Welcome, one and all, to Saileh's writing competition! It seems to me that there aren't enough writing
contests on chicken; it's mostly art, and while art is great, writing has a certain flair to it. I always say
that, while a picture may be worth a thousand words, a thousand words is worth a million pictures; all
the people who read your writing will interpret it differently, and it is basically the ultimate catharsis.
So, without further ado, allow me to introduce to you -- the premise!
Now, I know what you're thinking. You're poised at your keyboard right now, thinking of story ideas,
various ways to embellish your writing and make it stand out from the crowd - unless, of course, you're
only here to read the entries, or to make fun of my excessive use of exclamation points, or whatever.
But for those of you who are ready to write -- well, I'm sorry, but this isn't a normal writing competition.
The way this is going to work is a bit like a writing contest we did in school, and it's an on-the-fly sort
of deal. Make sure you have some time on your hands when you first get started.
You will pm me, and I will pm you back with a prompt. For each round, all the writers will have the same
prompt, just to make sure that everything is fair. From the moment I send the prompt to you, you have
3 hours to craft a short story (not a poem, sorry poemers) that relates in some way to the prompt. The
relationship to the prompt can be as vague as you like, but I will give you a minimum score if your story
doesn't relate to it at all. Just a tip, make sure I'm online when you send me the pm - otherwise there'll
be a bit of a communication issue. Don't worry, folks, I'm online a lot.
I will post the prompt when entries close, and I'll also post (below this) a list of things I like to see in a
story and things I'll be judging on. Grammar and spelling count and are very important. By the way, don't
complain about the time limit -- to write a good, solid short story, 3 hours is actually a long long time. In
my middle school, we had a writing team (I'm basing this competition off of the tournaments we went to)
and we had to write these prompt-based stories in only 40 minutes. So, really, it's not so bad.
-- Please pm me asking to enter my writing competition. I will pm you back with the current prompt, and
then you have three hours to write, so go go go! If you get it done sooner, that's totally fine. If, for any
reason, you want to move times around or start later, please let me know in your first pm and I'm sure we
can work it out.
-- When you finish your story, pm it to me with the subject of the message as: "ENTRY -- (Your title here)."
Type out your story in black font, please, so that the colours don't distract from it, and please just use the
normal sized font. If I post winners' stories up here, I'll give you the option to make it pretty then; for the
meantime, I don't want the design of the post to distract from the writing. Also, try to leave one line space
between each paragraph.
Alright, nobody likes 'em but here they are.
-- NO fanfiction. Sorry, but I want to see your originality and creativity in these pieces, and I know you
all have tons of it! Create your own great ideas and run with them.
-- Word count must be at least 500, but write as long as you wish.
-- NO poetry. Sorry, poemers; I might have another contest for you guys later c;
-- Keep the topics PG-13. No explicit scenes, no overly descriptive violence. You know the drill; keep it
family-friendly.
-- Constructive criticism only, please! Don't hurt anyone's feelings.
-- Please, do not complain about the score I give you. I'm just trying to judge this as fairly as possible,
so that the best story wins.
-- Good luck to all!
Okay, here is where I'll be suggesting things for your stories that'll make 'em impress me. Ready?
-- Length-wise, it doesn't matter how long or short your story is; I know that sometimes I feel my writing
is better when I only write a few paragraphs, but sometimes I want to take up five pages. My only length
requirement is that the stories be at least around 500 words long. I won't turn down 450.
-- Character depth is super-super important. I get that it's hard to develop characters in a short story, so
I'm not really expecting to know everything about these guys, but there's nothing worse than reading from
the perspective of a flat, uninteresting character or a mary-sue.
-- What am I judging on? Use of language, mostly. How easily do the words flow in your story? I don't want
the vocab to be basic, but I don't want to feel like you're spitting out words from a thesaurus, either. Each
word you use should be there because you felt it belonged there, not because you thought the length of it
would impress me. Writers' voice is important. Is your narrator a young child in the 1800s? Make sure I'm
able to hear that child in your writing.
-- I'm also judging on the imagination of the story. Guys, imagination is key. While the quality of writing is
one half of the puzzle, if your writing is beautiful but your plot is mediocre or overused, you'll only get a so-
so score. I'm looking for interesting and unique pieces. Be original!
-- Grammar and spelling, guys. Grammar and spelling. Sorry, but this is important. Your punctuation use,
your spelling of words, your lack of too many typos (I'll forgive a few)... this is all part of the recipe. Too
many mistakes distract from the story and your skill as a writer. Word choice and diction are important, as
well, as are how well you craft dialogue.
Now, I'll tell you what I like personally. For the record, this in no way affects your score. It's just that I find
stories like this interesting, and would love to see you guys give these topics a go.
-- Science fiction. Give me some alien planets, space travel, advanced future civilizations, paradoxes and
alternate universes, and I'll lap it up -- if you do it right!
-- Alternate history. I love me some alternate history. What would have happened if Napoleon's invasion of
Russia hadn't failed? What if the Archduke Franz Ferdinand's driver knew where he was going? What if Hitler
had gotten into art school? The possibilities are endless.
