Writing contest - 48 Hour Flash Fiction 2017

[Serendipity]

Not sure how they're going about judging this competition. But one of the judges, Pat Cardigan, was guest of honour at the BSFA convention over Easter. (Hope she enjoyed it!)

So to scratch another itch... if there were 416 stories, that would mean a maximum of 832,000 words to read. Split between the three judges it would mean 377,334 words apiece. That's the equivalent of three / four novels.

I suspect in practice that the average number of words per story is around the 1750 mark (or 7/8 of the full quota). This would make it 728000 words in total and 242,667 words apiece.

It would not surprise me if they had people checking compliance with rules before passing the stories on to the judges. But that should only account for a small percentage of stories sent in.

Ah, that's better, my itch has gone away. Now off to turn into a human being. Impossible I know, but one has to try...

 

[Bagpuss]

There is a post on the urban fantasist.com blog dated 13 April indicating that he's reading through the stories to create a long-list for the judges. No indication as to how long the long-list will be, though, and also no indication of how many other people are involved in creating the long-list - if any.

 

[Luiglin]

There is a post on the urban fantasist.com blog dated 13 April indicating that he's reading through the stories to create a long-list for the judges. No indication as to how long the long-list will be, though, and also no indication of how many other people are involved in creating the long-list - if any.

Just read that. Well isn't he/she a happy little bunny. They come over as a bit of an arse in my opinion and doesn't give me much hope for any objectivity on their part.

 

[Serendipity]

Just read the urbanfantasist's post on the subject. Sounds to me as if s/he is sifting through the entries to make sure they are presentable enough to be published without attracting a whole load of complaints about poor english. Which means that the long list's length can't be determined until s/he has read through them all.

The other snippet that s/he left on her blog was that there several hundred entries to go through. This tallies with the 416+ number seen elsewhere.

 

[Cathbad]

They sure gave themselves a lot to do in a very little time!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

to make sure they are presentable enough to be published without attracting a whole load of complaints about poor english

Well, that didn't seem to be a factor last year. If the shortlisted ones were that sloppy, I shudder to think what else passed the first gates.

 

[Cathbad]

Well, that didn't seem to be a factor last year. If the shortlisted ones were that sloppy, I shudder to think what else passed the first gates.

I'm tellin' ya!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'm disappointed at the idea that the judges aren't actually reading all the stories, though. I was thrilled at the idea of Pat Cadigan reading a story of mine. Of course, I hope mine would get through to her, but not knowing the winnowing criteria of the first reader, now I don't know anymore.

 

[Luiglin]

I'm disappointed at the idea that the judges aren't actually reading all the stories, though. I was thrilled at the idea of Pat Cadigan reading a story of mine. Of course, I hope mine would get through to her, but not knowing the winnowing criteria of the first reader, now I don't know anymore.

I always imagined this would happen but hearing it confirmed from the horses mouth is, I agree, disappointing.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Just read that. Well isn't he/she a happy little bunny. They come over as a bit of an arse in my opinion and doesn't give me much hope for any objectivity on their part.

I just went and found the blog post, and I can't see anything there that would hurt me in any way. Quite the contrary, in fact.

 

[Luiglin]

I just went and found the blog post, and I can't see anything there that would hurt me in any way. Quite the contrary, in fact.

It was more the attitude of the writing that I found disagreeable, like they wanted their two minutes of fame as part of the process. Sort of... 'Look at me, look at me!'

Maybe that's just my POV. It came over as very trollish behaviour.

Edit: how about someone who gave the competition a go, make some of those mistakes and then read that. It'd be a kick in the teeth.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Ahh... Well, I think someone who writes a blog post more than once daily is probably quite desperate for something to say that will justify his use of the public's time.

 

[Luiglin]

Ahh... Well, I think someone who writes a blog post more than once daily is probably quite desperate for something to say that will justify his use of the public's time.

It's just a pity that they didn't the post something more positive.

 

[Cathbad]

I just don't see any way they can go thru all the entries and determine finalists and a winner in the time they alloted themselves.

Except one:

"Here's Jennie's; she's a finalist."

"Oh! I found Mike's! Don't need to read that one - he's always been great!"

"And cute!"

"Mmhm!"

 

[Serendipity]

The Urbanfantasist website indicates that they will announcing the results during week commencing 24 April, which in theory means up to and including 30 April. So we could hear anything from next Monday onwards. There will be a formal prize giving during the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival (27 April to 6 May).

Having seen competition judges at work in other arenas, it's standard to do a quick glance over to make sure entries are compliant and eliminate those entries that are clearly of a lesser quality and therefore have no chance of winning or being placed very quickly.

This means they'll check rule compliancy and that you've got title and dialogue in, and also whether the story is readable. (Note I'm not saying word perfect here.) Also the story has to demonstrably science fiction or fantasy, and be family friendly. There will also be some idiots who've got themselves in a tizzy and sent their entries in twice. Given these criteria, they should whittle it down under 300 before the judges even get sight of them (if the normal standard of submissions applies). All this can be done over a couple of days given enough helpers to hand.

Good luck everyone - the entry list as a reminder is (taken from Cathbad's post):

OKAY THEN THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN ARE:

Cathbad
TheDustyZebra
Serendipity
Biskit
Luiglin
sinister42
Coast

 

[Cathbad]

Oh, whittling it down to 300... no problem.

I was understanding that the finalists were to be announced on the 24th. The week of the 24th is better, but still rushed. Best case scenario is there's 7 judges, the work is divided among them, and each will choose one finalist.

Other contests I've seen, it takes a few months (at least) to determine a winner. This is because each judge is required to read every entry (after being whittled down, re Serendipity's post). To read for understanding and to critique - not just enjoyment - takes a little extra time.

I still don't like the time frame, but am a little mollified, thanks to Serendipity.

 

[AlexH]

I didn't see this posted on this forum until now, but some might not have entered based on the terms & conditions - I'm posting so you can bear this in mind next time if you didn't see the T's&C's (text bolded by me):

"SFL Participant hereby acknowledges that SFL will be an owner of his/her completed entry; and that SFL has the right to publish, show, exhibit, broadcast, record or disseminate in any way possible, including and not limited to publication, broadcast television, cable television, radio and/or the internet; and the right to publicise the SFL and Challenge using the name or passages of and from the “Story.”"
48 Hour Flash Fiction 2017 Rules & Regulations | SCI-FI-LONDON 48 Hour Challenge

Possibly fair enough for the winner, due to the £500 prize, but for every single entry it's out-of-order in my opinion - and I didn't enter for that reason. They can even adapt your story for TV! I probably wouldn't have noticed if someone hadn't pointed it out to me, as the "Rules" link isn't exactly obvious - it looks like a header for the following section.

 

[Luiglin]

I didn't see this posted on this forum until now, but some might not have entered based on the terms & conditions - I'm posting so you can bear this in mind next time if you didn't see the T's&C's (text bolded by me):

"SFL Participant hereby acknowledges that SFL will be an owner of his/her completed entry; and that SFL has the right to publish, show, exhibit, broadcast, record or disseminate in any way possible, including and not limited to publication, broadcast television, cable television, radio and/or the internet; and the right to publicise the SFL and Challenge using the name or passages of and from the “Story.”"
48 Hour Flash Fiction 2017 Rules & Regulations | SCI-FI-LONDON 48 Hour Challenge

Possibly fair enough for the winner, due to the £500 prize, but for every single entry it's out-of-order in my opinion - and I didn't enter for that reason. They can even adapt your story for TV! I probably wouldn't have noticed if someone hadn't pointed it out to me, as the "Rules" link isn't exactly obvious - it looks like a header for the following section.

Seeing how they gave me the title, line of dialogue and optional science I'd be happy with that. My entry has no resemblance to anything else I write and unless they come back to me demanding a novel/miniseries/epic movie then I'm fine with them 'owning it'. If anything like that happened just imagine the tidal wave of publicity you could ride on

 

[Cathbad]

Agreed @Luiglin . And though I didn't see the above, I had assumed they would have ownership.

 

[AlexH]

Fair enough to both of you, though I hope you wouldn't assume that for all writing competitions @Cathbad? I think it'd be a bad precedent if that was the accepted standard.

So far in life I consider myself more of a photographer than a writer, and I see photography competitions (sometimes themed) with a decent first prize, but the terms state all entries can be used for any purpose - they're basically gathering free images for their guidebooks, magazines, websites etc. With the photography you're taking photographer's jobs away, whereas you're not really taking writer's jobs with the SFL competition, but I don't see how it is too different - you could easily get your own title, line of dialogue and optional science by browsing around @Luiglin. The title was hardly unique, and the science was optional, and also hardly a unique idea (I actually read a short story with a similar idea recently).

It's unlikely anything would come of it, but why do they even need that line in the terms? I bet most people would feel differently if their short story went on to become a £million grossing TV series or something, and they didn't see a penny of it. Income from any subsequent publicity is far from guaranteed. It's not like it's based off a novel series that people will go out and buy, and what percentage of the general public who've seen Arrival (for example) know it was based off a short story?

Good luck to everyone here anyway.