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Interpretation: A World-Building One-Shot Contest

Starlight Aurate

Just a fallen star
I'm looking forward to the results, but reading over my entry... did I rush things towards the end. It's really killing me how many stupid mistakes I let slip through the cracks in my haste to get it done in time. Moral of the story... don't write anything when there's a deadline involved.

Haha, I've been thinking along those lines ever since I turned it in: all the plot holes, the rushed bits, the parts that just don't make sense, the loose ends, and possibly all the grammar. I was just so hyped up when I first discovered this contest that I went straight in and did the best I could >_<

Just curious, but how long was everyone's entry? Mine was 45 pages and took 7 PMs, which is the longest I've heard of since Chozo's Johto entry for the HG/SS contest x_X
 

Venia Silente

[](int x){return x;}
Mine was ~8k words, ~15 pages in 12-pt font. Was careful enough to send it as an attachment in its original format. Not the longest I've written for a contest, definitively, but not overly short either. What font and spacing were you using that it took 45 pages? °.°

And yes I can feel about the "pushing for a deadline" part as I wrote most of my entry after the first deadline was over already. It couldn't really be helped though with job being what it was; there doesn't seem to be a market for fanfic writers who want to develop their skill, which is truly unfortunate, a subsidy for the time of writing could have helped a lot.
 

Cassafrass1999

A new beginning! <3
I'm looking forward to the results, but reading over my entry... jesus christ, did I rush things towards the end. It's really killing me how many stupid mistakes I let slip through the cracks in my haste to get it done in time. Moral of the story... don't write anything when there's a deadline involved.

Yeah, that same thing probably happened to my entry lol... and I am not exactly sure how long my story was, but it wasn't that long... probably took up one or two PM's lol. >.< I also don't mean to sound impatient, but yes, how long do you think it will take until the results are announced? :)
 

Starlight Aurate

Just a fallen star
Mine was ~8k words, ~15 pages in 12-pt font. Was careful enough to send it as an attachment in its original format. Not the longest I've written for a contest, definitively, but not overly short either. What font and spacing were you using that it took 45 pages? °.°

Well, technically 44.5 pages long. I was writing in Arial size 12; If it's Times New Roman, then it's about 42 pages., with 22k words, ab out 101k characters (no spaces), 404 paragraphs, and 1899 lines. I was trying to go for "quality, not quantity," but then quality ended up becoming quantity >_<

Best wishes everyone!
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Mine was short, it fit into one PM. That's the main thing I feel ashamed about. >_>

Regardless, good luck to everybody, and I hope the results come soon.
 

diamondpearl876

Well-Known Member
Mine was short, it fit into one PM. That's the main thing I feel ashamed about. >_>

Regardless, good luck to everybody, and I hope the results come soon.

No need to be ashamed. Mine was one PM, too. It's the quality of words, not quantity. Short stories can vary greatly in length anyway.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
No need to be ashamed. Mine was one PM, too. It's the quality of words, not quantity. Short stories can vary greatly in length anyway.

Ah, thanks. Not sure if mine is really "quality", but thanks. :p
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Given we have two 40+-page entries and have to compare them to the four- and five-page entries, read all of them many times over and write decent reviews of all of them explaining their successes and failings, don't expect the results too soon. We'll try our best to do it within some reasonable amount of time, but it would likely be measured in months.
 

Venia Silente

[](int x){return x;}
Ah, it's not that bad, I can wait months, even more if it is considering a 40-pages entry has to be judged on similar merits as a 5-pages one; wouldn't have it any other way.

Though, would that mean that we can or can not publish our entries some time before the evaluation process is finished? If we can, under what terms (besides the obvious of publishing the exact same version that was sent to the judges)?
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Ah, alright, then. I can wait.

Is there any chance we can see these reviews at some point? And reflecting Solovino's question.
 
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Dragonfree

Just me
There wouldn't be much point writing the reviews if you couldn't see them, would there? The way we usually do this, the entries are all posted in reverse order by the overall ranking among the judges, with each judge's review of that entry.

You may not post your entries publicly until the results have been posted. Sorry for the inconvenience.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Oh, I see how it goes. Looking forward to when it's all posted then.

Personally, I'm just hoping I don't get last. >_<

EDIT: Is there an archive of past contests, so I can see how others have fared?
 
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bobandbill

Winning Smile
Staff member
Super Mod

Spiteful Murkrow

Early Game Encounter
Haha, I've been thinking along those lines ever since I turned it in: all the plot holes, the rushed bits, the parts that just don't make sense, the loose ends, and possibly all the grammar. I was just so hyped up when I first discovered this contest that I went straight in and did the best I could >_<

Just curious, but how long was everyone's entry? Mine was 45 pages and took 7 PMs, which is the longest I've heard of since Chozo's Johto entry for the HG/SS contest x_X

Oh, so you're my fellow peer who broke the 40 page mark! Good work! Granted, mine had like half as many words and was only that long due to formatting style. ^_^;

As harshly as I'm sure I'm going to get nailed for making the judges read all of that (plus any errors that are likely to have slipped through in a fic that long), I'd say that that hey, 40 pages is at least a testament to belt out a ton of stuff in a short timeframe! Okay, so it's also an indictment on an ability to write concisely, but you can't win them all. ^_^;
 
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Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Thanks, BobandBill!

-Reads the results of the Perspective contest because it shares a lot of judges-

Good lord my entry is going to be eaten alive. Especially by Dragonfree. ._.
 

jireh the provider

Video Game Designer
From my experiences in writing any one-shot, there are cases that shorter ones end up stealing the trophy. Yes that happened to me when I joined a school writing contest. I was writing a certain topic that's quite lengthy. But the winner actually had only about 1000 words compared to my 4000+ word content. So I only had 6 total pages in this work. Since I got an early participation, normally, I want that one shot to be long.

But for me, that style fits a chapter based story better since placing more than 8-12 scenes on a one shot would be too much for my reading patience to handle.
 

Starlight Aurate

Just a fallen star
InsaneTyranitar said:
Mine was short, it fit into one PM. That's the main thing I feel ashamed about. >_>

Regardless, good luck to everybody, and I hope the results come soon.

Nothing to be ashamed of; quality wins, not quantity. I'm sure yours was great! Mine only ended up so long because I was trying to add more things to make more sense and thus increase the quality... I'm not sure if it worked at all. I could easily get last place; length has nothing to do with how you finish.

SpitefulMurkrow said:
Oh, so you're my fellow peer who broke the 40 page mark! Good work! Granted, mine had like half as many words and was only that long due to formatting style. ^_^;

As harshly as I'm sure I'm going to get nailed for making the judges read all of that (plus any errors that are likely to have slipped through in a fic that long), I'd say that that hey, 40 pages is at least a testament to belt out a ton of stuff in a short timeframe! Okay, so it's also an indictment on an ability to write concisely, but you can't win them all. ^_^;

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who wrote a crazy-long entry! Haha, I ended up writing for about 5 hours straight in an effort to make the deadline ^_^; This is only my second contest, so I'll see if my over-ambition is going to earn me credit for the n00b I am.

The entire time I was thinking of entering, I kept thinking, "This is stupid, it doesn't make sense, I shouldn't enter," to "No matter what I write, the judges will let me know what's wrong and help me get better!" to "Man, this is the coolest thing EVAH!!11!" I'm leaning towards the first opinion I had; the more I think about it, the less like Pokemon it is and the more it just seems like some high-fantasy tale I made up off the top of my head.

InsaneTyranitar said:
Good lord my entry is going to be eaten alive. Especially by Dragonfree. ._.

You and me both, bro.
 

Poetry

Dancing Mad
The entire time I was thinking of entering, I kept thinking, "This is stupid, it doesn't make sense, I shouldn't enter," to "No matter what I write, the judges will let me know what's wrong and help me get better!" to "Man, this is the coolest thing EVAH!!11!" I'm leaning towards the first opinion I had; the more I think about it, the less like Pokemon it is and the more it just seems like some high-fantasy tale I made up off the top of my head.

I was sort of the same, I was repeatedly shifting from feeling really hyped and pumped about my story to feeling hopelesly despondent and thinking that my writing was pathetically ameturish and not worth bothering with. In the end, the result was very much a mixed bag, and I'm hoping that the judges can overlook all the errors and mistakes and instead focus on what I actually did get right, few and far in-between those sections may be. I really have no idea what sort of standard I'm up against anyway, since I'm admittedly not all that familiar with fan fics, so this is a real stab in the dark for me.

I just wish I'd wasted less time worrying about what my "interpretation" aspect was and just got to writing it quicker. I have about three other failed drafts which I may or may not return to in the near future. Depends on the sort of feedback I receive, really.
 
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Spiteful Murkrow

Early Game Encounter
I was sort of the same, I was repeatedly shifting from feeling really hyped and pumped about my story, to feeling hopelesly despondent and thinking that my writing was pathetically ameturish and not worth bothering with. In the end, the result was very much a 10-paged mixed bag, and I'm hoping that the judges can overlook all the errors and mistakes and instead focus on what I actually did get right, few and far in-between they may be. I really have no idea what sort of standard I'm up against anyway, since I'm admittedly not all that familiar with fan fics, so this is a real stab in the dark ror me.

I just wish I'd spent less time worrying about what my "interpretation" aspect was and just got to writing it quicker. I have about three other failed drafts which I may or may not return to in the near future. Depends on the sort of feedback I receive, really.

I wouldn't sweat it. It's not like anything major hinges on whatever we wrote here, and you'd be far from the only entrant to be a bit of a greenhorn at fanfics. Really, the main reason why I joined up was because a number of friends that I know from offsite were in this thing and seemed to be having a good time, and I wanted in. Well, that and it represented a significant shake-up from the stuff I normally write (usually more script-like or academic-style in nature, so if my fic doesn't read much like a normal fanfic, that's probably a major reason why) that I wanted to take for the heck of it.

I'm fully expecting to place within the bottom half of this contest when the rankings come out, simply by virtue of the fact that I'm very much new to more conventional styles of fanfic writing, am still finding some trivial but annoying goofs in my local copy of my fic's text, and the fact that for interpretation, I probably cast my net a bit wider and in a less focused fashion than the judges are looking for.

But as long as I can know that what I wrote can give genuine enjoyment to someone else, I see it as a worthwhile experience. After all, isn't that is the main reward of writing fanfic?
 
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Venia Silente

[](int x){return x;}
No, the main reward of writing fanfic is getting those darn plot Nidoran bunnies out of one's head. ;-)

But really, don't sweat it guys, before or after the judgment. One thing being a sort of "regular" at annual or one-time things has taught me is that it is never any readily apparent how any entry is going to fare at a contest. Also while the final score is one number, I'm sure the judges will let us know that when it came down to certain variables some of us fared better than others even if it wasn't enough to make up to a winning score.

(And really, knowledge of one's own failures in hindsight is 20/20, I'm sure none of you who say "I suck badly at X" suck nearly as badly as the people who really suck. I know I suck at run-on sentences, but I don't think it is nearly as horribad as I've led myself to believe a couple of times when trying to get reviewing under pressure)

So enjoy, we have some time for the judges to do their work while we sip some tea / brandy / maple syrup and get to know each other (I can notice a good amount of new or retuning people, myself included). And then shawarma after.
 
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