Contest Entry Discussion

[ozmosis7]

Ya, I'm just happy to be doing this, although I am confident that the majority of my handful of votes are legit. I know that my sister even voted for another story she liked better than mine LOL. I am grateful though to those who have enjoyed my story enough to place a vote for it. That in itself means a lot to me.

I also agree that the back and forth we have found here has proven valuable. I've had a great time drooling over some of the collections being posted here, and have had some good conversations both through PM and topics.

[Nik Houser]

Views also don't actually mean the number of times the story has been read. Every single time you open a thread it counts as a view, even if you have already read it. A deceptive author could push up his views to make their story look popular. Not that anyone would do that (nor would I really care if anyone did as it's not something anyone could prove).

OK, I gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

[KT Wagner]

if you have any ability to write, you CAN improve - go to a college, an MFA program, or take online classes, read the how to books, whatever - you CAN get better - when i started to get serious about writing about four years ago i was terrible - broke all the rules, never had a good narrative hook, was always telling, instead of showing, then i studied with Craig Clevenger, Monica Drake, Max Barry and Jack Ketchum and i've gotten so much better

I agree with this 100 percent. In my opinion, writing is as much about acquired skill, as it is about innate talent.

I take on-line workshops, classes at a local university and I attend two or three conferences a year. The conferences are great - the workshop length suits my attention span :-) and the networking opportunities are fantastic. The quality of on-line workshops vary widely - SavvyAuthors has been consistently good. Gotham is also good but pricey.

I am always looking for conference and workshop recommendations from fellow writers.

Katherine

[Draven Ames]

I've been enjoying reading all these stories.

Reading so many in such a short time has been valuable in helping me understand what an editor must go through when weeding through submissions. I'm quickly seeing what works and what doesn't, what makes a good story stand out, and what would make an editor want to stop reading after only a paragraph or two. I'm thinking of some of the stories I've submitted to different places in the past and cringing! It really helps me to put myself in the mindset of my readers rather than being self-indulgent in writing what only I might like to read or what only makes sense in my head. I've had a handful of stories published in amateur or semi-pro publications, but all the ones that have been accepted I wrote with a specific reader in mind.

I love your attitude. You are an A+ in my book. I did submissions for a while, and you are spot on.

[Draven Ames]

It appears so, but also take note of his statement about even unregistered users seeing it. That would likely make it unsellable. So you would just be posting free fiction for critiques sake.

Good call.

[Draven Ames]

I can make a subsection of the writer's corner, similar to the contest submission section, that can only be viewed by registered users.

That sounds awesome, Dan.

[Draven Ames]

if you have any ability to write, you CAN improve - go to a college, an MFA program, or take online classes, read the how to books, whatever - you CAN get better - when i started to get serious about writing about four years ago i was terrible - broke all the rules, never had a good narrative hook, was always telling, instead of showing, then i studied with Craig Clevenger, Monica Drake, Max Barry and Jack Ketchum and i've gotten so much better

The Cult (chuckpalahniuk.net) has a good workshop if you're interested, i AM a moderator there, but for only $40 a year you get access, pretty good deal - Zoetrope is a great community, or start your own private group - biggest thing you can do is read, study the masters, and learn from what they do well - whether it's King or Straub, Heinlein or Bradbury, Palahniuk, Ketchum or Franzen, you can really get a lot out of reading great authors

just my two cents

I did participate for a month at Chuck's site. Great for critiques.

[RichardThomas]

cool, good to hear draven!

[RJHubbard53]

I think it's funny when one group of stories has less views than another, but more votes. It looks like that's happening a few places. I'm not being sarcastic or mean-spirited, I really do think it's funny. At first I was worried about tons of people being driven to the polls, but honestly, you guys posting here are so damn cool, getting to know you would have made it worth it even if I came in dead last. The fact that this community (by which I mean the Writer's Corner) seems to have really blossomed overnight is a testament to how many cool peeps are reading and writing horror out there. APPLAUSE for all, authors, readers and CD staff!!! Also, this was not a complaint about the voting process. I think CD did a great job with such a huge turnout of stories.

I agree wit you on the community aspect - as you all can tell, I am an amateur in the truest sense of the word but yet you've all welcomed me to the discussion; I am truly appreciative.

[weirdosayswhat]

It wasn't one night, I believe he wrote in in 6 months.

That makes more sense. One night would be impossible.

I'm about half way through voting as of this morning. I hope to wrap it up tonight. I've run into a couple that were hard to choose between, I've found several new writers to start following, and it's been fun reading these discussions. Really glad I found my way here!

[Nik Houser]

Writing's such a solitary enterprise, it's just so inspiring to suddenly have this wellspring of awesomeness with you guys and gals. Like living in a gulag for years and then suddenly you stumble into...SUNLIGHT!!!

[Antmusic]

I finally finished voting this morning. That was dang hard! Some of the groups had multiple favorites in them too. It was interesting to see the poll results after each of my votes.

There were some strangely active groups as has been stated on here, but maybe people just felt strongly for those stories and wanted to vote for them quickly before they make their other decisions.

I hope everyone votes in every group even if they have only one favorite.

[Dan Hocker]

Just an FYI, I will be checking for cheaters. So if anyone registered more than one account to vote for themselves, make sure you fess up to it now, as if I find you it will result not only in contest disqualification, but a permanent ban from these forums.

[RichardThomas]

BAM...down comes the hammer :-)

[ozmosis7]

Um...I hope you don't confuse my father with myself. He has the same name as I with a different middle initial, and one who doesn't know that might confuse the situation. And there may be a couple of others with the same last name, but they aren't me either.