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Short Story Contest #4

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Great War Stories
Story must be between 1000 and 5000 words.
There is no real theme, it can be someone telling the story, or the story of the war itself.

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  • Stories must be related to a war that you have either made up, or have made from looking at a battle in the lore of any game or war..
  • Stories must be between 1000 and 5000 words, exceptions may be made upon Judges consent.
  • All work must be written by you, no plagiarism. This causes an instant disqualification.
  • Entries must be English, you may have characters in your story speaking a different tongue of English.
  • Must have one WIP 2 weeks after start of competition to prove it is your work.
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  • First Place: 40 reputation points and your entry on an award icon
  • Second Place: 30 reputation points and an award icon
  • Third Place: 15 reputation points and an award icon


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  • TBA
  • TBA
If you would like to judge, post in this thread or PM Pyritie or Midnighters

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Plot
How well did you make the plot? Was it easily followed? Did it make sense?/10 Points

Characters
How creative were your characters? Did you use them regularly?/10 Points

Structure
How well made was the structure of the story? Did you keep the flow going?/10 Points

Flow
How well did you transition between scenes? Were there major jumps where you could not follow? Was it interesting and attention keeping?/10 Points
ThemeWhat was the story based on? Was it interesting? Did you stick to what you picked?/10 Points

  • 75% of the winner shall be determined by the contest's appointed judge(s).
  • 25% of the winner shall be determined by the results of a public poll.

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  • If you would like to enter, please make a post in this thread.

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  • The contest shall begin on April 20th and conclude on 11:59, 1st June 2010, GMT
 
Last edited:
Level 6
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Feb 5, 2008
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Not sure why you changed "Flow" to "Scenes", Flow seems like the proper term for the description you gave.

Also, have you thought about adding "Theme" to the judging criteria? Right now, the judging includes topics that encompass structure, characterization, and coherency. However, the most important elements of a short story are the thoughts, feelings, and ideas it provokes by delivering solid messages through the story's themes.

A good theme is one that is powerful yet masterfully interwoven into the writing. It is one that is subconsciously present in the reader's mind, yet subtle enough to naturally express itself throughout the course of the entire story without being overstated.

(And when I say theme, I am not referring to the topic of the contest, which is war. I am referring to the overarching thoughts, feelings, and ideas which the story provokes through its description of the battle)
 
Level 17
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I'll certainly be joining. I could not join the last contest due to personal things, but I have a lot of time now.
 
Level 6
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In addition to possibly adding "Theme" to the judging criteria, I am also wondering if you would consider changing the word count limit from 5000 to 6000.

It seems like many contestants from the last contest had trouble formatting their stories in such a way that would still cohere to the word limit of 5000. Many contestants ended up going over the limit anyway, which sort of made things a little chaotic and made the official regulations and guidelines look partly illegitimate. Therefore, I think that it would be worth extending the word count by another thousand words in order to see whether or not it will have a positive effect on the resulting stories.

You could argue "Give an inch and they'll ask for a mile", saying that people will just try to make their stories longer and will still end up going over the limit. However, I believe that extending it to 6000 words would still have a positive effect on the literary quality of the entrees.

You might also say that people will not be willing to read a story that is 6000 words long. Well, if someone isn't willing to read something that is 6000 words long then they most likely aren't going to read a short story that is 5000 words long either. A short story is commonly referred to as anything under 7000 to 9000 words long. So if they are not willing to read a 6000 word short story, then they really shouldn't be voting in a short story contest.
 
Level 18
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On one side I would like to join this contest now that I'm less busy with college (for now) to see where I would get when trying to write a story. On the other side I'm afraid my English skills aren't good enough for a contest like this. ^^;
We'll see whether or not I will enter. If this gets approved that is. :p
 
Level 6
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Personally, two months (or even one month) would be too long for me. Especially now that the topic of the contest has been announced and I am already thinking of ideas for a story.
 
Level 20
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Yes, was just querying about this, free choice! I'm in! :)

EDIT: Sorry just looked back at the theme.

By 'about a war' does this mean it has to revolve around/mention the war or does it actually have to (at least for some part) depict the war/battle?

To clarify (as the above isn't very clear): Could you write about two people discussing a war they had once taken part in (if I wanted to)?


EDIT2: Nevermind I missed the info under the title :hohum:
 
Yes, was just querying about this, free choice! I'm in! :)

EDIT: Sorry just looked back at the theme.

By 'about a war' does this mean it has to revolve around/mention the war or does it actually have to (at least for some part) depict the war/battle?

To clarify (as the above isn't very clear): Could you write about two people discussing a war they had once taken part in (if I wanted to)?

By about war, I mean a story about a war period, anything to do with a war, someone telling a story about one, two people talking about the past, a made up war, anything.
 
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