CafeDoom's Sixth Annual Writing Competition -- Rules thread

[Ed]

BTW, Ken, I've just checked, and we're doing ok going by last year's figures. In fact, we're slightly ahead of the game this time, with double the amount of entries we had this time last year, and I announced the comp a few weeks earlier last year 

Here are the figures:

Two entries at 14th September -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg29460#msg29460

Twelve entries at 6th October -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg30158#msg30158

Thirty-one at 23rd October -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg30652#msg30652

Forty-four on 30th October -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg30870#msg30870

[delboy]

Quote from: Russell on Yesterday at 08:54:39 PM
I was going to give it a go - although it is rather more words than I've attempted before so don't hold your breath.


You don't have to write to the limit, Russell. A past winner was a good two thousand words or so under the limit, so just give it your best shot

Yeah, I was just going to go with 30 words or so:

Let me tell of tragic Tom Lee
A hybrid of werewolf and zombie
Tom's ma was quite hairy
His pa awful scary
Now poor Tom is a pretty grim combi



But I think I might try for something shorter!

Derek

[Rev. Austin]

I've got like a million story ideas on the go at the moment so I'm sure I'll be able to come upw ith something in time.  If I could just concentrate on one long enough...

[desertwomble]

Quote from: Russell on Yesterday at 08:54:39 PM
I was going to give it a go - although it is rather more words than I've attempted before so don't hold your breath.


You don't have to write to the limit, Russell. A past winner was a good two thousand words or so under the limit, so just give it your best shot

Yeah, I was just going to go with 30 words or so:

Let me tell of tragic Tom Lee
A hybrid of werewolf and zombie
Tom's ma was quite hairy
His pa awful scary
Now poor Tom is a pretty grim combi



But I think I might try for something shorter!

Derek

Tragic Thomas Lee.
Hybrid werewolf and zombie;
Grim combination!

W

[delboy]

Tragic Thomas Lee.
Hybrid werewolf and zombie;
Grim combination!

When does the voting thread open, Ed?

[Ed]

Hold yer horses there, Del -- it''l be a while yet

[Robert Essig]

I've got a story primed and ready to go, but I'm currently writing another one that is a contender.  I'll weigh my options and submit closer to the deadline...but not too close.  Probably the ides of October.

[Kenwood]

BTW, Ken, I've just checked, and we're doing ok going by last year's figures. In fact, we're slightly ahead of the game this time, with double the amount of entries we had this time last year, and I announced the comp a few weeks earlier last year  

Here are the figures:

Two entries at 14th September -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg29460#msg29460

Twelve entries at 6th October -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg30158#msg30158

Thirty-one at 23rd October -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg30652#msg30652

Forty-four on 30th October -- http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2812.msg30870#msg30870

Very cool. We'll see what happens. =)

[Ed]

BTW, don't forget, everybody -- the sooner you get your entry in, the better your chances of avoiding reader fatigue. I'll be posting the entries in the order they are received in

[delph_ambi]

I've managed about three sentences so far. 

[Rev. Austin]

I started working on my magnum opus!

That is to say, a story 

[Ed]

Isn't it funny how we all think our best work's ahead of us, or it's the story we're working on, or the one we've just finished

We probably have tons of great stories sitting on our hard drives by now, but we always think we can do better with the next one

[Rev. Austin]

I always prefer moving forward and writing new stuff, which is to my detriment in that I don't spend much time sending previously written stories to different markets - if it's rejected I generally put it in a 'need to polish' pile and crack on with something else.  Of course, a writer can only get better (I hope haha) so maybe it all evens out, what with continuing to "hone my craft".  In any case, I firmly believe whatever I enter into the comp this year will be worthy of it, unlike my piece last year which was a bit of a gamble...

[fnord33]

I'm so bogged down with rewrites that I'm beginning to winder if I'll ever get to work on anything new. It would be depressing to think that my best work is behind me, but honestly I still like my first novel better than anything I've written since. I think that my technical abilities are a million times better now (not that that is saying very much ) but my brain was a lot sharper back in the day. I started rewriting FOPOOE the other day and was amazed at how much I had learned here over the past few months. I can see now why nobody liked it. Sixteen pages in I've already cut about 3k words.   

[jingold]

I have nothing for this yet.  Everything I write is dark fantasy, and the story I thought could work for the contest has climbed to 7k and isn't even done.  The plot is crazy complicated--the crit group's in for a mess if I can finish it in time for the next session.

I'm curious as to whether I'll be able to guess some of the authors this year though, since I've gotten more familiar with some of your styles....