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(I post this with the blessing of Russ)

On behalf of the Mod Team over at Imp-Lit, I would like to invite you all to participate in our Winter Fiction Contest 2006/2007. I know there are some fantastic authors within the Dakka midst and it would be great if you can enter some work and perhaps bring back some of the spoils to the Dakka website.

http://www.imperial-literature.net/viewtopic.php?t=1203

If you have any questions about the contest please feel free to drop me a PM here or at Imp-Lit or an e-mail: -

gav@imperial-literature.net

Many thanks folks.

Brannick

Are any of you folks going to have a crack at this contest?

I'm tempted.

been working on a short story for a few months prehaps i will post here first

I will win the acolyte award.

@ Tinfoil/Upliftingprimer - you gotta be in it to win it

@ Chuckyhol - strong words indeed, but I like the gusto 'tude - look forward to reading your story.

i'll have a crack

EDIT ++ Im Cetaganda on your site. My stories been submitted.

Posted By Shaman on 12/06/2006 2:28 AM
i'll have a crack

That's the ol spirit, Shaman

So, are any of you putting together an entry or 2 for this contest? If so, how goes it?

I'm working on a story that I'll be posting in the near future, but it won't be part of the contest. The "use one of the following excerpts" is not really my style, and all of the choices present don't really fit into the story I'm working on.

Posted By whitedragon on 01/03/2007 8:19 PM
I'm working on a story that I'll be posting in the near future, but it won't be part of the contest. The "use one of the following excerpts" is not really my style, and all of the choices present don't really fit into the story I'm working on.

We have made the contest in that nature to challenge the authors, as the prizes on offer are large. We certainly want folks to have earned their prize(s) for sure.

Brannick I love the idea and I think such contests are always a good thing however I don't agree with this including an extract business.

For a start it isn't an extract (I was expecting a few lines or a sentence at most) these are paragraphs and some are very large paragraphs at that. Moreover the writing style is very established in these and it is unfair I feel to force someone to change/alter their writing style to accomodate what you have written.

If the idea is to concentrate on the story as you have said how can this work? For if someones original story and idea is different to these large chunks of compulsory text how does that promote or encourage originality?

My main issue is that it is flawed in two ways, firstly it will make bad writters better by leading them and force feeding them characters, dialogue, and settings. Secondly it will penalise good writters who may be able to produce written work that is to a higher standard than that which has been produced by mods etc.

Why not make the inputed text shorter and make the challenge to fit this smaller peice into the story, or just give a setting or scenario (a la Black Libraries Short Story Competitions)?

Having said that I hope the competition proves a success and that everyone who enters has fun. Best of luck to any Dakka posters who decide to take part.

Glad you like the idea Gundam.

Alas, the extracts (paragraphs) are the challenge that this particular contest asks of the author. This in turn will challenge the author to adapt their style just this once to meet the challenge. There are big prizes on offer so life is not meant to be a walk in the park to win them

The contests at Imp-Lit always offer a challenge, and this type of contest was run previously with much success, so, I cannot agree with your comments about it being flawed. The setting/scenario contests you suggest have been done a number of times, and I have taken on board your suggestion of the shorter text option, although the current longer text option is to also fit the text into the story too.

We do appreciate that not all contests will be to everyones taste, but that is just the nature of the beast.

Cheers

challenges like this which force authors to go in a particular direction are generally a good idea. I've been involved with others that enforced a topic, or title, or first line, or exact number of wordsand the resulting stories are surprisingly diverse. A lot of the fun is deliberately writing a story which fits the requirements but tries to be as original as possible - this also helps your chance of winning, as a boring proportion of entries really will be depressingly predictable...

I agree that the contest should be challenging and I also agree that using an extract is a nice challenge.

Its just not going to work with what I'm currently working on, hence I'm probably going to sit this one out.

@ Whitedragon - only an additional 750 words are required for an Imp-Lit entry! Maybe you could write your own story that wont fit the contest and also write a contest submission piece as a side project 

Hi folks, you have until the 28th February to submit your entry(ies) to me if you are participating within this contest.

So, that's a minimum of 750 additional words in 28 days = 26 words per day to produce an entry!

Many thanks

I guess it's too late to start now - maybe the next go 'round.

CK

Posted By Corpsman_of_Krieg on 02/01/2007 2:55 PM
I guess it's too late to start now - maybe the next go 'round.

CK

Definitely not too late CK.

You only need 750 additional words to form a minimum requirement entry.

You have 1 week left to submit your entries folks.

Cheers.

You have until 23:59:39 (GMT) on the 28th February to submit your entry(ies) folks.

Many thanks.