours had real vision, Gunslinger. In many ways I consider it superior to mine.

In any case I'm truly amazed to find myself in the lead. This has got to be the first of anything I've won on these boards, and Gifted Ones is not even something I regard very highly among my stories.

[Avalonian]

I wasn't sure we were supposed to reply here... guess it's OK.

I voted for yours, Gunslinger, though I was impressed with all of the stories for various reasons. I thought they were all quality work, and frankly, Helix's was a close second.

However, yours just had a personal element that was really effective, Gunslinger. When it comes down to it, my favorite stories are ones that are about people, stories that try to express some feeling that isn't easy to get to. Grief, joy, anger... many more. In my opinion (and bear in mind that it's only my opinion), yours was the best expression of true feeling and real personality that I read there.

Well done.

[TheGunslinger]

Originally posted by Avalonian
I wasn't sure we were supposed to reply here... guess it's OK.

I voted for yours, Gunslinger, though I was impressed with all of the stories for various reasons. I thought they were all quality work, and frankly, Helix's was a close second.

However, yours just had a personal element that was really effective, Gunslinger. When it comes down to it, my favorite stories are ones that are about people, stories that try to express some feeling that isn't easy to get to. Grief, joy, anger... many more. In my opinion (and bear in mind that it's only my opinion), yours was the best expression of true feeling and real personality that I read there.

Well done.

*is completely gabberflasted* Thank you, Avalonian! That's the highest praise I've ever gotten. What I was going for was the idea that love truly can conquer all. I guess I did. And I agree with you on Helix's work, though I thought it was better than mine, in quantity and quality. I do hope he wins, actually. Helix has a great future as a writer. Once again, thanks, Avalonian.

[Bedford]

I would like to take this opportunity to comment on the lack of entries, and on the lack of votes. :mad: If I remember correctly a similar thing happened last time, only the balance was tipped differently. Something like 10-12 entries and 25 votes. Even then I would still have liked to see more votes. :flame:

Now we have what, 6 entries and only 16 votes? :flame: Hell, the last compo even went so far as to attract the attention of one of the artists from the Gallery: molotov.

I think my biggest mistake was in letting everyone have a free reign. Next time, I will set a minimum word limit. For instance, a 7,500 word compo should contain entries of around that length, or at the very least 4,000. Knowing this mistake, I will take steps to avoid it in the future, though this may mean bringing the word limit down for those of us who can't manage to write more than 1,500 words without getting cramp or a nose bleed. Up-front apologies to the writers who can accomplish much more.

And next time clearer themes must be set. The rules allowed entrants to pick their own genre, but perhaps I shall have to impose restrictions in future. I just fancied letting the writers move awya form sci-fi for a bit. As the focus has still been on sci-fi, I may have to edit that a little bit.


So what can I do next time to guarantee more entries and more votes? Help me out here guys.

[Avalonian]

Bedford, the only reason I didn't have an entry to add was that I missed the time limit, and it went over the limit... both of which were my own fault. I underestimated the story I was writing. Hopefully next time I'll be a better judge of what I have in front of me.

Perhaps, to encourage more entries, you could have some sort of reward for winners. Not money or anything, of course (donations are always accepted, though), but most writers enjoy exposure. Perhaps posting the winning stories of each contest on a site somewhere, with "featured" status given to the winner. Someplace with more exposure than a messageboard, I mean... just a thought. It might get more writers to take a shot at it. I'm all about the carrot. *grins*

I'm not sure about voting... I voted, just because it was a pleasure to read all the stories. I'm not sure what better reason there would be. *shrug*

[Helix /DB/]

It seems inevitable that the boards may be shrinking. Given that it has been several years since Homeworld came out, there has been no catalyst for a population explosion... Meanwhile more and more people loose interest or have college/children/heart attacks(?). I observed precisely the same phenomenon with the Descent community some years ago. This will change when HW2 comes, but until then we are in a sort of dark age. That is my best explaination for the poor attendance.

Setting limits is not going to improve it--if anything, it might scare some people off. Limiting length is not too bad an idea, since readers may be less daunted by length, but theme should be kept infinite.
As for an incentive... There is something the forum has to offer: custom profile pics. I have yearned for one since the old boards crashed, and I'm not sure about the data-storage capacity of this place, but I'll bet there's a way. That, and better publicity, might help.

[Bedford]

[This is a repost of a prior post - it might not be the same ad verbatum.]

Excellant suggestions both - sorry if I seemed a bit ratty before there.

Custome profile pics would be brilliant if we could get them. I'll speak to some mods: get an official opinion.

About posting on the net. I know Yahoo! Groups allow you to store files on the net, and you can make them public so that when people use the Yahoo search engine, it auto-scans the Groups section as well. Oh, and it's free too.

However, there may be an alternative option. My dad just got a new PC. It's not hooked up to the net yet, but when we reach that stage (still being blown away by the 1.6 GHz proc, 80 Gig HDD, CDRW, DVD-ROM and cracking nVidia GeForce3) we might be using BT as our ISP. I know for sure that you get so much free online I/net space with BT: creating a web page there and then hosting some stories might be possible. Ion will know: he has a BT account.

On the subject of catalysts and HW2, I wish they'd post something here so we would all know what was happening...


[ADDITIONAL]
Publicity... now there's a thing. Damn it! Should have broadcasted the compo on the General Discussions board, in the Gallery - a whole multitudinous array of locations with which to pique the common eye. :insane:

Oh well. At least I know now for next time.

[bluevorlon]

Sorry about my relative non-participation in either entering or organising this competition but I've my end of year coursework due in and now I've just got back from glastonbury.

I can offer a prize of some sort (it may be a title, may be an avatar, maybe something else) to the winner of the competition, but I think part of the reason we've had little response so far is down to two reasons.

a) The failure of conspicuous writers like Ionfish, BlackJack, and possibly myself to get our act together and get something finished by the deadline (I'm still only half done)

b) The fact that in order to vote you have to read a lot of words, and take a long time over each entry due to their size, this is unlike, say, the Gallery competition where you can see each entry as a picture laid out before you.

How can we fix this? I'm not sure really. If you go take a look at the other competition, the more people that responded with crits the more other people stopped and noticed the competition, it becomes like a snowball effect.

I'll be reading the rest of these today and hopefully have judgements later on...

blu

[Bedford]

Thankyou, blu. I agree with both you points. Solution to the first is down to those named; solution to the second could be brought about by limiting the length of the shorts - however, thus limiting the writers in their scope.

Now that the poll is closed, I feel compelled to say: congratulations Helix! An interesting text.

To the rest of us: thanks for taking the time to enter.

To those who voted: thanks for taking the time to complete that too - I know at least two of the stories were of great length (ahem) and must have taken some time to read.

Thanks again. Dunno how long it will be before the next one...