Whenever.
And, it is a short story contest Cthulus, so ofc they lack in horrible ways. i personally hate short stories. the shortest story i write naturally is usually 22 thousand words. if you ask me, THAT is a short story. But i cant see the hive acually putting the effort into reading that kind of shit.
All short stories, especially with this rediculus 5000 word limit, are inherently lacking, especially in charachter development, and, well, in most other forms as well. The best you can really do with 5000 words is some prose work.
I guess my point is that this contest is a short story contest, and all stories should be judged as such. its hard to be original, its hard to develop, when you only have 5000 words in which to do so. People should jude stories upon the premise of the writings being inherently flawed, and not judge upon what they did apart from those flaws, but judge what they can do with those flaws.
I mean sure, there are some people who can write somthing beautiful with 5000 words, but thats not a STORY, its more of a prose.
Thats my oppinion.
Also, i've never heard somone taking points off for dialects and high fantasy themes such as ogres. Its like saying that Tolkein was unoriginal because he stole some concepts from arthurian legends. i mean, it would be like calling about 90% of all fantasy unoriginal shit because they use orcs, its the style, its the genra. original nowadays is taking an exsisting form and pulling a new shape from it.
Even though tolkien, in many of his writings, borrowed heavily from others, it doesent mean the shape he spun from exsisting archetypes wasnt original or great.
Thats my oppinion anyway, not that manyy of you probably care.
By the way, hows judging going? ^^
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