Small Writing Contest

Status
Not open for further replies.
AHAHAHAHA! I sent my story in! Sorry I had to send separate PMs to the judges. It wouldn't send the same PM to the multiple judges at once. Stupid computer. But hey, I hope it's good, I hope! Took me three hours to write. It's like almost 20 minutes to midnight here on a Saturday night. Oh well.
 
I've started writing and I like where I'm going with the story so far. I definitely need to edit the beginning a bit, then I'm good for the setting.
 
I have four potential ideas to write for, and will spend a part of today evaluating and calibrating before the final decision. After that, it's only mostly writing and probably getting a beta reader. If time permits.

For those interested to know, the four plot ideas go more or less like this:

  1. A story where magic, whatever it means, plays a role, in some relatively important form.
  2. A narration of events strongly tied together by the application of a force that might be described as magic.
  3. You won't believe how this magic thingy intervenes in the plot! Click to read more!
  4. Some characters go on calling stuff that happens "magic", which might or might not be true to word.
 
I solidified my idea last night and got the outline basically written earlier today. It's different than the kinds of stories I usually write and I'm not as confident about it as I've been for some of my past entries; but hey, sometimes the ones you're unsure about are the ones people like most. So here goes!

Venia Silente said:
After that, it's only mostly writing and probably getting a beta reader. If time permits.
Click to expand...
Better start asking around now. That's a lot of time to budget for a short contest.
 
I wasn't planning on posting on any of the forums until I managed to get my name changed, but I want to ask a question about the prompt. I have an idea, but it's only tangently related to the idea of magic. As in, it's going to take part of the story, but it probably won't be in the forefront. Is that still okay, or should I do something else?

Also, can our entires be any genre at all? Or do we have to stick to certain ones, like Adventure/Humor/Mystery/whatever?
 
Fallentheangel said:
I wasn't planning on posting on any of the forums until I managed to get my name changed, but I want to ask a question about the prompt. I have an idea, but it's only tangently related to the idea of magic. As in, it's going to take part of the story, but it probably won't be in the forefront. Is that still okay, or should I do something else?

Also, can our entires be any genre at all? Or do we have to stick to certain ones, like Adventure/Humor/Mystery/whatever?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that how well the story uses the prompt will affect the third subscore (Relevance to Prompt). It's "okay" in the sense that it's within the rules, but it won't necessarily help you to win.

The second question is easy: Any genre at all! You can make up a genre if you want! :D Part of the fun of this contest is seeing the variety of styles and kinds of stories that get submitted each year.
 
As previously mentioned, if you want to get a good score for the third category, Relevance to Prompt, you should try your best to have magic be a main focus of your story. I'm sure there will be different ways as to how you'll approach the prompt, so don't sweat it too much. And yeah, any genre is fine.

Hey, so dropping by to mention a couple things. First off, got Nothing's and RedBallon's entries and will edit the first post soon. Second, I got some people in Discord asking if there's a max word count. There's no max word count, so don't worry if your story goes a bit on the long side as long as you don't make it a chaptered fic. Good luck!
 
I've had a few ideas for this prompt for ages, guess I should finally write one of them. I'll sign up for this one.
 
Bay Alexison said:
Hey, so dropping by to mention a couple things. First off, got Nothing's and RedBallon's entries and will edit the first post soon. Second, I got some people in Discord asking if there's a max word count. There's no max word count, so don't worry if your story goes a bit on the long side as long as you don't make it a chaptered fic. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Is it alright if I have a break in the story symbolized by a line separating parts of the chapter to differentiate between scenes? Or would you count this as two chapters?
 
BadSheep said:
Is it alright if I have a break in the story symbolized by a line separating parts of the chapter to differentiate between scenes? Or would you count this as two chapters?
Click to expand...

If you'll be having more than one scene, then it's totally fine. Just make sure your story has at least a beginning, middle, and end.

Also, got your entry Winter!
 
Last edited:
aeternum said:
Hopefully i can get it all done tonight or I'll be flirting with the deadline
Click to expand...
But that's what you're supposed to do! You've got to flirt with that deadline, dance with that deadline, romance that deadline! :D
 
School is really interfering with my ability to complete this story. At least I'm 1/3 of the way through. Maybe more, but no more than 1/2 of the way through.
 
Well, I'm only in about 1/6th of my way through, so you won't be the only ones getting "cozy" with the deadline. Better get comfortable.

I still have not gotten any of the major scenes written, but at least barring hydrogen and time I have everything needed to make progress. Alas, this last weekend was also a long holiday for my country so I did lose some time in activities that, while very rewarding interaction and food wise, cut down more than expected from my planning. As a result, I am at the moment working on a watered down version of my original idea.

(Historically, one of the few if not the only thing about the SWC that makes me snap fangs at it is that it takes place across one weekend)
 
I think I'm halfway through and on pace to finish writing on Thursday, then edit on Friday.

I feel for any of the participants who are still in school. I remember the SWC being easier to tackle on years when it took place during summer vacation. Course, now that I work during the week it doesn't make much of a difference to me what time of year it is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top