Fortnightly Writing Competition: What a Thief Can See - Contest Over

[WHAM]

Votes must be submitted by the following deadline: 5th March 2021 - 23:59:59 UTC

Tonight! Quick! Hurry, hurry! 

[Ponch]

Best technical writing quality: Sinitrena
Best overall story Baron
Best secret or event revealed Mandle
Best individual character KyriakosCH

[KyriakosCH]

I didn't have much time, but I did read the stories...

My vote is going to be nearly identical to Ponch, the only exception being the last category

So:

    Best technical writing quality: Sinitrena
    Best overall story: Baron
    Best secret or event revealed: Mandle
    Best individual character: Mandle

I also felt that it would be good to have each of the contestants get a nod.

Now to the stories, Mandle's at first reminded me a bit of Lord Dunsany's Nuth - not very surprisingly, given Nuth was a master burglar and Dunsany used egyptian figures at times. Sinitrena's was the more realistic, with a movie-like twist, and Baron's isn't my cup of tea but I liked the vitality.

Now, if you will forgive me for saying this once again: I really would prefer if we could have some kind of more realistic word-limit in these contests, since (granted, this is just about me, so you don't have to take it into account ^_^ ) I do find it very hard to read large stories! (maybe it is due to my work; fatigue from reading, including stuff people send me for seminars)

[WHAM]

It was a close one this time around! Each of the stories got their fair share of love, but in the end we have a winner!

1st place: Tut-Tut by Mandle
2nd place (shared): The man of the stairways by KyriakosCH and Ice Under Fire by Baron
4th place: Ben’s Rum by Sinitrena


Thanks to everyone for participating. I hope you all had fun with the theme.
Looking forward to what you come up with for our next fortnight, Mandle!

[Sinitrena]

Now, if you will forgive me for saying this once again: I really would prefer if we could have some kind of more realistic word-limit in these contests, since (granted, this is just about me, so you don't have to take it into account ^_^ ) I do find it very hard to read large stories! (maybe it is due to my work; fatigue from reading, including stuff people send me for seminars)

For a general rule for all FWC I really don't like this. There's a challange in writing for a topic and there's a challange in writing a maximum number of words. Both is fine and both can be combined, but I think the main focus here is on the topic and the rest should be up to the writer.
Unless it's a rule of one specific topic, and that is always up to the current admin. But limiting word count in general would make me far less inclined to write.


Congratulations, everyone, see you next round.

[WHAM]

While I tend to try and limit the length of my own stories in this contest, I see no reason to ask others do the same.
However, at the same time, I feel it only fair that the readers and voters might decide to focus less on stories they feel are overtly long, which then means those stories might have less of a chance of earning votes from such readers.

[Baron]

Congratulations, Mandle!

Sinitrena's secret was the most authentic, but I admit I had to do more than a little research of her previous stories to really arrive at that aha! moment.   

I'm curious what kind of aha! moment you had that required further information than provided in this story. The fact that the juweller is (was) a burglar is the secret that's supposed to be there and that is something Ben figures out rather quickly (and maybe a little too easily, considering he's plastered) and the reader might figure out. Yes, there are connections to the other stories, mainly that the juweller has shown up before (chronologically later) and what his name is, but other than that just some tiny things you could have known before, like the fact that Rachel and Ben are siblings, which is obviously not a secret or anything.
I mean, one might not get it immediately what the plans are that Ben finds, but once he asks the juweller if he's a thief and he admits it, there's really nothing left to figure out.
I'm confused. 

So I got that the wheelchair guy was a thief, or rather used to be.  But then at the bottom of your post you mentioned that I *might* remember some of the characters from previous stories, which I kinda only half did (2015 was a long time ago - I can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning  ).  So I had to skim several stories to remember who exactly the characters were and how they fit together.  And then I was like, "Aha!", that's who they are!     But then, for me, the important thing that the thief sees was no longer the plans in the apartment heist, but rather his future thief-mentor. But I only knew that in the context of the other stories, and so I didn't feel the reveal as related within this one story was as strong.    I hope that makes sense, it's been a long day.

Hope to see everyone out again next time!

[Sinitrena]

I see. I would argue that you can to some degree infer from this story alone that there might be a future mentorship in the picture but it's obviously clearer reading the next story. I would also argue that this is not important to the outcome of this story, as the important part is not how exactly their future relationship will look like, but that the juweller takes non of the actiones teased (calling the police, shooting Ben) but that they do come to some kind of agreement. This information is in the story itself and does not require any further reading. But I do see how having the information could make the end feel stronger, yes.


By the way, have we lost Mandle to a life of crime? He didn't vote (kinda normal for him) but he also hasn't acknowleged his win?

[Mandle]

Oh, hell, I've actually been away for a few days because I actually started writing a novel... GASP IN AWE ALL YOU PUNY MORTALS!!!

Naw, jk, it's gonna be terrible... But I gotta at least give it a shot to be able to say that I did and all that.

SHIT! I won! THANKS! New topic coming up soon.