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The big man on campus, Nick Tchan, has safely returned to Aussieland. Not an easy task considering he had to fight off airport security to get back his exclusive signed (as in by almost everyone) book back. He has the new WotF anthology and you don't! It has every up and coming star (and some guy named Nick) in its pages. You can't buy it - until July - but you can have it. All you have to do write better than everyone else.
That's right! The newest challenge is here. Our yearly
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I'll start a thread, and put a link to it here, in the challenging section as soon as I get the logistics all worked out. Its my works fault I haven't as of yet. They're expecting production from me in return for a paycheck (prudes). Satire is fair game LD- I'm posting that the contest is on its way so you can all get that creative engine warmed up.
Posts: 3072 | Registered: Dec 2007
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Less than 3000 words! You're killing me, snapper. I have medical dictations longer than that. But to honor Nick, I'll see if I can come up with...something.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
Posts: 1475 | Registered: Aug 2010
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I'm up for theThe Command of Love challenge, Snapper! I am assuming this is to be speculative fiction?
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Snapper, at work don't they know who you are and that you have hugely important things to do????
Dr. Bob. WIth that title, even though it would be way short, you could come up with something with your Rabba MC in it. And I kinda liked the "...something" comment, I might be forced to use it.
For depending on the schedule I will be coming up with something and it will be better than usual for me... Of course that's not saying much but you all can judge how much.
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Tiny nitpick, but the story is called The Command For Love, but that probably won't affect what anyone is writing.
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I might participate but if we haven't read Nick's story, how do we make sure we don't hedge to close to it? Posts: 1043 | Registered: Jul 2010
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I've never done this contest before and need a clarification. By trigger, do you mean thats what sets the story in motion, or just has to involve the phrase somewhere in the story?
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If the book's not out yet and WOTF entries are generally kept pretty close to the chest, how have some of you managed to read the story anyway?
Posts: 778 | Registered: Aug 2010
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I believe they're sending them out now. I'm ordering mine today.
However, for me, Nick was kind enough to let me read his winning entry (with the title removed so I could enter this contest fairly.) back when I failed to place in my quarter.
He had some great words of advice for me during my dark days of disappointment.™ (Remember, he was a finalist, lost, then was a finalist again and won.)
I asked him because I still needed to study the winners, and that was as recent a winner as was possible to read.
I've just finished reading vol 27 BTW. By far the best yet (of the one's I've read). I usually end up skipping a few stories but this one I actually liked them all.
Posts: 778 | Registered: Aug 2010
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Jake, the trigger is meant to serve as an inspiration. Some of your fellow authors will be looking for the trigger in your tale. So create wisely.
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I read 27 also, surprised I wasn't the last one here to read it, but there was a couple of stories I didn't like that much even though they were mostly well written. I say mostly because it seemed that one story had a page missing toward the end.
And another one seemed like the ending was written too fast. Everything was explained but one very big event in the story was left dangling.
But as I said very well done.
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
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I have a crack team of international lawyers watching this contest for plagiarism concerns very, very closely. They are mostly concerned about words such as "the", "a", "his" and "her". Steer clear of these words (and most of the English language) and you should be fine. Alternatively, you may wish to pay a small fee (1 US cent) for words you may possibly wish to use in the story. I will refund you any words which don't appear in my entry.
Posts: 712 | Registered: Jun 2008
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quote:My question is, did KDW sign it? Because if she did, then I HAVE to have it.
Sadly she wasn't at the workshop. I did sign a book for her, but I didn't know how ill she was at the time. If I'd known, I would have written a lot, lot more about how much her contribution meant to me.
As it is, I obtained almost all of the winners from both sides (somehow I managed to miss a few). I also obtained the signatures from Mike Resnick, Kevin J. Andersen, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Nancy Cartwright (Bart from the Simpsons). There may be a few other big names, but the whole night was a blur and some people have atrocious handwriting.
Posts: 712 | Registered: Jun 2008
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I love the Kindle version because the illustrations are in colour and look fantastic on a large screen (black and white pulp paper doesn't do them justice). I had a great illustrator on my story.
I'll end the shameless plugging now.
Posts: 712 | Registered: Jun 2008
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quote:I have a crack team of international lawyers watching this contest for plagiarism concerns very, very closely. They are mostly concerned about words such as "the", "a", "his" and "her". Steer clear of these words (and most of the English language) and you should be fine. Alternatively, you may wish to pay a small fee (1 US cent) for words you may possibly wish to use in the story. I will refund you any words which don't appear in my entry.
Thanks for making this easy for us. Easily avoidable. Remember, Australia is a protectorate of Great Britian (should we really be still calling it 'great'? Pretty good, sure - but I digress...) so it is only Commonwealth English words Americans need to worry about. So 'z' it up all you want but watch the 'u's. 'His' will need to be spelled 'hiz' but 'her' is okay as long as you don't spell it 'heur'. Oh, and I'm pretty sure 'a' is a Canadian franchised predicate - you can't claim that one. 'The' I can't help you with so you may have to use the French equivilant (they love throwing it around anyway) in its stead.
How (native american) iz dat, Nick? le best I kan dew.
Posts: 3072 | Registered: Dec 2007
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You know, I was going to jump into this one, but I've spent two days burning through different ideas under the story title: The Command OF Love. The change in the title actually killed my idea. So, I might write the idea out, but it won't work for this challenge anymore.
Posts: 3687 | Registered: Jan 2007
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I had an idea I had planned on doing but now I don't know if I can squeeze the correct title into my idea.
Hmm, on second thought maybe a small change in plot. The story may come out darker than I usually do but...maybe....
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
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quote:Personally, I take the trigger into account when voting. It's 1/3 of your grade. (as far as I'm concerned.)
That's quite a bit. I remember for the "Cinders of the Great War" trigger challenge writing about soldiers walking through the still smoking ashes of suburbia, yet more than one person wondered what the trigger was because I never explicitly used the word "great". What is obvious to one person, is too subtle to another, while making the trigger really obvious can sometimes insult the intelligence of another reader.
I think that anyone trying to divide between the words "of" and "for" in this challenge has misunderstood the meaning of "trigger". A trigger is a starting point to the thought process of developing a story, not necessarily the key pivot of the story or even a central theme.
Posts: 789 | Registered: Aug 2007
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For some of us, a trigger can inspire a story that has no clear relationship to the trigger phrase. That story would score poorly in this challenge. Why bother submitting a story that you know most readers will rate down? In my mind, it's like a submitting a story to an anthology that was inspired by the call for submissions but you know doesn't fit the anthology's theme. It's inconsiderate of readers' time.
Posts: 1139 | Registered: May 2008
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Though I don't have any real say in this competition (my name is only attached because of a certain stash of photos that Snapper has), I'm happy for the trigger to be literal or inspirational. As long as the author can explain to me how the trigger led to the story, it's no skin off my back.
quote:For some of us, a trigger can inspire a story that has no clear relationship to the trigger phrase. That story would score poorly in this challenge.
That is probably correct.
quote:Why bother submitting a story that you know most readers will rate down? In my mind, it's like a submitting a story to an anthology that was inspired by the call for submissions but you know doesn't fit the anthology's theme. It's inconsiderate of readers' time.
My point is really about the spectrum of understanding about "the trigger" that writers and readers can have. At one end of the spectrum the trigger is so obscure, to most readers the relationship is non-existent. At the other end, the trigger is written in almost every line of the story. Yet anyone participating will also judge the stories in relation to their understanding on the scope of the trigger, and some will judge it more narrowly than I, others more broadly. Some will even judge it too narrowly for my liking (but are still entirely free to do so).
quote: quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think that anyone trying to divide between the words "of" and "for" in this challenge has misunderstood the meaning of "trigger". --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This claim sounds condescending.
Those words can have vastly disparate connotations.
My apologies for sounding condescending - that was not my intention. Rereading, the previous sentence too may have set up the context for the feeling.
Yes, the words do have different connotations. But in the spirit of what constitutes a trigger challenge, breadth of meaning and creative interpretation of the trigger is within that spirit. It is also part of the fun of this, reading what others came up with regarding the trigger. Therefore given the current trigger is "The Command For Love", I'd be hard pressed to judge negatively any story that shows a relationship between "command" and "love". (And both words have various meanings in different contexts.)
Posts: 789 | Registered: Aug 2007
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Brendan, my 1/3 comment is meant more as a 0 1 comment, or an on/off.
If the trigger isn't there, the story won't receive a grade of 100%
If I read the most amazing super-hero story about a crime fighting man wearing a black cape that has nothing to do with a command for love then I'm taking points away, but also rewarding somewhat for a great story.
I too agree that a trigger can be a little more loosely interpreted. What I mean is the difference between FOR and OF. Personally, as long as I feel the whole command and love thing is covered, thematically or not, then I'll be satisfied.
Course, all this could be moot if I don't get my story done in time. =(
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I'm reminded of the "wise" men of Chelm who come upon a door and debate the ways it can be opened, then the ways that it should be opened, the order in which they should pass through, what to do if they open it to find someone wished to enter as they wished to leave, if they should wait and see if someone opened it from the other side, and who it may possibly be...
Moral: Just write the damn story.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
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