Writing Challenge Discussion -- January 2011

[Perpetual Man]

Congratulations Digs. As all the stories this month made my (ahem) shortlist I can honestly say I really liked it, the more I read it the more emotive a piece it seemed, beautiful and maudlin at the same time. It's very hard to catch so much emotion in such a short piece so a perfect winner.

I don't know whether it was just me doing so well, or for everyone, but this months felt like a horserace, I could just hear the commentary as the days went by!!!

So thanks to everyone who voted for me, and congratulations once more to Digs.

 

[Boneman]

Congratulations to Digs and Perpetual Man, on tieing for 1st place, and to Digs for just shading the tiebreaker. And I'm so pleased to see the fine tradition of tied challenges is being maintained!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

By my count, we've had ties to be broken six out of ten months. And five of those have been in the last seven months.

It's almost a surprise when we don't have a tie.

 

[Moonbat]

Well done Digs and Perp, both brilliant stories and well deserved winner and runner up.

Just looked at the Hall of Fame, wow, what good stories. Intereting to see that some people have won (or been runner up) more than once, they must have some serious skills when it comes to writing in 75 words.

Looking forward to next month's challenge, determined to get myself into that darned HoF. Maybe I should sabbotage every other entry then maybe, just maybe I'll get enough votes to win, I'll probably be pipped to the post by some non-entry.

 

[StormFeather]

Congratulations digs!! A very deserved win. Congratulations also to Perp - your story was fantastic too and deserved to be in the tie-break.

Looking forward to next months theme with interest . . .

It seems that we may have become somewhat of a trend setter with these short story challenges. I've just come across the Readers Digest 100 word story competition. Unfortunately the closing date is today . . . but there doesn't seem to be any restriction on theme, and that extra 25 words opens up a world of possibilities for us!!

if you are interested, and quick, you could enter here - the prize is £5000 for the winner and £100 book tokens for the two runners up:

100 Word Story

I also heard on the radio this morning, a new challenge to write a story in 500 words or less, but that one is only open to 13yr olds and younger.

Still, nice to know that we're a) ahead of the pack, and b) can happily compete with a 'massive' limit of 100 words - which seems like such a luxury to my mind!!

 

[The Judge]

I wish I had something from "1066 and All That" to finish off, but you're always first in with the literary references.

Well, we could wonder why no one chose the Glorious Revolution as a topic this month, when James II was ousted and William and Mary came to the throne, or as 1066 has it "England ruled by an Orange" -- which brings us nicely back to Charles II and Nell Gwyn


And congratulations, digs! I trust we will get a suitably antipodean theme for the month. *starts humming an unholy mix of Waltzing Matilda and Tie me Kangaroo Down, Sport*

 

[mosaix]

Congratulations to Digs for the win, and well done to PM for making it such a close run race.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

when James II was ousted and William and Mary came to the throne

Shouldn't that be Williamandmary?


A decision has been reached on the February Challenge, so you can go ahead, digs, and start the thread when you are ready.

You can do most of it by cut and paste from January, except for your theme of course, and changing all the Januarys to Februarys, and except that a tiebreaker (if necessary) will end on March 2. Except for all that, it should be easy ... easyish. Well, not too hard.

Henceforth, just as the Challenge closes for entries on the 23rd of each month, the regular voting will end on the 28th, no matter how many days there are in the month. That will mean an extra day between competitions in the longer months, but less confusion all around we hope.

So go forth digs, and give us a theme!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've moved some posts and started the February discussion thread.