First Official Facepunch Writing Competition! Fabulous Prizes! - General

[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6092109/banner.png[/img] :siren:[highlight][B][I][U]HOLY SHIT[/U][/I][/B][/highlight]:frogsiren: [B]WINNERS ANNOUNCED[/B] [url]http://www.facepunch.com/showpost.php?p=23897880&postcount=318[/url] Welcome, Facepunch, to our first writing competition! This is an event designed to lure our resident wordsmiths from their burrows and start contributing to the community further than simply making smartass posts and correcting grammar, as integral as these duties are to the facepunch community. If you have a talent for crafting interesting stories and believable characters, we want to hear from you! The more literate amongst you will have exactly ONE WEEK to write a piece that centres around the set theme, which will be different for each contest! [B]Genre:[/B] Fiction [B]Theme:[/B] Drama [B]Deadline:[/B] Wednesday 4th August, 2pm GMT. At this point no further submissions will be taken and judging will begin. [B]Story Format:[/B] A short story with a self-contained narrative. Should have a set beginning, middle and end. Recommended length: less than 2000 words. Note: If your story exceeds the recommended length, the judges are not obligated to continue reading. However, if you manage to sustain their interest, they may very well continue to the end. Going past 2000 words is a risk, but it may be worth taking. [B]Judges:[/B] Nigey Nige -Dazed- GhostG45 Penultimate Livewire2440 You will be judged on the following criteria: [B]Flow[/B] How well you immerse the reader in your story. To flow well, a piece of writing must be well-composed in terms of grammar and spelling. It should also show considerable skill in the use of imagery, metaphor, descriptive vocabulary and other advanced literary devices. In short, Flow requires you to paint a picture with words. More effective pictures are ones that provoke strong emotion. They can be beautiful, chilling or impressive. [B]Compelling Characterisation[/B] How well the audience can relate to your characters. This doesn't mean everyone should be a carbon copy of Garry or Mahalis or whoever. This just means that they should behave in ways that real people would do. If you place a volatile character in an oppressive environment, he should lash out violently. Place an insecure character in a tense social situation and watch him try to escape. A startlingly effective test can be found in this youtube video (pay close attention to 7:00 onwards): [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI[/media] [B]Narrative[/B] This is simply how compelling your story is. No-one's expecting you to be original. Everything under the sun has already been done a thousand times over. Everything you ever write will be a hybrid of every movie you've ever seen and every book you've ever read. That's okay! The real test of a writer is how well he can retell the same old story. You aren't a creator - you are a storyteller. [B]Compelling Themes[/B] If you can tackle a relevant social issue or question something important - attitudes to life and death, individual philosophy, ideas on the human condition - you will be catapulted to the upper echelons of storytelling. The best entries are likely to do this. [B]We must emphasise that judging literature is not an exact science, and as such we cannot guarantee complete objectivity.[/B] To give you some idea of what we're looking for, here's a short example story that attempts to fill all four categories: [quote=Nigey Nige]Crack? Okay, so I'm sitting at my desk. That's established, that's safe. I look at my hands. One on the mouse, check. One resting on ASDF, check. What's wrong, then? I scout out towards the edges of my vision. Blurry. Blue frames. Still got my glasses. Good. I blow a small amount of air through my nostrils. Sinuses still blocked. I can feel the slight itch in my groin where my boxers have ridden up. My right eyelid flickers involuntarily (I should get that checked out at some point) and I have an urge to scratch my scalp. Everything seems normal. Okay, so what gives? I look back at my computer screen, squinting past the slight glare. Behind my own pale reflection I can still see it. A crack. It wasn't there a second ago. There hasn't been a crack on my screen in all the years I've worked here. I should know, I'm very fastidious with my belongings. And the office's belongings. I cast a glance at my plastic stationery holder. My son made that in class. I have photos of him in my wallet, posing on family holidays. My wife too, smiling. With her mouth. I smile voluntarily. With my mouth. My gaze returns to the screen. The crack is still there. My face returns to default. Suddenly I don't feel like holding those muscles taut. Somewhere a coffee machine burbles into life. I push the mouse along the desk. There is an irritating lag as it jitters over the polished surface. No response. I sit back in my chair. I wonder what my wife is doing. It's almost three. She's probably at home. I picture her face. It's female. For some reason I can't bring any other features to mind. I think about my son. He'll be in a lesson, wearing his school uniform. That's easy; black blazer, green tie, white shirt. I know his hair is black. Brown? Black. I frown. My monitor flickers, out-of-focus, in the corner of my sight. My mouth is dry. I try to sniff through my blocked sinuses. I swallow saliva. My gaze settles back on the screen. I pick at the dry skin on my knuckles as my eyes drift out of focus. I can't see past the glare on the surface, except for that thick black line, running jagged across the centre. The monitor continues to flicker on and off irregularly. Is it getting faster? The sun moves behind a cloud, suddenly casting a shadow over the office. Hang on. The blinding glare from the varnished desk is gone. I can see the material underneath. Plastic? I sit up straight. This is weird. I've worked here for long enough to know what my desk is made of. I look around. The warm golden sheen has been stripped from everything. The carpet isn't blue any more. It's a flat grey. My tie now matches my shirt, my trousers, my jacket. My hands. More cracks start appearing in the surface of the screen. It stutters and dies. A hot prickling sensation rises in my chest, quickly washing over my whole body. Painfully. I can no longer remember my wife's name. Do I have a son? My eyelids are heavy. I force them open. My mind starts grinding up to speed. What was I doing again? Don't know. A voice. "Hey, John! are you alright?" John? No, that's not my name. What is my name? Don't know. Need air. Need to think. I grab the cracked leather armrests and pull myself forward. My right eyelid starts twitching again. The prickles return. I grunt and pull myself to my feet. Vaguely aware of eyes on me. Thoughts tumble over one another in my skull, vying for attention. My eyes ache, like I haven't used them in years. I turn and bump past my old chair. Going somewhere. Anywhere. Out. I see cracks in the walls, almost hidden by paint. Cornflower blue. Cracks in the ceiling. A wonder it hasn't collapsed already. It starts to rain outside. I walk past cubicles I don't recognise, people sitting inside I've never met. Goddammit, what was my son's name again? Wait, I have a son? The rain picks up, softly whooshing against the floor-to-ceiling windows. I will my eyes to stay open, resisting the three O' clock caffeine-crash. Something is straining in my chest. A sudden ache in my right wrist. The hot prickling won't stop. My sinuses. The boxers. That fucking eyelid. Frustration builds. I'm itchy all over. Cotton mouth. Tie is twisted. THAT FUCKING EYELID. I claw at my face, holding my head in my hands. My glasses slide over my nose and bend. Slowly, I pull my head back and force them back onto the bridge of my nose. There is a quiet crack as the lenses pop out of the frame. People are peering over their cubicle dividers. Don't care. All I care about is the clusterfuck of thoughts in my head. Words like Wasted, words like Slave. Words expand and fill my consciousness, squeezing and boiling in my brain. Machine. Only now am I aware of the barriers they flood over in my mind, barriers that have held steady for years, finally collapsing. I open my eyes. They were closed? I see cracks. My glasses. I cracked them. It's too much. Got to get out. Got to get free i stagger sideways eyes going left right looking searching WASTED LIFE rain getting heavy lashing against windows people staring people talking i fall against something cold hard glass Crack. I draw back. free A giant floor-to-ceiling window is fractured right up the centre. free The rain drowns everything out. It throws itself at the building with relentless fury, as if trying to scour it clean. I want to be clean. I want to be outside. I want free I throw myself forward, arms outstretched in fists. The glass caves before me. It bursts into a sea of glittering razors. They sting. I fly. Outwards. Into space. Suddenly everything is quiet. Not John. I smile. With my face.[/quote] [B][highlight]FABULOUS PRIZES:[/B][/highlight] [highlight]Runner-up:[/highlight] A choice between [B]Commandos 2 or Geometry Wars[/B] on Steam. [highlight]Second place:[/highlight] A choice between [B]KOTOR or Jedi Outcast[/B] on Steam. [highlight]First place:[/highlight] A choice of [B]any Steam game[/B] for under [B]£15 GBP or $25 USD.[/B] [highlight]Tara Gilesbie Award:[/highlight] FUCKING NOTHING. Awarded for outstanding poor quality. Public humiliation may follow as a result. [B]Notes on presentation:[/B] You should submit your stories through Google Docs to [B]fpwriting@gmail.com[/B]. There is a guide in the following posts. We recommend using OpenOffice. Posting in this thread for advice, or to show drawings of your rival competitors wearing female clothes, is highly encouraged. DO NOT post WIP stories or any extracts thereof anywhere until the contest is over. Plagiarism will result in a total shitstorm that will likely cause mass bannings. Remember! [B]Genre:[/B] Fiction [B]Theme:[/B] Drama [B]Deadline:[/B] Wednesday 4th August, 2pm GMT. At this point no further submissions will be taken and judging will begin. Good luck, and have fun! The contest starts....NOW! Final note: if you have some writing you want to share with the world for whatever reason, any kind of writing, please feel free to post it in this thread! With all these writers congregated you're bound to get some great feedback. Plus, we'll be posting the winning stories here next week, so check back soon! Final final note: my personal advice: write your story, then read a book very closely. Then rewrite your story, using what you've learned. Repeat.

Your stories are meant to be short, so you need to have a way to be descriptive, yet remain in the space of up to 2000 maximum words. You need to find a way to make us be interested in your character from the very beginning, If we find your character boring, emotionless or just plain dumb, then don't expect to get first place by any means, this is a biggie so get it right. Another thing to take a good look at is dialogue, and how your characters communicate with one another, We write differently to the way we speak, so naturally, when we write we do it differently, a good way to check your dialogue choices is to speak them aloud, A violent character that says fuck every few seconds does not tell us that he is angry and aggressive, it just makes it annoying to read. So try to refrain from this and find some other way to explain your characters through speech, It is your story however, and it is up to you to find the perfect mannerisms for your characters, but first consider how you are doing so, as bad dialogue and plain awkward characters are going to take a toll on your overall score. And good luck!

We are somewhat strict on how we are accepting entries, so here's a mildly condescending guide for you ^-^. If you need to do it a different way we're here to help. Just email us your concerns and we'll address them promptly :siren: [b]DO NOT POST YOUR STORY IN THIS THREAD. YOU WILL NOT BE BANNED FROM THE COMPETITION, BUT YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED (in a bad way).[/b] :siren: [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/fpguide1.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/fpguide2.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/fpguide3.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/fpguide4.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/fpguide5.jpg[/IMG] You can go back to your google docs page to edit any time you want before the competition ends.

i dont get the google thing can you do it with color codes?

If you don't have Microsoft word, a great, free one is OpenOffice. It's found at openoffice.org (obviously).

Amazing idea. I'm pondering about entering the contest, because I have considerable lingual skills, the problem is that I have them on my native language... But with a dictionary at my disposal, giving it a try shouldn't be a problem. :v:

Post-Apocalyptic Drama. Well, I'm outtie. Good luck to those who submit entries, but this isn't a theme I have much interest in holding to. I'll be cheering from the sidelines.

We will not over impose on grammar, If we deduct points solely on grammar it is not fair. A story that has great plot and characters, does not deserve to be ripped apart because the grammar is not perfect, As long as it is readable, you have a good chance.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;23670988]Post-Apocalyptic Drama. Well, I'm outtie. Good luck to those who submit entries, but this is not a subject which interests me.[/QUOTE] Yea, we had a hard time deciding on what to do. We wanted something that would engage as much of our population as we could for the first time around, but we also wanted to keep it simple. We didn't want to overestimate how many people would join into the different genres and we didn't want to underestimate the workload on the judges. If this goes well, you can expect more genres and other themes in the future!

Once upon a time, joe the retarded eel was walking along, Humming his favorite song- when suddenly he heard a earth rattling crack. It was a Nuke. All of a sudden joe had a heart attack and died. I want portal 2 when it gets released in a couple years.

Post-Apoc drama? Nice. I wasn't going to enter, but seeing as I already have an idea (nothing written down yet) I may aswell have a crack at it.

This is my story.

Shit gmail? Now I have to open another email account. Yay. :rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;23671126]Shit gmail? Now I have to open another email account. Yay. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE] Remember, we're willing to accommodate. Email us and well work something out.

i submitted my zombie story. I don't have a Gmail account so i just sent in my story.

[QUOTE=-Dazed-;23671044]Yea, we had a hard time deciding on what to do.[/quote] It went something like this, to give you a good idea: "All right, so what genre/theme?" "Comedy fiction." "But I like fantasy more." "Well how about-" "POST APOCALYPTICA!" "What?" "But what about people who post post-apocalyptica humor, rather than drama?" <insert long heated discussion about judging humor to drama, and how it's impossible.> <insert conclusion that the theme is post-apocalyptica drama> Five minutes later... "YOU'RE A FUCKING WIZARD HARRY." Don't ask we how got to that, but that's basically how it happened. [QUOTE=Garb;23671090]Once upon a time, joe the retarded eel was walking along, Humming his favorite song- when suddenly he heard a earth rattling crack. It was a Nuke. All of a sudden joe had a heart attack and died.[/quote] But Joe was the nuke. Also, good luck to everyone who enters. I sort of regret signing up as a judge because I'd feel like I'd do good with this theme, but I decided being incredibly harsh on other people's work will make me feel better about my own writing flaws.

[QUOTE=-Dazed-;23671142]Remember, we're willing to accommodate. Email us and well work something out.[/QUOTE] No, it's fine. I don't really mind making another one. [editline]lol[/editline] Wow, I had a gmail account I forgot about. Awesome.

Can those who [i]do[/i] submit a story post it in this thread as well?

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;23671185]Can those who [i]do[/i] submit a story post it in this thread as well?[/QUOTE] Ah, thank you for bringing this up. We would prefer not. We won't ban you from the tournament, but you will be remembered. It just doesn't seem appropriate for a competition.

-snip-

Once upon a time, there were/was a [B]nuclear war/zombies/global warming[/B]. A [B]lone hero/heroine/heroin addict[/B] must travel a vast distance through an [B]abandoned mall/barren wasteland/the deep south[/B] and do a great many [B]good deeds/quests/bitches[/B]. Along the way, this person encounters [B]zombies/rednecks/raiders/robots[/B], but perseveres. In the end, the [B]lone hero/heroine/heroin addict[/B] decides to give [b]his life to save the human race/his loved ones for the greater good/his money to a hooker[/B]. All is well in the [B]abandoned mall/barren wasteland/the deep south[/B], the end. [editline]07:35PM[/editline] do i win?

my story is on my blog. if you want to read it just pm me. it's about zombies.

[QUOTE=GhostG45;23671179]It went something like this, to give you a good idea: "All right, so what genre/theme?" "Comedy fiction." "But I like fantasy more." "Well how about-" "POST APOCALYPTICA!" "What?" "But what about people who post post-apocalyptica humor, rather than drama?" <insert long heated discussion about judging humor to drama, and how it's impossible.> <insert conclusion that the theme is post-apocalyptica drama> Five minutes later... "YOU'RE A FUCKING WIZARD HARRY." Don't ask we how got to that, but that's basically how it happened.[/QUOTE] See, when you guys were talking "theme," I imagined something a little more general. Something like "Horror" or "Drama" or "Comedy." I think telling people the setting and tone that they [i]have[/i] to use in their story is gonna bite ya' in the ass. I hope this takes off for you guys, but I fear that having such tight restrictions on creative freedom will smother creativity, and that you folks are going to end up with just a few forced stories with no real heart.

Does it have to be drama?

Post-apocalyptic drama? Why did you decide to go with a theme? Honestly, no theme would be better. Prepare for an onslaught of STALKER Fanfics, lol.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;23671285]See, when you guys were talking "theme," I imagined something a little more general. Something like "Horror" or "Drama" or "Comedy." I think telling people the setting and tone that they [i]have[/i] to use in their story is gonna bite ya' in the ass. I hope this takes off for you guys, but I fear that having such tight restrictions on creative freedom can smother creativity.[/QUOTE] We have the common opinion that having lose restrictions hampers our ability to fairly judge. Also, given the short time span, having a more specific theme pushes things along faster, we hope. In all honesty, though, we don't know what to expect. We're hoping that the prizes will get people to write some fine pieces of work that will inspire future competitions. Frankly, we would like to do more, but we don't have the manpower/money to include all that we want to include. For now, this will have to do, but we would truly love for this to take of to a more interesting and creatively inspiring future.

I think that some guidelines can be good, having to adapt a bit to something can be a good thing for creativity. I'd keep the limitations to just Post-Apoc setting, leave tone up to the writer.

Done. [editline]07:43PM[/editline] DOOM: Repercussions of Evil John Stalvern waited. The lights above him blinked and sparked out of the air. There were demons in the base. He didn't see them, but had expected them now for years. His warnings to Cernel Joson were not listenend to and now it was too late. Far too late for now, anyway. John was a space marine for fourteen years. When he was young he watched the spaceships and he said to dad "I want to be on the ships daddy." Dad said "No! You will BE KILL BY DEMONS" There was a time when he believed him. Then as he got oldered he stopped. But now in the space station base of the UAC he knew there were demons. "This is Joson" the radio crackered. "You must fight the demons!" So John gotted his palsma rifle and blew up the wall. "HE GOING TO KILL US" said the demons "I will shoot at him" said the cyberdemon and he fired the rocket missiles. John plasmaed at him and tried to blew him up. But then the ceiling fell and they were trapped and not able to kill. "No! I must kill the demons" he shouted The radio said "No, John. You are the demons" And then John was a zombie.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;23671285]See, when you guys were talking "theme," I imagined something a little more general. Something like "Horror" or "Drama" or "Comedy." I think telling people the setting and tone that they [i]have[/i] to use in their story is gonna bite ya' in the ass. I hope this takes off for you guys, but I fear that having such tight restrictions on creative freedom will smother creativity, and that you folks are going to end up with just a few forced stories with no real heart.[/QUOTE] You might be right, there. Quick change needed, I think. [editline]12:47AM[/editline] POST APOCALYPTICA? I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT

:siren: We've listened to your concerns and noted them fairly. SINCE this is our first effort at such a grand feat we will be making THIS ONE AND ONLY CHANGE to our guidelines. We will be broadening the challenge to ALL DRAMA ENTRIES. We want to make this accessible but we DON'T want to hamper your creativity. Expect no further changes for this competition, we DO NOT want to be switching rules on you every ten minutes. That helps no one. Thank you for your support! :siren: Thank you :3: