Monthly Writing Competition - April 2006 (Winner announced 26th May)

[biothlebop]

First the fine print:

- Participants will write a story not limited by length unless specified by the month's rules;
- It's impossible for a judge to be impartial in this kind of competition where, for instance, great writing can save a meager plot. So the voting will be public, and go on for at least a week after the deadline, when the winner will be announced.
- The competition should last a month. Therefore, this particular one will run until the 20th of May. After that, we will have five days for voting. These deadlines are not absolute, but try to meet them.
- The actual posts must NOT contain the story, but a link to it. The story MUST be hosted somewhere, even if temporarily.
- The object of this is to write a story. It can be a short story with 10 lines, it can be a whooper with 20 pages. It can have no characters, or a myriad of them. It can be in first person, or third; present or past of future tense. Your ONLY limitations are the ones the rules state, if any.
- The winner provides the theme and rules for the next comp.
- The comp-starter may participate. It's happened already, and this voting system should elliminate unfairness. Of course, out of fairness, the comp starter should start it without already forming an idea of the story he may write.


The subject is: The Speech / an Audience. At least one of these elements will exist in your story.

Examples regarding what you may do:
(The Speech)  You may write the speech itself or describe the event from first person/outside/how you see fit.
(an Audience) You may intrepet this as a mass of people that have gathered somewhere or one person/inanimate object/animal. If it was by chance is up to you. If the audience remains a bystander/silent is your choice.

You do not have to stop there. Any way you intrerpret those two words should be okay, since this is a competition where the public decides.

If this was unclear, write your story how you understood me and come up with the rest. If you really must have further clarification (or this is a very bad idea), I can try to revise this or change the theme to something more conventional.

[MashPotato]

Interesting topic... I might join in, since I haven't written anything creative in quite a while ^_^

[Tuomas]

Ugh, this brings to my mind all te school essays But I'm still in, I got an idea already. I'll make it shorter this time

[MarVelo]

Reminds me of the begining of Animal Farm.

I might write something if I get inspiration.

[voh]

I write on a whim, and my whim has arrived. I shall update when I'm done.

[celestialroad]

Would you clarify the subject? I'm having trouble understanding it..or maybe I'm just reading it wrong, I don't know.

[biothlebop]

Hopefully this post will leave room for creativity. If you already have an idea going, don't let these examples and thoughts limit you.

Firstly, there are two subjects, but their themes connect.
A speech cannot exist without an (intended) audience, but an audience is not dependant on a speech.
I accept short stories in this one that are non-fiction/relate to real events (as long as it is from your pen / you can bring forth your own views).

-----------

The Speech:
- A story that at least implies a speech will happen/does happen/has happened.
- The speech itself, which may be non-fiction (presentative/argumentative for a real-life matter) - in which case the event of the speech is probably fictional.

Difficulties:
-Drawing the line between a speech and a monologue. The speech may be improvised/ex-tempore, but it has to have the qualities of a speech.

Possible scenarios:
-Formal events: Lectures, religious occasions, birthdays, retirement, graduation
-Informal events: A lecture/speech given by a father to a son, a pedestrian to another. Note "difficulties" when doing this one.

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

An audience:
- A story that involves an audience.

Difficulties:
-Definition of audience. Must an audience always be passive faceless mass?

Possible scenarios:
-Entertainment
-Disasters
-Politcs (Difficulties: In case there is a demonstration in your story, who is the audience? If the demonstration goes unheard by others, are the demonstrators the audience?)

[voh]

Custard.doc

A short story of 2409 words, about the 'audience' subtheme.

It's silly, but I like it

[Colxfile]

I present... a story. Of sorts.

'A speech for the big day'

It's about a man who is about to give a speech. It weighs in at about 2,500 words. Hope you enjoy it.

[voh]

Good to see another entry, as I was getting afraid that I'd be the only one entering. I don't want to win if I'm the only one entering (and with other people entering, the chance of me winning declines exponentially )

[Tuomas]

Yeah, I'll enter too, don't worry, just as I get back home I'll finish my story.

[celestialroad]

I'd put in my entry, but I have no host for it. 

[Wiggles_Say]

Oh come on Ryan, use Geocities or something. There's loads of ways of hosting files on the internet.

[celestialroad]

Yeah but...

I'm lazy. 

Nah, I'll post it eventually probably. Just near the end probably.

[voh]

You can email it to me, and I can host it for you. I'll keep it online until after the winner's been declared. Is that a good enough offer?

[Mr Flibble]

I'd like to enter, and if I get time I'll be sure to run something off.

[celestialroad]

*EDIT 2* Okay, I hosted it myself, heh. Here you are, it's really short, just 663 words, but it's something:

http://www.freewebs.com/ryanmcginnis/Speech.doc

[biothlebop]

Time to vote.

[voh]

You might want to modify the topic subject so people know they're supposed to vote

[celestialroad]

Someone going to vote?