Fan Fic Contest - Are you the best writer?

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by Tornado

That month flew by. Is this over?

We're on until the 15. There is still time!
~TGRF.

[Tornado]

Vacation starts on the 13th. I will make an effort. Ideas formulating.

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Vacation starts on the 13th. I will make an effort. Ideas formulating.

Most excellent. I expect great things, O Spinning One!

~TGRF.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend

@Tornado @BiggaBullfrog @Dysole @Elven Lord @Crixus33

So. Obviously the front page announcement did absolutely nothing whatsoever. Since I was pushing the month-long deadline primarily so that new people would have plenty of time to get in, I am perfectly fine with reverting to the old deadline system, where the judge announces it with the prompt. This way we can fit more than twelve prompts into a year.
Thoughts?

~TGRF, who may have found a way to fix his story. It involves rewriting half of it.

P.S. The deadline for this prompt would remain the same; any changes would apply to future prompts.

I might try to get something in, and I wouldn't have done were it not for the front page announcement. I won't have time for anything that long (which, I realise, will hurt the buildup to a degree) so I'm definitely not expecting a win, but I think it might be fun to throw something together. I do think that keeping a month deadline will probably help for people who want to do this more casually.

Originally Posted by Marro_Warlord

Going to have to do a rewrite. The story's twist doesn't have much of a buildup, it's just shocking lore-wise.

Honestly, that's probably what I'm heading for to start with.

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

I might try to get something in, and I wouldn't have done were it not for the front page announcement. I won't have time for anything that long (which, I realise, will hurt the buildup to a degree) so I'm definitely not expecting a win, but I think it might be fun to throw something together. I do think that keeping a month deadline will probably help for people who want to do this more casually.

Honestly, that's probably what I'm heading for to start with.

New blood, as Tornado would say.
Welcome! The primary reason that I (and as far as I know, most here) don't like the month deadline is because it allows people too much time. They have time to procrastinate and get involved in other things. With the previous style of deadlines, if you plan on entering and can't make it on time, you have to request an extension. This ensures that there is always someone who is writing an entry.

~TGRF.

P.S. And don't give up hope on winning. As far as I know, every new person to this contest has won their first entry. Your position is jinxed!

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend

New blood, as Tornado would say.
Welcome! The primary reason that I (and as far as I know, most here) don't like the month deadline is because it allows people too much time. They have time to procrastinate and get involved in other things. With the previous style of deadlines, if you plan on entering and can't make it on time, you have to request an extension. This ensures that there is always someone who is writing an entry.

~TGRF.

P.S. And don't give up hope on winning. As far as I know, every new person to this contest has won their first entry. Your position is jinxed!

Honestly, though, with a shorter deadline, I'd be put off even trying - there are other things going on in life anyway, and if there's a shorter deadline, I might not even think that with everything else I'd be able to have time to give it a try. With a month, I'd probably at least have time to put together something small in that time. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the same for other people (though I'm surprised by the lack of new people who've expressed interest in giving it a shot casually - I don't think that this prompt has such a long word limit has helped.)

Good to know that fate should be smiling on me! Honestly, though, I doubt I'll win because my entry is going to be fairly short (intentionally, so this doesn't eat too much into my time), if I get it in, and I've only started today - I doubt that can compete against a writer like you who's great and had time from the start to do something long that allows the twist to be built up more. I think I can do something good, I just don't think I can compete, really - but hell, as long as someone enjoys reading it, I'll be happy.

[Marro_Warlord]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Honestly, though, with a shorter deadline, I'd be put off even trying - there are other things going on in life anyway, and if there's a shorter deadline, I might not even think that with everything else I'd be able to have time to give it a try. With a month, I'd probably at least have time to put together something small in that time. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the same for other people (though I'm surprised by the lack of new people who've expressed interest in giving it a shot casually - I don't think that this prompt has such a long word limit has helped.)

Good to know that fate should be smiling on me! Honestly, though, I doubt I'll win because my entry is going to be fairly short (intentionally, so this doesn't eat too much into my time), if I get it in, and I've only started today - I doubt that can compete against a writer like you who's great and had time from the start to do something long that allows the twist to be built up more. I think I can do something good, I just don't think I can compete, really - but hell, as long as someone enjoys reading it, I'll be happy.

I'm sure most of us will enjoy reading your tale. Most of the stuff here is very good, unlike a lot of FanFiction these days. (Eww) That may deter people who think that FanFiction is THAT stuff you find online. Aside from that, writing is a hard job. With the high quality show by some, others may feel that they don't have a chance at winning. In addition, it's also a difficult job to write as well. Good luck writing!

[TheAverageFan]

Originally Posted by Marro_Warlord

I'm sure most of us will enjoy reading your tale. Most of the stuff here is very good, unlike a lot of FanFiction these days. (Eww) That may deter people who think that FanFiction is THAT stuff you find online.

That's because unlike most other Fanfic forums across the interwebs, we don't want to *@#& our subject material. We just like some good old fashioned writing.

Anyhow, shorter doesn't necessarily mean worse, so I'm sure you've got a shot at being the winner. After all, the longer the story takes, the more time it gives me to figure it out ahead of time. Regardless, I still say the more the merrier!

~TAF

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Honestly, though, with a shorter deadline, I'd be put off even trying - there are other things going on in life anyway, and if there's a shorter deadline, I might not even think that with everything else I'd be able to have time to give it a try. With a month, I'd probably at least have time to put together something small in that time. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the same for other people (though I'm surprised by the lack of new people who've expressed interest in giving it a shot casually - I don't think that this prompt has such a long word limit has helped.)

We are in a unique situation. At first glance, I would agree with you - one month is plenty of time for people to come in and write something up, and it's good to have a nice long period for them to come in.
Our problem is an extreme lack of people. Not that long ago, it was just me and TAF trading default wins. Our average number of contenders is probably two or three. Four contenders is a really big deal. That means that we have to wait until the deadline, twiddling our thumbs and watching the dust settle. This results in people forgetting about the contest, which means we get even less activity. This has happened before. We've had prompts stretch on for three or four months with nothing happening.

Another thing about the deadline is that you can extend it (hmm - I probably should have mentioned that in the announcement). If it's too short but you're still interested, you can ask to extend it twice (so if you miscalculated, you can still have more time).

About the word limit: it is a word limit. One direction. I know a good number of the writers here believe that longer entries are more likely to succeed than shorter ones, but I disagree. It's all in the quality of writing. For example, I never, never, make an effort to use every word I can. I write my entry as I want. If it's too long, I edit it. If it's too short, I edit it. I never try to force it to fit anything (unless it would be disqualified as too long).

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Good to know that fate should be smiling on me! Honestly, though, I doubt I'll win because my entry is going to be fairly short (intentionally, so this doesn't eat too much into my time), if I get it in, and I've only started today - I doubt that can compete against a writer like you who's great and had time from the start to do something long that allows the twist to be built up more. I think I can do something good, I just don't think I can compete, really - but hell, as long as someone enjoys reading it, I'll be happy.

Heh, I'm not doing as well as I might like. Fan Fiction? Yes. The competition? Not so much.
And like the word limit, I haven't used the whole month either. I probably only spent about a week and a half on this entry, maybe not even that. And I took a long break in the middle of writing it (see what I mean about a month being too long?).

Anyway, this is just a friendly competition. There's no pressure to win. Actually, in this case there's pressure not to win, because whoever does will have to judge TAF's next incredibly long entry.

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

That's because unlike most other Fanfic forums across the interwebs, we don't want to *@#& our subject material. We just like some good old fashioned writing.

Anyhow, shorter doesn't necessarily mean worse, so I'm sure you've got a shot at being the winner. After all, the longer the story takes, the more time it gives me to figure it out ahead of time. Regardless, I still say the more the merrier!

~TAF

Hear hear!

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

@TheAverageFan
Still need an answer on this:

Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend

O great and powerful TAF -

I have completed my stupendously awesome entry (). However, for whatever reason, I wrote it with chapters. There's five in all, plus a two paragraph long epilogue.
I've been considering posting it as a short fan fiction to tide my readers over until the zombies, but I'm not sure if you want me to post it here in its entirety first, or post it in the forum in installments first. Since you're the judge, I'll let you decide. Whichever format would be better for reading/judging. (I will end up posting it both ways - I just want to know which way you'd like to read it the first time.)

~TGRF.

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend

I have completed my stupendously awesome entry (). However, for whatever reason, I wrote it with chapters. There's five in all, plus a two paragraph long epilogue.
I've been considering posting it as a short fan fiction to tide my readers over until the zombies, but I'm not sure if you want me to post it here in its entirety first, or post it in the forum in installments first. Since you're the judge, I'll let you decide. Whichever format would be better for reading/judging. (I will end up posting it both ways - I just want to know which way you'd like to read it the first time.)

~TGRF.

Uh, I don't care. If you want to post it in chapters, you can do that here if you like (I think Dysole did something similar for his robot entry). As long as it counts as an entry here, it's fine, so do what you want. It makes no difference to me. I'll end up judging it either way.

~TAF