posted
Greetings, fellow hatrack colleagues. Welcome to the second annual WotF trigger challenge! Although this is the 2nd annual challenge, it is our third contest for the illustrious prize of a Writers of the Future book (contest #2 was made possible by the very generous Kathleen-Dalton Woodbury, thank you very much). This year’s challenges prize is made possible (once again) by the equally as generous Tnwilz. More on that in a moment…
The WotF trigger challenge is a writing contest open to all hatrack writers. Be this your first day, or if you’ve been a member longer than youngest hatracker has been alive, you are eligible. A bit of a warning, to be part of the challenge garners some responsibility. All participant’s are expected to serves as judges. You will help determine the winner.
The prize for winning the competition will be your own copy of the latest Writers of the Future anthology (Volume 26), debuting fellow hatrackers Adam Colston and Brad T Torgerson works Not in the Flesh and Exanastasis, sent to you straight from Tnwilz’s home (if you need help deferring the cost, please let me know, Tracy).
First some ground rules…
This is a trigger challenge. You will need to come up with a story (genre is open) based on one of two triggers. They are…
Living Rooms
and
Not in the Flesh
Your story can be about anything as long as it has something to do with either trigger (sorry Brad, couldn’t work your title into the challenge). The only limitations are you cannot plagiarize Laurie Toms or Adam Colston’s work and you cannot exceed a 4000 word limit.
All submission will be sent to me…
snapperfjd@yahoo.com
…where I will assign it a number. The cut off date for submissions will be Sept. 30th 2010. If my Word program says your submission is over 4k, I will give you an opportunity to correct it. Please send your stories in a RTF file. Thank you for that.
Judging…
We will be voting on the best openings and best overall pieces. Once I get enough entries, I will start to post the opening 13. Everyone is expected to pick their first and second favorite opening, a point will be awarded for every second place, and two points for a first place. The judging for the first 13 lines will be a week, at that point I will send the entries out to everyone. You will read and pick your three favorite. The points will be 5 for first, 4 for second, and 3 for third. You may use any criteria you like in voting but I suggest you take how each one fits with the trigger into consideration If I get more than a few entries, I will separate them into groups and the top vote getters will face off for the grand prize. And because this is a friendly competition, and I would like to illicit interest by posting openings as soon as possible, 2 points will be awarded to the first entry I receive and 1 point will go to the second one.
How to get disqualified…
The competition will be anonymous. If you post your entry in F & F to get some feedback, then I may have to disqualify you. If you fail to vote, you get disqualified. Other than that, it’s all open. If you whine, complain, or tell me I’m a cheat for any reason (private or public) I will only laugh at you. I am only interested in fair play and quality writing. When I say this is open to all, I mean it. If you want to join in but don’t feel you need the book, no problem. It can go to the second place finisher if you win…so now no one *coughskaddercough* I mean no one *ah-ah- KathleenandBrad-choo!* can use that as an excuse.
Any questions? Feel free to post them in this thread.
We’re gunning for ya, Mrs Brown.
Rule edit: One submission per author, please.
[This message has been edited by snapper (edited September 01, 2010).]
One question because I'm new to writing competitions. A trigger - does that means it's the subject matter? - The title? - A generic name that can be viewed however you wish to interpret it? I just want to get it right before I start writing.
W.
[This message has been edited by walexander (edited August 31, 2010).]
posted
W, the trigger is usually something that informs the theme. Kind of like 'what triggered you to write it', but it can (and usually does) take a very different shape for every writer. You can find the question also addressed in previous trigger challenges here and here.
I noticed in some previous challenges, critiquers would occasionally comment with "couldn't find the trigger" when other readers clearly identified the trigger in the same story, or "wasn't spec fic" when the competition was open-genre. I don't think there's much that can be done about this - it seems to me this is simply a matter of 'knowing your audience' - but it might be worth remembering (Both issues have been problems with my challenge entries in the past, because I like to lean towards the subtle, as well as explore outside my usual genre).
posted
Just a quick question. How can we know if we are plagiarising the originals if we don't have the book and have never read them? Can they be read freely online?
I have a rough idea based on one of the triggers but it seems so obvious to me that it might well be the thinking behind the original
Oh, and can we incorporate both triggers if a suitable idea jumps out?
posted
No, Gan, because only the first 13 lines would show up on the forum. The complete stories would be sent to each contestant via email.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
I will fine tune the details once I get an idea how many entries we will be receiving but teh major voting will be for your 3 favorite stories. I invite you to take how each one fits with the triggers into consideration but however you decide which is best is entirely up to you.
As far as crits go, a paragraph on each story you read would be nice. Just a little something for the author so they know how their work is received, and help them get an idea for any changes needed to help them make a sale.
posted
I have a rough idea in my head and would love to give this a go but I'd much rather have a rough idea of how much criting and reading will be required.
I'm in full flow with my latest project and don't really want to have to stop for a few days on end to read entries and write crits.
I don't mind a pause over a weekend, but not for longer than that. A dozen or so entries would take me all weekend to read and crit, any more than that would be too much I'm afraid.
Edit: I think something hiccuped there [This message has been edited by pdblake (edited September 03, 2010).]
[This message has been edited by pdblake (edited September 03, 2010).]
posted
Why don't you divide into groups of at most 4. Those four entries get emailed to four other people who rate them. When all groups return their results you should have a winner for each group. Then it is just a matter of voting on the winners.
Posts: 2995 | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:I have a rough idea in my head and would love to give this a go but I'd much rather have a rough idea of how much criting and reading will be required.
Well, how much reading would you be willing to do? With a 4k limit, the average will likely be around 3.5k a story. So what would be a could amount of reading for round 1? I leaning toward a maximum of 20,000 words (and I do mean a maximum). 5 stories to read and give a short crit (100 to 200 words)would be about 17000 to 18000 words. Too much?
posted
Sounds fun. I actually got inspired by both triggers. Where do you post "openings" (I assume this is the first few lines). And how do you post openings and remain "anonymous" as per the contest rules?
posted
Also, History, I believe that the first 13 should come with a complete story. Is that correct Snapper?
Posts: 789 | Registered: Aug 2007
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quote:One last question. How do you want these formatting?
Readable.
Just send it as you would to a friend that was critiquing it for you. However, your colleagues are your judges. Simple is best, cute, as in a Neurochrome font, might get you minus points.
posted
I'd just like to say thanks for organising this. I've really enjoyed writing this one. I've challenged myself to write the whole thing in one go and I hope the pressure pays off. I did spend a day outlining it though
Oh, and I'm using standard formatting too
[This message has been edited by pdblake (edited September 06, 2010).]
[This message has been edited by pdblake (edited September 07, 2010).]
posted
How's it coming along? Big prize. Imagine getting a book anthology with Issac Asimov and A C Clarkes signature in its pages [i]before[/i they made a name for themselves.
posted
Wow! I just read the 13's for the posted entries. THIS is going to be a heck of a competition.
Posts: 2003 | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
If I recall correctly, the first of this series, last year's Cinders of the Great War challenge, set a very high standard.
Posts: 789 | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
uh, snapper, was that a reference to me at the end of your top post? Gosh, I haven't poked my nose in here in ever-so-long. You're tempting me...
Posts: 785 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Now let the fun begin. This will be a 3 tier judging process. Here are the tiers and the rules for each one.
1) Read all the entry openings and vote for your first and second favorite. We usually base the openings on their hook factor. Hooking an editor so they want to read on is important, so take it into consideration. Points will be awarded for each vote received. No voting for your own!
2) Since we have a large enough number, the contest will be devided up into two groups. You will be required to read and vote for your three favorite of the group. We ask that you give your thoughts on what worked and what didn't for each story, nothing long but enough to give the author an idea of how their story was received. We are a writers workshop first so feedback is what matters the most in these contests.
Since we have 11 entries, the story that receives the most votes in round 1 automatically goes to the final round. But so that every story can receive some feedback, I will be looking for volunteers to give it a look.
3) Final round! The top two vote getters in each group will join the winner of round one for the grand prize. I am happy to anounce that we have a celebrity panel to make the decision for us.
Hatrack winners, Adam Colston and Brad Torgersen, along with the Gold Award winner, Laurie Tom will read the lucky five and pick the winner!
The declared winner will receive a copy of [i]Writers of the Future[i] volume 26, made possible by the gracious Twinlz, and signed by our award winning panel, sent to your mailbox.
In the event the winner decides to forego the prize (for any reason) the second place winner will get the book.
All votes are to be sent to me. The sooner I get everyones vote, teh sooner we can get onto round two.
posted
Is round one judging the first thirteens and the opening with the most points from that goes to the final round?
Posts: 968 | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
Once he has all the votes for the first 13, I presume he will send you an email with the stories you have to judge. You will simply judge the stories you receive (yours won't be one of them) and send votes/comments back to Snapper.
The division of the entries into two groups is something that Snapper will do behind the scenes. Don't worry about it.
I think selecting your favorites and any feedback you, or any Hatrack member, wishes to give on "the 13" would be greatly aprreciated by the authors -- regardless of whether your vote is counted to determine the contest winner.
posted
I invited our 3 final judges to vote in rnd one if they liked but they haven't. Got the last vote in. will be posting the final comments and announce the rnd 1 winner.
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