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Interpretation: A World-Building One-Shot Contest

Cassafrass1999

A new beginning! <3
I hope my fic doesn't end up last in the contest... I am getting kinda nervous, as my entry wasn't that long at all (I know, I know - it is the quality of the words, not the quantity ;))... but still... I am only fourteen as well, so I hope that my grammar and such is ok... I went over everything to try to catch errors and stuff like that on my part, but I tend to miss the small things... the more I think about it, the more nervous I get... I just hope my entry does ok! >.< I can't wait to see everyone else's though! :D And good luck to everyone, although I know it will be a while until the results are out, making for a bit of a nerve wracking few months up ahead... and then there is me just rambling on as usual... ^^;
 
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Dragonfree

Just me
It is neither inherently better to write a short nor a long entry. In the Perspective contest, for instance, there were two long entries (around 20 pages) and the rest were mostly short; as it turned out, one of the long entries won, but the other long entry came seventh, and both second and third place were among the shortest (only about two pages each). What matters is that the fic is effective at telling its story and presents an interesting interpretation well. (But part of being effective at telling its story, of course, is that it neither rushes through it nor drags on unnecessarily.)

That said, when she got the entries Negrek commented, and I agree, that we might want to place an upper limit on length in the next contest. A forty-page story is generally an entirely different beast from a five-page one, which makes comparing them to each other a bit of an apples-and-oranges situation - in very short stories you can only paint a picture of characters as they are, for instance, and mostly have room to express small, self-contained ideas, while longer stories start to generally be more about plot and character development. That's not to scold anyone for writing long entries for this contest - it was explicitly allowed, after all - but it does pose something of a challenge to grade them on the same scale. Hence, please be patient.

And you shouldn't all be worrying so much about placing last! Somebody has to place last - that's just mathematically inevitable with a finite number of contestants. Even if you place last in one contest, it's not some kind of eternal judgement of you as a writer - it just means others did better in this particular competition. And hopefully, you'll be able to use the judges' advice to improve your writing further. Think of this as a learning experience - seeing what both you and others got right and what you could have done better, with five different judges offering their perspectives on every entry, is an immensely valuable thing. Long before I ever judged a contest, I read all the reviews for every contest when the results were posted, and I learned a lot from them.

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

starliteevee said:
You and me both, bro.

Aww, you're making me feel bad. I will do my very best not to be a mean old grump. D:
 

The Teller

King of Half-Truths
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.

Here here! Stuff I write usually ends up being unorthodox or unconventional in some fashion, and that doesn't always result in unwavering praise. I decided that for this contest, I would use some unusual writing trickery that's completely experimental on my part, so it's as new to judges as it is to me. Hopefully, this doesn't backfire in my face.

And I agree with the upper-word limit, Dragonfree. Sometimes, you just can't say that a pamphlet is the literary equivalent to a doorstopper.
 
Consider me reassured as well. ^_^;

I do not write very much fic (though I RP to some extent); I like to experiment in the different arts though. Feedback will be fun to see, even if it rips my entry open! (Though I hope it doesn't have to. ._.)
 

The Teller

King of Half-Truths
Okay, I don't think I'm stepping out of line here by asking for an update on the progress of the judging, after waiting a month since the last post on this thread. Just want to know where everyone's at in terms of judging. Thanks!
 

Dragonfree

Just me
I've written nine reviews out of thirteen (but after I've written all thirteen, I will go through all the entries at least one more time and make edits and additions, and I'll have to decide on the rankings). I got a progress update from the other judges in the middle of August, at which point none of them had gotten very far; Negrek was going to do hers in the first week of September, and purple_drake and Phoenixsong both said they had been busy but would have more free time soon.
 

Venia Silente

[](int x){return x;}
No, Teller! You stole my planned September bump!

That's it. I'm not napping any longer.

Anyway, thanks for the information, Dragonfree. Good luck to you and the other judges and don't rush (too much! :p) on our account.
 

Poetry

Dancing Mad
Ok, while we're at it, I have a question.

Looking through some of the previous contests, I notice that reviews are often accompanied with extracts from the corresponding piece, or else the entire piece of writing is posted altogether. Will this be the case this year, or will we be following the patterns of last year's contest, where the reviews were posted with no extracts at all?
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Ok, while we're at it, I have a question.

Looking through some of the previous contests, I notice that reviews are often accompanied with extracts from the corresponding piece, or else the entire piece of writing is posted altogether. Will this be the case this year, or will we be following the patterns of last year's contest, where the reviews were posted with no extracts at all?
We'll be posting full entries if length permits, or extracts otherwise (unless somebody requests that their entry not be posted). Last year's contest was run by Ysavvryl, who chose not to post the entries with the results, but I at least feel part of the fun of contests is for everyone to be able to read and judge each entry for themselves along with the judges' opinions, as far as possible.
 

Poetry

Dancing Mad
We'll be posting full entries if length permits, or extracts otherwise (unless somebody requests that their entry not be posted). Last year's contest was run by Ysavvryl, who chose not to post the entries with the results, but I at least feel part of the fun of contests is for everyone to be able to read and judge each entry for themselves along with the judges' opinions, as far as possible.

Ok, well in that case may I request for my full entry not to be posted? It's just a personal thing really, as I'm not feeling too great about my writing - and I'm planning to release an edited version after the results are published and I get feedback from the judges anyway.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
No problem. I will be asking again who doesn't want their entry posted when we get closer to posting the results and I'm in the process of preparing the posts; I'll probably remember you already asked not to, but just in case it slips my mind, you might want to make a note of watching this thread and posting again then.
 

Poetry

Dancing Mad
Ok, thank you very much. I'll make sure to remind you when the question comes up again.
 

Venia Silente

[](int x){return x;}
Oktoberfestbump

October bump! Yes! With any luck, 20 minutes before The Teller chimes in! :p

May I kindly request status report on the progress from the judges? I'm not actually rushed or anything, but am interested in keeping informed. And the idea of a group of people having to get through two 40-something pages works while drinking some coffee or perhaps tequila, while deserving of fair degrees of sympathy, is also undenaibly amusing
 
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The Teller

King of Half-Truths
Lol, I actually deliberately stepped down from bumping duties this month so that someone else could do it instead (since you looked like you wanted it so bad last month). But I, too, would like an update. SURELY the fact that new Pokemon games are coming out in a week and will most definitely be a huge timesink isn't going to further delay reviewing?
 
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The Teller

King of Half-Truths
Daring to double post because otherwise the thread won't acknowledge a new post has been made on the home page and no one will see it and thus my question will go unanswered. Also, it's been a couple of weeks since the last post was made, which just so happened to be my own. Hopefully, it being my birthday today and all will protect me from the wrath of the mods.

If it's gonna take forever for judging to happen (as seems to be the pattern for these kinds of things), can we make our entries public? I'd like to get feedback from people about my entry, and I don't want to wait a year and a half to be able to do it.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Hello, and sorry for the lack of news. I'm on vacation in England right now and haven't had much contest-judging time recently, but am almost done with my first-draft reviews; I haven't checked with the other judges in a while, but I can do that soon.

Please do not post your entries until the judging is done (which should not take anywhere near as long as the Perspective contest - that was a very special case). It is unfair if some entries garner public followings before the judges have finished ranking them - unfortunately we are human beings and can be biased by the opinions of others, consciously or subconsciously, positively or negatively, and the entries not being public is in part a way of keeping the playing field level. If you would like some feedback on your entry before the judging is posted, you can send your entry to people you trust for private comments.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Please do not post your entries until the judging is done (which should not take anywhere near as long as the Perspective contest - that was a very special case).

Oh phew, I thought that was normal for contests.

And noted.
 
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