Winter Writing Competition!

Incinermyn said:

How strict are you going to be about it? I can write within a 1000-2000 word limit, but I'm afraid of your counting method. It doesn't include the title (and, when applicable, sub-titles), does it? That, in and of itself, would be dumb since titles aren't part of the actual story's content. Otherwise, is there like a degree of lenience (like if your a few words over or short of the limit)?

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I'm not going to be overly strict about it, but I can't speak about the other judges. I doubt they're going to be mean about it, but if you don't follow the word count, then a few points might be deducted depending on the severity. When counting the word count, I only count the story itself. Titles, authors notes, and subtitles do not count.

To answer for myself: I don't care about the word count. The only thing that's important is that your story is as long or as short as it needs to be. If that means that you're over 2000 or under 1000, I don't care. Just worry more about telling a decent story to impress me.

if you guys (judges) decide to be strict about the word count, could you maybe link to the word count program/site you're going to use to check our fics? not everything returns the same result.

Gah, anything I write will be way over 2k, so I think I'm out for this one folks.

Vociferocity said:

if you guys (judges) decide to be strict about the word count, could you maybe link to the word count program/site you're going to use to check our fics? not everything returns the same result.

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I'm just going to copy&paste everything into microsoft word. I don't really care about the word count either. I only put it there so that we don't receive novels as entries. Although I will dock a couple points if it goes way over.

What about, I don't know, say like 4-5k?

PhantomX0990 said:

What about, I don't know, say like 4-5k?

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That's probably when I'll start docking points. I can only speak for me, but 4k is pushing it. You can still turn it in by all means, but just don't be surprised if a couple points are deducted.

Let me just reiterate that Slayr might be the only judge to dock points for going over the word limit. I will not be counting words. This means that you'll get points from me based on the quality of your story, and you can go as high as you need to without fear that I will be docking points from you.

I'll drag bobandbill in here to give his opinion.

For me, the challenge is to write a story in that as stated in the first place. I personally am not the greatest fan of such limits (something I'd blame on school, I suppose), and believe that the story should be as long as it needs to be to, well, tell the story. So I won't dock points unless it really is too short, or the more likely scenario of being noticeably way longer than 2000 words. I'm willing to be even more (or less) lax with that, but that's how it stands for myself.

Astinus said:

Let me just reiterate that Slayr might be the only judge to dock points for going over the word limit. I will not be counting words.

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Yeah. I mean, what's the point of rules if you're not going to enforce them? There's already been a "debate" about the prompt (which, now that you can completely ignore Christmas/winter in the "Winter Writing Competition", seems quite useless), and now a disregard for the word limit (or at least a major flexibility to the point of disregard).

Which other rules can we break?

Maruno said:

Yeah. I mean, what's the point of rules if you're not going to enforce them? There's already been a "debate" about the prompt (which, now that you can completely ignore Christmas/winter in the "Winter Writing Competition", seems quite useless), and now a disregard for the word limit (or at least a major flexibility to the point of disregard).

Which other rules can we break?

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I would just like to say that this is my first time running a writing competition. Since this is my first time, I don't want to create impossible boundaries that no one can follow. That's why I'm being so lenient with everything. Plus, I want to get as many people to join as possible. FF&W isn't the most popular board, and lately it's had a reputation of only being for the writing types. Meaning, if you don't take writing seriously, you aren't allowed. I hate the stigma and the best way to break it down is through fun, little events like this one. Like I said before, this is my first time running a competition and I want to avoid creating impossible boundaries. In other words, this is sort of a test for me. Once I feel more confident with running competitions, you can be sure I'll reinforce the rules a little more strictly because I know that they will be fair. In the meantime, however, I'm just testing various aspects.

Just to address the general sentiment in this thread, the idea of a word limit is two-fold. The first is that it makes it a bit easier on the judges because they don't have to either a) read through a ton of text or b) deal with entries that clearly demonstrate a lack of effort. The second is that staying within a word margin is challenging. A big part of writing is choosing your words carefully and cutting out everything that doesn't need to be there. It would be easy to word-vomit a story out for a competition like this and send it off. It requires a lot more care and attention to stay within the boundaries, which typically produces much better work.

In terms of breaking rules, Slayr has stated he will enforce the word limit. You will lose points if you break said limit. The penalty may not be very harsh since only Slayr is docking points for that, but the result is you won't be eligible for the maximum possible score if you go over or under.

Therefore, everyone's going to have to decide whether they can write a "better story" with more (or less) words, possibly earning more points overall than they lose for length. It's a tradeoff.

To be honest, I'd rather people send in something that's outside of the word limit then not try at all. The point of this competition is not to prove you are the best writer in the forum or anything, it's just a fun activity to try and drum up activity, is all. I don't really see much of a problem in the word limit not being a major loss of points if you write a good story anyway out of it, and give it a go. So why try and discourage people and go against the point of the event? So I think it makes sense - you go out of the limit significantly, you may get some point reduction. Nothing that will rule you out of winning if you do a great job with the story, but if you're in the limit, you won't face the penalty from at least some judges.

And as txt said, it is preferably if you don't give us a epic to judge so we can get the results done sooner. =p

Alrighty people, judging for the stories will begin in one week! So be sure to get them in sometime in the next seven days if you plan on participating! :D

TD said:

Would it be okay, if I made a story under all three of these prompts.

If so here's a mock story:

Prompt: Loneliness.
Rating: R

The Lonely Waffle

There was once a lonely waffle.​

Astinus: <sniffs> You're a superb writer.

bobanbill: Best story ever.

Slayr231: The deep psychological impact that story has on you is mind blowing.

Rukario: Here, i make you the owner of PC.

TD: Woohoo!

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That was the best story I've ever heard in my life. Also the saddest.

Posting to say that I got the entry sent in by Kiddinq.

I got the entry as well from Kiddinq.

Consider Kiddinq's entry received! :D

Um, when is the deadline for this? I want to enter but am busy until Winter Break.

All entries are due December 14th. If there is a lack of entries, an extension on the deadline will be given.