The objective of these challenges is to get a feel for submitting to an outside editorial/competition process, have fun writing, get plenty of critiques and most of all, have fun!

Word count: Maximum 3,000 words; minimum 500 words.

Trigger: Slave to Flame.

Genre: Science Fiction or Fantasy. (Think WOTF)

Cutoff Date: 11:59pm, February 28, 2010.

Story Votes and Crits In By: TBA (but not before March 10, 2010)

Crit Votes In By: TBA (but not before March 17, 2010)

Rules:
1) This is an anonymous contest. Do not post your entry in any place that is visible to other Hatrack members prior to the contest being finalised. Doing so will result in disqualification.
2) Story length will be determined by me running Word Count in Microsoft Word 2003.
3) Email entries to me (click the link at the top of this post for my email address) as .RTF files. Standard manuscript format is preferred.
4) I will email entrants back with an acknowledgement on receipt of their entry.
5) There is 24 hours grace to all cutoff dates to allow for timezone differences and other internet/email tomfoolery.
6) Following the cutoff date, I will collate the entries, email all participants a single collated RTF file with the entries and details of how to score and critique the story. I will then update this post with the date at which we are expecting all critiques and votes to be in.
7) On receiving all critiques, I will email each entrant the critiques for his/her story only. This post will then be updated again with the deadline.
8) Each entrant will then be asked to score the critiques for their own story and return them by a specified date.
9) All critiques will be posted in this thread with the Hatrack names of entrants and story title, followed by a list of scores.
10) No critique shall exceed 300 words (for reference: the longest crit from the Cinders challenge was 288 words). There is no other critique limitation.
11) Scoring and announcement of the winner will be calculated as detailed below.
12) I may enter the competition to provide numbers and additional feedback, but am not eligible to score (since, among other things, I know the trigger ahead of time).
13) If enough people (>50%) ask me before February 28 to post all scores, all scores will be listed. Otherwise I will only list scores for the top four or five entries.
14) Rules may be tweaked along the way as people point out various logical fallacies to which I've succumbed. Or they may not. I'm stubborn, too.
15) Not voting or supplying a critique will result in disqualification.

Voting:
In the first round, you will vote on each story as follows, and provide a critique. The votes will be
Best openings (first thirteen)
1st (1 point)
Best story
1st, 2nd, 3rd (5, 4 and 3 points)
Best use of trigger
1st (1 point)
You are free to choose your own definition of "Best".

After critiques are received and distributed, you'll simply vote on the best critique (1 point)

[This message has been edited by BenM (edited February 02, 2010).]
 

[I should add that I'm a computer programmer and numbers don't frighten me. But products without disclaimers do, so, ahem, hence all the fine print.]

[This message has been edited by BenM (edited February 01, 2010).]
 

When we first did the 13 line competitions a couple of years ago we used to give first--3 points and second--2 points etc. We found that wasn't fair. If one person got three first place vote and someone else was more consistent and got eight third place votes, the person with the three first place votes would win. The result should reflect which story that has the broadest appeal. So we changes it to 1st-5 points, 2nd-4 points, 3rd-3points. So in the above example, the guy with 8x3rd place votes would win comfortably.

I'm also thoughtful of scoring crits; it is natural people will score crits the highest that are analytic, but essentially say how wonderful the story was. A crit most likely to score lowest is one that briefly says the story was bad but doesn't explain why--with a spectrum in between. The problem arises in scoring a crit that is analytic but says your story is poor. I would imagine people would score that lower.

By scoring the crits you may skew the crits. I am probably over analysing it.

[This message has been edited by skadder (edited February 01, 2010).]
 

I look forward to this one.
 

- Just using a word from the trigger? Like 'slave' or 'flame'...or 'to'?
or
- What if it's really abstract? Where the idea of the trigger is there in the prose without being explicitly stated....

Wait..., is that possible...?

I'm tweaking the scoring rules again a little, I think, so they're more in line with that used in Cinders: story trumps the opening and trigger use. It would be a shame to see people afraid to write what they really want to write because they're afraid their trigger use isn't obvious enough. Points for best use of trigger should be icing on the cake, not the cake itself, I think.

[This message has been edited by BenM (edited February 02, 2010).]
 

If in posting the fragments for voting I get your story's title wrong etc, please email me with any questions.
 

First batch of critiques will be going up shortly.