Contest Entry Discussion

[peteOcha]

That would work then, if he is able to do that. I hate dealing with computer stuff, I can't even begin to IMAGINE what a headache all this must be to run!

Yeah, it is. Several years ago I ran a forum and it does take up quite a lot of time. With all the hits this forum is getting since the contest was announced... I sure wouldn't want to be in Dan's shoes now!

[jmcraven]

Things have been hectic the last few days, so I haven't really had time to post much, but I have been trying to follow the conversation and watch the polls (which is tortuous! ). Thankfully, it looks like we don't have any outlandish vote recruiting in our group. Personally, I'd rather lose with a handful of votes from folks who truly liked what I wrote than win with a bunch of recruited votes and never really know if anyone honestly liked my yarn.

Again, a big thanks to Dan for the great job he has done on this contest and his efforts to make the end results legit. I like the idea of limiting the voters in the final round, and I am sure that whatever limiting criteria Dan adopts, it will work out just fine.

[Dan Hocker]

I'm going to stick with the post restriction for the final round. It's a lot easier to do than restricting by when the user was registered.

[RichardThomas]

Post restriction AND all participants or just post restriction?

[Dan Hocker]

Post restriction AND all participants or just post restriction?

And the participants.

[mercuryval]

I think it'd be a fun exercise if, after the voting is done, those who felt constrained by the character limit finished "Author's Cut" versions of their entries and posted them.

I wonder this as well, Nik. I cut down a 5,400-word story to around 2,000. It cut a lot, but I think it cleaned it up, too.

[mercuryval]

Thanks for all the hard work, Dan!

[Draven Ames]

If I was you Dan, I wouldn't say what the post limit is-I would keep that card close to the vest

Agreed.

[Tree705]

I still have 9 groups to read and vote on. I didn't get my quiet weekend at work like I hoped. Love the vote idea for the final round.

[JJ Holden]

Almost done with the votin's! Phew, this is a tough job.

[Craig Wallwork]

Yeah, copy and pasted a lot of stories the past few days. Going to take them to work to day to read so I can give out my votes... shhhhh, don't tell my boss.

[mstrom]

Well, since I am one of those newbies who recently became a member in order to participate in the contest, I figured that it is time to join in on the discussions.

Hello everybody!

I have a quick success story regarding the painful task of self editing. I recently competed in a flash fiction contest at the local university that was open to the community members (or in other words, open to me). The word limitation was a mere 600 words! Rather than get bogged down worrying about the limitation, I just forged ahead and wrote the story with the goal of being as brief as I could. When I finished, I was shocked to see that it came in at 1600 words, almost 3x over. So I pulled out the word whacker and started to hack away at it. When I got it down to somewhere about 1000 words, I realized that the whole piece was seriously losing its cohesiveness. Since I only just found out about the contest the night before the deadline, I didn’t have the luxury of starting over with another idea. Instead, I decided to continue on in the direction it was heading, and opted for a surreal approach. I then hacked away more at it, replaced all dialogue with stream of consciousness, added a short opening to set the surreal tone. And guess what? The result was much better than the original! So much so, that it scored a third place behind some graduate English majors. So what the whole experience taught me, is that we should view editing as an opportunity, one that may be just as important as the blank sheet (or screen) we all start with...

[Nik Houser]

Any update on the ne'er-do-wells who were creating truckloads of new identities to vote for their stories? Just wondering if they've come forward, or if they're oblivious to what's going on because they don't frequent the forum.

[peteOcha]

Any update on the ne'er-do-wells who were creating truckloads of new identities to vote for their stories? Just wondering if they've come forward, or if they're oblivious to what's going on because they don't frequent the forum.

Dan brought down the ban hammer in one of the groups this morning, forgot which one it was. Just check out the groups and see where Dan posted today.

[Nik Houser]

Also, imagine me dressed up like Captain Kirk, but instead of yelling "Khan!" I'm yelling "Meat Socks!" Seriously, Nikita, you've been ahead of me this whole time! You're killin' me, Smalls!