Fortnightly Writing Competition: Robbie Burns Edition! RESULTS

[kconan]

Baron AKA Writing Comp Kommandant: I really want to vote once per so as to make vote counting easier and help avoid ties.  Also, its hard to trust a system where Stephen King is tied with Aesop 
Sinitrena: Yea, I rarely use subtle characters...Its something to work on if I care about variety in my stories.

Character: Ponch - I really like the main character and his weird line of thinking.
Plot: Sinitrena and Ponch.  Yea I fibbed on not choosing two, despite Ponch's being basic and short I like the meteor ray being literal.
Atmosphere: Sinitrena - Sinitrena knows this era of kings and noble houses, and enjoyed writing that story.
Background World: Sinitrena - I like the politics and conspiracy. 
Word Choice: Chef! - Short, but enjoyed the ryhmes.  Strangely, when I read this I actually heard beatboxing in the background in my head and the verses worked in an old school rap kind of way. 
Message: Adeel - The message is there loud and clear.

[Chef!]

Good voting system Baron.

Character.  Sinitrena, Kconan, Ponch. If I had to choose a best it would be Ponch's Ludwig.

Plot.  Sinitrena.  No one else has a story that even measures up in this category.

Atmosphere.  Kconan, Sinitrena, Ponch.  They were all good. For me Kconan's mass hostage taking crazy Burns quoting couple takes the cake.

Background world.  Sinitrena.  Again no one else came close.

Word choice.  Kconan.  I don't know if it was plagiarism putting all those verses and poems in there but it was clever nonetheless.

Message.  Adeel.  I think all your stories have good messages.  Keep it up.

[Ponch]

The voting system in the writing competition has become much too complicated. If I win, I'm doing away with voting altogether and winners shall be determined by reading tea leaves (or by arm wrestling contests, where possible).

Character: Kconan
Plot: Sinitrena
Atmosphere: Sinitrena
Background: (pass)
Word choice: Chef!
Message: Adeel (did anyone else even have a message? I feel like we should have been informed a message was a requirement before writing )
Best Use Of Google Translate: Ponch

[Baron]

The voting system for this competition gets progressively more complecated

Baron AKA Writing Comp Kommandant

The voting system in the writing competition has become much too complicated. If I win, I'm doing away with voting altogether and winners shall be determined by reading tea leaves (or by arm wrestling contests, where possible).

Good, good....  Feedback is always good.  I can feel us becoming better voters already.

Good voting system Baron.

That's the spirit!

All right, on to the results.  As I count the valid votes (nice try Ponch), the results are as follows:

Sinitrena: 9 votes
kconan: 6 votes
Ponch: 6 votes
Adeel: 5 votes
Chef!: 4 votes

Thus, our clear winner is: Sinitrena!  She wins the golden cuh : (Any resemblance to a biblical idol is entirely unintended).  I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the length of your entry, but the words raced by in an exciting and well-written mystery.  I was especially impressed with the catchy and realistic dialogue, and of course the captivating background world, which was explained just enough to make the story make sense and keep the reader interested.  Very well done!  At 7000 words you've created a very tight and well constructed story.  Have you considered pushing a bit further and making a novel out of this?  Also, does Castle DAB have anything to do with some liquid inspiration?

Second place must be shared by kconan and Ponch.  They must split the silver cuh solomonically down the middle: .  For kconan, I thought the setting and set-up of your piece was brilliant.  The characters were weirdly interesting, and although it was sometimes awkward I was very impressed with your creative ability to adapt Burns' words into your own context.  As for Ponch, I thought your story was very clever in a crazy cerebral kind of way.  Your wit and dialogue were as always superb, and like many others I was impressed by your uncanny ability to get into the arch-german character's head.  Special marks for the "home-made sweater of genius and deceit," my favourite line this comp.

Third place goes to Adeel.  He gets the bronze cuh all to himself: .  I think I've heard something resembling the grandmother's story before, but I thought making the sage old woman into a "cool-granny" was clever, and of course the lesson was unmistakeable.

And well... Chef!  I've got nothing for you buddy, but you were right in the running with the rest of them.  For me poetry is a tough sell, but I thought the back half especially was profound.  It's true the rhyme wasn't perfect, but orally it could work.

Well, that's it that's all, as they say.  I look forward to doing this again sometime (the writing bit, not the torture by democratic novelty... well, that too  ).  It's now Sinitrena's turn to start the process all over again.

See you all next time, for the next exciting instalment of...

...The Fortnightly Writing Competition!

[kconan]

My trophy:     Alternatively Ponch you can have the top half.  I can take the base for my non-existent signature trophy case.

Thanks for hosting Baron!

[Ponch]

Actually, Kconan, I'll take the front half of the sprite... like so...


And you can have the back half... like so...


There! Everybody wins!

Also, thanks for hosting, Baron. I could have stolen the election if it weren't for your devilishly complicated apparatus of democracy!

Spoiler

Also, it's Adeel, not Ameel.

[close]

[Baron]

Blast!  Fixed.

Also, thanks for hosting, Baron. I could have stolen the election if it weren't for your devilishly complicated apparatus of democracy!

Ponch is a little sore about not being able to implement his arm-wrestling idea.   But he's right in one respect: now is probably a good time to discuss voting. we've tried a few different methods lately -what do people think?  I mean, the only reason I can see to have the one vote per person method is to keep it simple to attract more of an electorate.  But since that simplicity doesn't seem to attract many (any?) extra voters, my personal preference would be a method that makes the voting a little more exciting and gives a little more feedback to the writers.  But now I step back from the brink of tyranny and throw the question to the people: what kind of vote would you like to see in the future?

[kconan]

But now I step back from the brink of tyranny and throw the question to the people: what kind of vote would you like to see in the future?

I like voters choosing a top 2, with the first one getting 2 votes and the second choice getting 1 vote.  This keeps vote tallying simple with less chance of ties.  But after mulling it over, I'm cool with the latest system provided there is only 1 vote per category - as feedback is always good.

So I vote on voting as follows:
1. Vote for top 2 writers; 2 points for 1st and 1 point for 2nd
2. Baron system with 1 vote per category and feedback optional

Oh almost forgot, I'd like to thank Ponch for literally giving me the cow's backside.  I specify "literally" because I just assume at some point in the past he figuratively gave me a cow bum.  Also, *shhhhh* never tell anyone about the cow bum trophy in the standardized trophy thread.

[Adeel]

First of all, I apologize for not being able to read the stories and vote this time. To somewhat relieve my guilt, I'm taking out the time to write this piece.

Secondly, congratulations to Baron for organizing the competition and implementing the voting system successfully and efficiently. It's by far, the best voting system I've ever seen.

Thirdly, a big thanks to everyone who voted for my story.

Also, congratulations to Sinitrena for winning this competition (I'm already visioning you in the hall of fame or are you there already? )

Moreover, congratulations to kcnonan, Ponch and Chef! for their excellent entries - if only I had the time to read each and every story.

@Ponch: A big thanks for pointing out the mistake. It would've been a great cause of regret for me if this mistake would've went unnoticed and this thread would have gotten locked. I owe a lot to you, man .

As for the voting system, my preference maybe found in the above paragraphs.

I may not be able to participate in the next round since I'm finding it difficult to manage my time between academic classes, part-time job and MAGS game. I only finished this story (and that too in a rush) because I had made a commitment.

About my story:
The story I submitted was intended to be the first part which was based on a fable but I changed the words to make it more interesting and decided to submit it as it is. I'm pleased that it got Third Place. Here's the summary of second, intended part that was opted out owing to the lack of time is:

   

Spoiler

Grandma gets angry with Joseph and Joan, insults them and sends them to their Grandpa. Grandpa asks if something is wrong. Joseph and Joan complain and say that Grandma's stories while having moral in them, are too far-fetched and / or unbelievable.
    Grandpa inquires the moral and tells them his personal experience where he learned this moral in a hard way. The kids are impressed and realize their mistake and apologize to their Grandma. Grandpa taunts Grandma and says: "There you go, grumps. Taught them in my way."
    Hearing this, Joan says: "Grandma isn't grumpy, Grandpa. You shouldn't say that." Joseph agrees and says: "Yeah, she's cool." To which the Grandpa says: "Had she weren't so cool, he wouldn't have married her in the first place!" Everyone laughs and the story ends.

[close]

[Chef!]

I think we should stay with this voting system. I like the feedback option but even without it you can see where your writing is strong and where it is weak.

[Sinitrena]

I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the length of your entry, but the words raced by in an exciting and well-written mystery.  I was especially impressed with the catchy and realistic dialogue, and of course the captivating background world, which was explained just enough to make the story make sense and keep the reader interested.  Very well done!  At 7000 words you've created a very tight and well constructed story.  Have you considered pushing a bit further and making a novel out of this?  Also, does Castle DAB have anything to do with some liquid inspiration?

Thank you for your compliments, especially about the dialogue. I always feel unsure when writing dialogue. Yes, I did consider writing a whole novel set in this world, that's why there are already two sequel hooks (how Lomin "destroys" Adaben and what is this prophecy he's talking about) and a lot of unexplained backstory there - a lot to work with. I had no idea that a beer called DAB exists - I had to google it just to understand what you are talking about. I'm not much of a beer drinker, I prefer mead.


As for the voting system: Every kind of system that generates some constructive critisism is good and I agree with Chef! that this system allows you to see your strong and weak points in writing no matter what. I'm not sure the categories work like that, though. Not all stories are supposed to have a message, not all poems have characters... Unfortunately, I have no better idea for different categories right now. Maybe I'll come up with something when it's time to vote in the next round, or maybe you all have some suggestions. I think we should at least try it a few more times. It certainly beats a voting system where you just get a few posts with only a name in them.


I'm off to go start the next round now.