Fortnightly Writing Competition: Haunted House. RESULTS

[WHAM]

Character: Ponch

Plot: Sinitrena

Atmosphere: Sinitrena

Background World: Sinitrena

Word Choice/Style: kconan

Scariness: kconan

[Sinitrena]

Character: kconan
Plot: Ponch
Atmosphere: WHAM
Background World: LostTrainDude
Word Choice/Style: Ponch
Scariness: LostTrainDude

[LostTrainDude]

Character: Ponch
Plot: Sinitrena
Atmosphere: WHAM
Background World: Sinitrena
Word Choice/Style: Ponch
Scariness: kconan

Great run everybody!

[Baron]

....and that's a wrap for the voting.  Let me say that I was pretty impressed all around.  I really liked the descriptiveness of Sinitrena's style, and the creativity of her supernatural villains.  Special marks for embedding them within the historical fabric: I wonder how they were defeated/contained by the mid-1940s?  WHAM's blunt and laconic use of the language could not contrast more, but it was a powerful tale nonetheless.  I think he won hands down as the king of atmosphere this time around, just for the raw feeling that his short crisp sentences evoked.  Ponch seems to be exploring a theme recently.... and I must say, he's supremely adept at getting inside his protagonists' heads.  It's like he's channelling or something....  kconan's over-the-top gruesomeness reminded me of the spraying-gore horror films I remember from the 70s/80s, and the stereotypes-of-horror were a nice touch.  And LostTrainDude's psychological horror was gripping; I especially liked the ending.  Bonus marks for everyone but WHAM who picked up on the secret requirement to mention a specific car model ( ).  Good job, guys & gals!

But, in the end, we must separate the wheat from the chaff.  So, in no particular order, I give you the winners:

The golden house of horrors goes to Sinitrena, who garnered a decisive win with 11 points.  She's on some sort of writing roll, folks!

The silver house of horrors goes to kconan, who won by a whisker with 7 points thanks to his s-c-a-a-a-a-a-a-r-i-n-e-s-s!

  Third place is a statistical dead-heat between WHAM, Ponch & LostTrainDude with 6 points each, so....  I guess they all get to share in the glory equally! 

So in fact the wheat and the chaff remain united in the winner's circle after all: everybody wins!  Yayyyyy!  It's like one of those insanely egalitarian kiddie sport leagues that are all the vogue, only more interesting to watch due to the horror and the gore.... 

Be that as it may, I hereby relinquish the crushing burden of competition administration onto the worthy shoulders of Sinitrena.  I look forward to another riveting round in the next exciting instalment of....

...the Fortnightly Writing Competition!

[kconan]

...Bonus marks for everyone but WHAM who picked up on the secret requirement to mention a specific car model ( ).  Good job, guys & gals!

Haha, I think you mean me rather than WHAM.  I like to be overly specific at random times.

Fun stories and thanks for the running the competition Baron!

[WHAM]

Damn, and my first draft, which was written in 3rd person, began with the word "A 1999 Toyota Corolla strained in the thick snow, it's driver squinting to make sense of the snow-blurred chaos ahead of him..." Should have used that one instead.

Congrats to Sinitrena, once again!

[LostTrainDude]

Congrats everybody for their respective prizes!

...And I have to say... Ponch... I can't see a cat nor dog without thinking about "It's Douglas" anymore!

[Ponch]

And I have to say... Ponch... I can't see a cat nor dog without thinking about "It's Douglas" anymore!

Thanks! This is two stories in a row I've written with a dog as the main character. I may stick with this semi-winning formula from now on.

[Sinitrena]

I really liked the descriptiveness of Sinitrena's style, and the creativity of her supernatural villains.  Special marks for embedding them within the historical fabric: I wonder how they were defeated/contained by the mid-1940s?

Thanks. I wish I knew how they were defeated. Would be useful to know. Maybe they weren`t?


Thank you for all your votes. This was a good round. I enjoyed all your stories immensely. Hope to see you all in the next Fortnightly Writing Competition!