Writing Challenge Discussion — MARCH 2011

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My short list consisted of:
Nixie
Arkose
TheDustyZebra
Aun Doorback
Ursa Major
Hilarious Joke

And the winner of my vote - Mosaix.

A very impressive month of entries, and an new style poll. Looks nice with the results having a coloured bar (also it has a bar for 0 votes so it looks nice for everyone to have a coloured bar of their own)

I'm still really annoyed I failed to enter, but I shall post up my un-entries after the poll closes.
 
As I prepared to vote I received a gracious surprise --- I have a vote! Not being able to do a school-girlish giggle, I'll have to settle for a parsonic chuckle and a big smile.:D

------------

Short List: (Wow! it is hard to read through 50+ stories and then try to determine which hits harder.)

Mouse: (Wickedness and What For)The Snow White Saga continues, I'm looking for a Twisted Sister to appear in the next installment.

Paranoid Marvin: (Pilate) A hauntingly realistic nightmare. [It has some possibilities for a Good Friday Sermon.]

Alchemist: (Family) This is good enough for a Twilight Zone episode. The inner message: "There is no salvation for a sell out."

Pyan: (Curtal Sonnet - c. 1240 BC) This poem was so complex it deserves a mention just for that, plus a good story.

Chrispenycate: (Incarceration) I expect to see dragons.

Goldenapples: (One Sofa, Hardly Used, No Stains) This was a real "slice" of life.

The Judge: (Nemesis... And the Death of Matthew Hopkins) Sadistic and all the more frightening as it based in real life. I can't help but wonder if the Nemesis was really possessed.

J-Wo: (Diary of a citizen who can still hole a pen) Revenge is surely seen as a dish served cold.


__________

Very short list:

The Judge,
Goldenapples
Alchemist.

My choice by a very slight margin, the Alchemist
 
Re: Writing Challenge Discussion MARCH

Thanks very much for the vote, Parson. And after all the nasty things I said about David Weber last night, too.
You've either described the wrong story as mine up above, or made an intriguing interpretation. ;)
 
Thanks for the short-listing, Parson and Heck Tate!

I have finally voted, after a day of indecision and mind-changing and re-reading of stories (despite which, there are still several I frankly didn't understand...). With a great deal of ruthlessness I've limited my shortlist to 10, but I could easily have doubled that, and several pieces only just fell outside.

My list:
Culhwch -- Paid in Full
HareBrain -- GAIA 3000
Lucky Lola -- The Feather
onebigpotato --The edge of reason
paranoid marvin -- Pilate
pyan -- Curtal Sonnet c1240 BC
Stormfeather -- Witness
TacticalLoco -- Untitled
Teresa -- Voluspa -- In the Wolf Age
Ursa major -- Seize the Day

My short shortlist comprises:
Lola -- a deceptively simple but very evocative piece
pyan -- who nearly got my vote just for the mention of The Kindly Ones
Ursa -- I don't fully understand the story, but it's haunted me since I first read it

But my vote went to Cul, as I loved the voice and the fact this poor schmuck is now an unpaid executioner because he chose the wrong daughter to *ahem*.

A special mention also for Aun Doorback, who only just missed on the shortlist -- I loved the poetic imagery of this story.
 
I voted for StormFeather, liked the tone and the idea of 'Him' being accountable, with culhwch a close second, (you just have to read it out-loud) and GreenKidx, cornelius, HareBrain, J-WO and The Imp all leaving their mark and making the decision difficult...
 
Thanks for the short-listing, TJ. There isn't really meant to be anything hidden as such**, but I did intend the haunting feeling (though I didn't know whether I could achieve it). I'm glad it worked. :)








** - Once the voting is over, I'll try to explain what's going on to anyone who hasn't quite twigged it. (Now I have to finalise my choice....)
 
Finally got time to read these on the train home tonight and again at my desk after the rest of the family went to bed.
Some excellent stuff here, but after a few rounds of whittling, this is the shortlist:

onebigpotato - The Edge of Reason; disturbing, somehow moving and immensely sad
alchemist - Family; just plain evil! And again, sad.
Arkose - The Last Straw; Wryly humourous. Being one myself, I really liked the idea of the "ogre"
HoopyFrood - Heaven's Winged Hound; I like the idea of the eagle having a voice - unexpected.
HeckTate - Woof!; This is in primarily because of that lovely sentence about "strange justice"
Culhwch - Paid in Full; Beautiful conception of justice and a great last line
TheEndIsNigh - Reflections; Just a really poignant thought - hard to put oneself in those shoes but the words seem to fit, a little at least.

Hard to choose my favourite; any of those at different times of the day might have got the vote, but right now, it'll be going to Culhwch
 
Thankyou for the kind mentions , and thankyou for the vote whoever you are!

So many great stories this month... so hard to choose
 
Thankyou for the kind mentions , and thankyou for the vote whoever you are!

So many great stories this month... so hard to choose, but Harebrain takes it by a whisker.
 
Another initial shortlist that had over 25 names on it, and that was after being pretty brutal.

With much agonizing and gnashing of teeth I got my list down to the following:

OBP
Brev
Mouse
Alchemist
Lucky Lola
Harebrain
TEIN
Mosaix
The Judge
J-WO
The Imp

Of these, a final 3 are:
OBP
Mouse
Mosaix

And my vote goes to OneBigPotato – it’s the story that stayed with me. Really quite haunting

It was, as always though, a very difficult decision. And there are many who didn’t make the shortlist by the narrowest of margins.

* I think I may have to start taking something for the stress that voting brings – so many worthy stories, just the one vote. . . . *

Please - those of you that haven't been there yet, please check out this months photography challenge and vote for your favourite:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/530791-march-photography-challenge-please-read-first-post.html

PS - Thanks to Judge for the mention and Brev for an additional vote - very happy news indeed!
 
Here is the decision of the Ursine jury. (As usual, the stories are ordered by date of posting within category.)


Honourable Mentions:
  • Witness by StormFeather
  • Herr Weiss by Precise Calibre
  • Curtal Sonnet - c. 1240 BC by Pyan
  • A Child of God by Parson
  • Justified Science by Chel
Runners Up:
  • Family by alchemist
  • What goes around, comes around by TheDustyZebra
  • Nemesis... and the death of Matthew Hopkins by The Judge
Winner:
  • Diary of a citizen who can still hold a pen by J-WO.
 
I think so.

And on the new poll graphics, can we change the bars so that the leader's bar crosses the whole way over, and the rest go an appropriate precentage of that distance. It's just that, as it currently stands, with the whole length representing 100%, and the contestants a proportion of that, the bars aren't very enlightening. This is what time spent on PowerPoint does to a person.

And it'll look prettier.
 
* Bows to the god PowerPoint. *

(It may be good to have an e-deity on-side just in case there's the possibility of retribution for letting the number of votes exceed the number of entries. Either that, or it's because I've spent far too much time prettifying slides and adding complex animations to some of them.)


I'm just glad the new polling mechanism inhibits multiple votes. (I have enough trouble picking just the one winner.)
 
Oh yes, I voted (for the Judge, actually) some time back; my spread sheet system (I start marking them up as soon as the first ones start appearing; that way, all I've got to do is keep my standards rigid throughout the submission period. Not easy, but I don't think I'd ever vote with a ripple search, and maintaining standards while reading all of them in succession?) does not, unfortunately, provide a short list.

Which I admit is a pity, but I can see no simple way of avoiding it. Particularly as to cite some as being good sugests that others aren't; and I don't think that so far we have had a story that was best in all my categories (or worst in them all).
 
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