WWYP XI- The Final Frontier

Overview
Welcome to the latest installment of the Write With Your Power contest! We've taken a little bit of time off to let everyone re-energize themselves and get their creative juices cooking again. Last contest, we had one of our largest turnouts ever, and there were many new faces who demonstrated their potential. But in the end, Vyse once again held off all challengers to win his third consecutive WWYP.

Now you've put your work out there, and it's time to step up to the challenge once again. Will Vyse continue his reign of terror in WWYP? Can one of our returning entrants topple this tyrant of type? Or will an unknown knight emerge from the depths of the boards to claim the title of SWF's best writer? There's only one way to find out!

The prompt for WWYP XI is:

Space.

For this contest, we're going to go in a different direction. The last topic generated alot of great stories, but it was a restrictive one. This time, we're leaving it wide open for you: You can write about aliens visiting earth, humans traveling the stars, asteroids hitting the planet, cultures in the furthest parts of the galaxy, anything at all, as long as it ties into the theme of outer space. Without the structure that some of the previous prompts have provided, the onus falls on you, the writer, to build something that will make the judges say "WOW!" But you can do it!

Onto administrative business:

Rules

1) NO PLAGIARISM- If your entry is found to be plagiarized, you will be banned from the contest and further repercussions will be enforced. Do not do it. Period.


2) Post your story in a thread before the deadline - Currently, the deadline is negotiable. I'm aiming for a month deadline (08/08/09), but that can easily be changed upon several requests. When you post your thread, make the title of the thread "WWYP XI -*Your Story Title Here*" and I will sticky it and you will be set. However, the stories will be locked at least by midnight on the deadline and you will no longer be able to edit them, so make sure you have it exactly the way you want it by the deadline. Also, post the word count at the beginning of your story just so we have a ball park estimate of how long it is.

Also in regards to this, CK and I have decided on having a "Set in Stone" date option. For those that have judged before, you know how hectic it is to get all of the entries done once the deadline hits. So, if you finish your story and PM me telling me your story is absolutely finished in every way shape in form, I will lock the thread and CK and I will judge it whenever we have the time and record the comments/scores. So there should be no difference in the final placings and CK and I will have an easier time judging

3) Follow the Word Limit - The word limit for this contest is between 1,000 and 2,000 words. These boundaries have a little leeway (if you have 2,200 words you're perfectly fine) but if you write a 10,000 word story then it will be taken into account in the judges placings. The word limit is there to help you learn how to edit your story and to make sure it doesn't branch out past the short story genre. Also, if you go over by a substantial amount it will hurt you significantly. Scores for each category in the rubric are not individually posted, but they are factored in and losing 1/4th of your score because you wrote an epic will probably knock you out of the top 3.

4) Have Fun - Really, the point of this contest isn't to just win or place, but to write something you enjoy and have a good time doing it. So try to place, but don't be discouraged if you just barely miss the cut.

And on line with the last rule, Crimson King and I decided to have an option available to new entrants that may be a little intimidated in entering a a writing contest for the first time. For them, they can have their story reviewed and critiqued by the judges but not actually have it scored against the other stories. If some one wishes to do this, just make the title of your thread "WWYP X - *Your Story Title Here* (NS)" so we know it is a Non Scoring entry.

Judging

Currently the judges are:
1) Virgilijus
2) Jam Stunna

He who must not be named will have no part in judging whatsoever.

The Judging Rubric

The judges will grade the stories based on the Scurvy Rubric, listed as follows:

Adherence to Prompt -
Virgilijus - How interwoven is your story to the guidelines? If the prompt were a genre, could some one read it and instantly know the prompt was fantasy or satire? If they can, you followed it well. If not, you avoided it too much. Also, the prompt should be well utilized: a story that requires a mythical object should use it for all its potential worth, not merely mention it and check it off the list.

Matt - These points should be easy to earn. How well did you engage the guidelines? Did you engage them creatively? Did you engage them with your power? If I ask you to use a gun in your story, will you give me knife? Take risks, but don't disregard our basic expectations.


Tone -
Virgilijus - The overall mood of the story; the feeling that you get when you read it. This is made up by the setting, characters, dialogue, and the imagery. Unless it is directed by the prompt, the tone for each story should be different, but they should all impact the reader. A good tone should get the reader immersed in the story, whether or not it is from blissful country sides or horrifying mad men. How real is your story in the readers mind?

S*** - Tone is made up of character (do your characters seem real? do they talk real? are they interesting), setting (Does your story have a sense of place? Of time? Are we always oriented?) and imagery (can we see what's going on?)


Style -
Virgilijus - This is what separates your story from others of the same plot. How do you describe people, actions, and places? What rhythm do your words have? How quickly do you move the plot? Style is your paintbrush to show why your painting of little girl is different and more powerful than some one else’s.

S*** - The most technical of the categories. Did you use proper spelling and grammar? Did you try to push the envelope with your sentence structure? Did you construct the plot in a significant manner? This category relies heavily on phrasing and specifics.


Enjoyment -
Virgilijus - Enjoyment is the immediate and long lasting appeal of your story. While we were reading it, was it a page turner? After we finished, did we sit and think about the theme or the final scene? Is your story an accomplishment, or just words with a beginning, middle and end?

Matt- An enjoyable story brings plot elements and theme and, frankly, everything listed above together in a way that is both memorable and engaging. We're talking about the WOW factor here, and these types of points aren't easy to earn.

The judges will only present the final placings of the contestants once the contest is over.

Awards

Due to the new "Free Avatars for Everybody" policy here at SWF, the awards have changed slightly.

1st Place - Smash Writer Status, Custom Title, and direct input into the next Contest
2nd Place - Smash Writer Status and a Custom Title
3rd Place - Smash Writer Status

Any questions? Concerns? Comments? Insults directed at S***? Ask away!

And remember to...

Write With Your Power!

Oooh, exciting! I don't consider myself to be much of a writer, but this sounds like fun.

New contest! FINALLY!

I look forward to participating!

I really like this prompt. I just have to finish what I've previously been working on, and then I'll start work on this.

Wow have you been planning this for a while or just write this up after I messaged you lol.

Wow I really don't like this prompt, but I'll try.

This looks wonderful. I haven't written in a while. Now to think about a prompt idea.

Okay, I've finished my story. It's within the word limit (@1,279 words) and I think it's... alright, at least.

The problem is, I'm not sure if I should put more time into it. I mean, the contest has started pretty recently, and most people put a lot of effort into their stories around here, but it seems like I may have rushed mine a bit. I let the idea sit in my head for a few days, but when it came to making up the actual story, it took just a couple of hours, maybe less.

What do you guys think?

You can edit it and do whatever else to it before the deadline so you might as well post it. But it probably sucks so you should just leave.......just leave.

lol jk.

Gee, thanks a lot.

Now my Grimer has to kill you, though.

From personal experience I find that once you post it as a thread on smashboards the willingness to edit the thing goes away. Maybe you're not like that, but I'd hold onto it as long as possible so you can edit it to just the way you want it. Editing on word is a lot easier than editing on smashboards I find.

I might enter.

I have a story, but I should focus on another project that I have been delaying for far too long.

Clownbot said:

Okay, I've finished my story. It's within the word limit (@1,279 words) and I think it's... alright, at least.

The problem is, I'm not sure if I should put more time into it. I mean, the contest has started pretty recently, and most people put a lot of effort into their stories around here, but it seems like I may have rushed mine a bit. I let the idea sit in my head for a few days, but when it came to making up the actual story, it took just a couple of hours, maybe less.

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

This is coming from my experience, but editing is the only thing that will make your writing better. If you've just finished it, give yourself a couple days. Come back to it, and then edit it. And yes, even if you think you've written the most mind-blowing story evaaar, there's always room for improvement.

Trust me on this one.

Thanks for the help, guys.

My story will probably be up some time next week (or a little later).

I can't get anything going on this. It seems like either the prompt is too vague or every idea I think of has already been made into a movie. Probably not gonna enter this one.

I'll work on something after I finish my Genesis write up.

I approve of this thread.

Amaze me, gentlemen

Mine is already up, and looking quite bad, if I does say so mah self.

Shoot! This is probably the best prompt ever! *Gets ready to write*

I might enter this, I most likely won't win, but I might as well try!

No big deal, man. The point is to have fun and improve your skills, amirite?

The biggest accomplishment here is to write a story. Even the more experienced writers (Scav, Matt, EE, etc.) all recognize that actually finishing a story is an accomplishment in itself. But it's also a fun, thought provoking accomplishment. Don't get bogged down by the competitiveness: just write and enjoy

Okay, I have something that would fit perfectly with this - but I've already written about one page. In fact, I posted it in creative minds about a week ago. As long as I don't use what I've already written, is it okay if I still use that idea?

If you want to continue on the idea with new prose, I think that is perfectly fine.

A man writing a space opera for a contest? Oh, sirrah, how deliciously absurd!

so since this will be my last chance i have to do this. (well at least for two years) oooo i am excited!

My story's looking pretty good so far, it might go to like 2,300 words or so, is that acceptable?

The word limit is between 1,000 and 2,000 words, but the rules say that there's some leeway (a story with about 2,200 or so is acceptable).

2,300 words is fine. Once you pass 3,000, it becomes a problem for me.

What categories do you subtract from, for stories that go a fair bit past the cutoff? I would hope just Adherence to Prompt.

Writing something for this, should be up soon.

Fair warning:

Evil Eye said:

What categories do you subtract from, for stories that go a fair bit past the cutoff? I would hope just Adherence to Prompt.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's the only one.

Oooh. I haven't posted in quite a while, I know, but this prompt really piqued my interest... I think I have a pretty good idea for it, too. Hmmmm...

I'm most def in this one to win this one

Might be entering Started working on a story but now it's starting to rapidly expand in my mind into something way longer than 2k words. Kinda cool how that works, actually. At least I'm writing a lot though <3

Crap, I found this waaaaaaaayyyyyyy late.

I'll see if I can't get something up within the next two weeks. We should extend the deadline to that Monday though. [August 10th]