Fortnightly Writing Competition: Dragons, Dragons, Everywhere (Results)

[WHAM]

- BEST CHARACTER: Baron for his protagonist pair
- BEST WRITING: Baron, for solid use of dialogue and inventive descriptions
- BEST STORY: Baron, for painting a world with a sense of history and plenty left to discover
- BEST ATMOSPHERE: Durinde, for the cozy atmosphere present in the first half of the story
- BEST DRAGON: Durinde, for the cutesy and cat-like Green


> Dragons by Wiggy
I ended up reading this out loud in a pseudo scottish accent for some reason. Poetry isn't really my thing, however, and the line length and weight seemed off to me, making this a bit of a slog to read. A for effort, though many of the lines didn't seem to rhyme. I guess that's more of a modern poetry thing?


> Dragon's Guardian by Sinitrena
Impressive. All around impressive amount of work went into this tale. I really hope you take the time to clean it up and, perhaps, expand it out in the future.

Sadly I will not be voting for it in any of the categories, despite you surely deserving several of those votes in the strict sense of the competition rules. The reason for this is the length. There is no real rule or guideline about this, but personally I feel that fortnightly stories should be kept to a reasonable length, so that they might draw in readers and voters from people who did not participate. If one or more stories are of such overwhelming length and complexity that they turn away potential casual readers, I fear it might detract from the voter pool of the competition. Imagine if we had 10 participants who all wrote stories of your caliber! We'd need another fortnight just for the voting process! I hope this makes some sort of sense, and you can forgive me for taking such a harsh stance, despite it possibly seeming unfair. I know I struggle to keep my stories from overflowing in lenght sometimes, and I am pleased to see your work growing in size as it provides more potential for advancement of your writing. Perhaps stories of such length should not be contest entries, however, or they should be cut down for purposes of the contest and then expanded later elsewhere? Not having to bow to a deadline would allow you to edit and refine these tales further, turning them into something much more. You clearly have potential for that!


> Green And Me by Durinde
The story is distinctly divided into two segments. First off is a part of cozy, warm and comfortable descriptions of Green acting like a sort of draconic housepet. I very much enjoyed the mental image of this, and the description here was fantastic. The latter half of the story was a flashback into, I'm sad to say, boredom. After a fantastical setup that invoked all sorts of warm, fuzzy feelings in my tired soul, reading up about a coincidental meeting during a car repair trip seemed like a downer by comparison. Rather than reading about dragons I ended up, for most of the story, reading a conversation between people who were not very interesting. Especially compared to dragons. In my opinion the story should have focused more heavily on Green's daily life and the story of how Green came into the possession of Alec should have been reduced to a shorter, less important sidenote, as now it serves only to drag out the story, turning it from fantastical to mundane.


> Quest For Concord by Baron
Well, that story did not go the way I expected it to, but then again the nature of it had me quite uncertain of HOW it was about to go, anyway. There was history here, but too little of it was made clear and understood, or maybe I just lacked the imagination to piece it together. I did like the language here, though, and the two characters were quite interesting, although the dragon ended up something of a non-character due to the brief appearance and abrupt ending of the story. There is potential here, but this one needed a bit more time in the oven, dear Baron. It's not quite done!

[Ponch]

BEST CHARACTER: Baron
BEST WRITING: Wiggy (I'm terrible at poetry and tip my hat to you)
BEST STORY: Sinitrena
BEST ATMOSPHERE: WHAM
BEST DRAGON: Wiggy

[Frodo]

Sorry for the delay guys, I've been really busy. 

My Thoughts:

Hard Bargain by Wham
Poor Ferrungis, I kinda feel sorry for him.  The mighty dragon, reduced to obeying laws, worrying about fines, and being tormented by everyone.  And the resentment is just bubbling under the surface. 
I love your descriptions - I could really imagine myself walking down that road with Ferrungis (although he would probably hate that, lol), and in the market with Mabel.  A brilliant entry! 



Dragons by Wiggy
It's nice to see a bit of poetry, since it stands out from the other stories.  And kudos to you for writing about something that's obviously personal to you (flying jets).  However, I found mixing dragons with planes rather confusing.  Yes, I know they both fly, but I still found it rather odd.  Brilliant effort, though. 



Dragon's Guardian by Sinitrena
Wow!  Just Wow!  This is an amazing story!  I love how you convey what the dragons are feeling, especially Chradragshza.  And I love the relationship between Chradragshza and the Guardian.  Layim, who started out as the nasty thief, ended up risking his life to safe the baby dragon.  Whether that's down to the dragon's magic, or Layim gradually understanding the dragons, I don't know.  But I love how he develops over the story.  I got so involved with the story, and really felt little Fschvuch's pain. 
You say you shortened the story?  I'd love to see the full version sometime. 



Green And Me by Durinde
Genetically engineered pet dragons is an interesting idea, and I love how 'Green' snuggles up on the bed with Alec every morning, just like a pet cat.  But then the story shifts focus, and becomes a story about a maintenance worker in a park.  The dragon aspect of it seems forgotten.  Sorry Durinde. 



Quest For Concord by Baron
I get the sense that this story takes place in the far-distant future, in a world devastated by war.  The 2 women are searching for the ancient dragons, in order to save the human race.  The dragon comes across as really powerful and knowledgabe, which I love.  But then the story seems to end kinda suddenly.  It seems like it could be fleshed out more.  Is the dragon going to give the orb to Debbie, then leave her to it?  Is he going to become her 'guide', and help her save the world? 




- BEST CHARACTER:  Layim by Sinitrena.  I love how he changed from only wanting to steal the dragon egg, to wanting to help the dragons. 

- BEST WRITING:  Hard Bargain by Wham.  I could really picture myself in that world, with Ferrungis. 

- BEST STORY:  Again, Dragon's Guardian by Sinitrina.  Fantastic story of man and dragon co-existing.

- BEST ATMOSPHERE:  Dragon's Guardian by Sinitrena.  You really pulled me in, and tugged at my heart-strings. 

- BEST DRAGON:  Hmmm, a hard choice for me.  Ferrungis or Chradragshza?  Both are brilliant dragons, in completely different ways.  But I'll go with Chradragshza.  Such a powerful beast, yet so gentle with her guardian. 


************************************************************

So by my count, the final votes are:

First Prize, with the Golden Dragon, goes to Sinitrena, with a very impressive 12 votes. 



Second Prize, with the Silver Dragon, going to Wham, with 7 votes.



Third Prize, with the Pink Dragon, going to Baron, with 6 votes.
   


Thanks again to everyone who participated.
Over to you, Sinitrina. 

[WHAM]

Congrats on the win, Sinitrena! An impressive amount of work well rewarded!

[Sinitrena]

Thank you all for the votes and kind words, guys.

The next round is coming right up.

[Baron]

Congratulations Sinitrena!

[Wiggy]

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep;
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Oh crap! That doesn't meter Terrance!
That doesn't matter Phillip!
It's from a Robert Frost poem - one of the best in the 20th Century
"On a walk through the dark woods"
But if it doesn't meter, yet it's good Terrance, that means that I
don't know my arse from my elbow!
Here, Phillip - pull my elbow!
PPPPHHRRRRAAAT! Hahahahahahahahaha!
<you don't think it's supposed to be about the content, do you?>
Pull my elbow again!
PPPPHHRRRRAAAT! Hahahahahahahahaha!