Competition: Variations on a theme 4 (World Cup)

Also Starring LeVar Burton

ToasterSparks wrote: »

Not me. Which is probably a bad thing!

I have the strangest way of finding a domestic violence theme in every story. :rolleyes: But I was damned if that was gonna be my entry. Although it might have won if I accompanied it with this picture.

That picture made me laugh - I'm totally against domestic violence, but it still made me laugh...

Antilles

Ha, I just started speed writing thinking I had 105 minutes left to submit. My piece will still be rushed, but I've had a last minute idea and I'm going to submit something after all.

angelll

Have around 400 words written so will send mine in tomorrow too

pickarooney

5 in, angellllll to make it 6 by midnight?

Oryx

Do you think its the word count, the subject or the fact that everyones watching the football that has kept entries low?

Mr E

Subject, I'd say.... I wasn't too pushed about it when it was decided, but I'm pretty happy the way my story turned out.

pickarooney

I'd say it's a mix of the subject (which nobody was really pushed about but the same was true of alternatives) and VOATer fatigue. With holiday season coming up we might take a break until September.

ToasterSparks

pickarooney wrote: »

I'd say it's a mix of the subject (which nobody was really pushed about but the same was true of alternatives) and VOATer fatigue. With holiday season coming up we might take a break until September.

No! I'm counting on VOATer fatigue to help me win. Don't give the talented people time to recover between stories!

Blush_01

Yay, we're all going to be awful together (except Mr. E, who's happy with his entry).

No summer breaks!

Well mine's poo, but since everyone else said there entry is poo too I'm bulking up the numbers. Lots of poo!

angelll

Crap still haven't written anything! Won tickets today for all three finals in croke park on sat,premium level seating. Can't find anyone to take them,lol, and don't want them to go to waste. Will give it another go and then write the story.

OxfordComma

I just submitted my story! I'm new to this, so please don't be too hard on me :pac:

pickarooney

Eight contestants now - just like in the real thing

Antilles

angelll wrote: »

Crap still haven't written anything! Won tickets today for all three finals in croke park on sat,premium level seating. Can't find anyone to take them,lol, and don't want them to go to waste. Will give it another go and then write the story.

Replace Croke Park with the World Cup finals and that has the making of an entry!

angelll

Lol, it's ok,they're gone now. Nearly finished my entry anyway,too late to change it. Will send it in soon.

The Mad Hatter

Submitted. Having doubts about it now, though.

Mr E

Yup..that's what I did!

(Edit: This was a reply to someone asking if it was OK to submit 2 PMs because the story was too long. They must have deleted their comment).

Blush_01

We should turn this into some sort of procrastinator's support group.

Hi, my name is Úna and I'm a procrastinator.

Mr E

Ah cool.... how about this one:

Blush 01 procrastinated about changing the competiton link in her sig, and now its nearly 2 competitions out of date.

Daemos

I'm thinking of submitting a late entry that describes the atmosphere in the stadium. It goes something like this:

Once upon a time...

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The End

Blush_01

Mr E wrote: »

Ah cool.... how about this one:

Blush 01 procrastinated about changing the competiton link in her sig, and now its nearly 2 competitions out of date.

Exactly! Except we point out our own flaws, not other people's!

The Mad Hatter

DaPoolRulz wrote: »

I'm thinking of submitting a late entry that describes the atmosphere in the stadium. It goes something like this:

Blush_01

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

See, this is why one thanks is never enough.

pickarooney

I meant to go to bed ages ago and now it's nearly 1am... again. Watch out for cut and paste chaos tomorrow morning.

Blush_01

Poor you - most of them probably didn't even fit into one PM, so you'll be doing twice the cutting and pasting!

Can't wait to read them, to be honest. It's like visual chocolate - little nibbles of other people's imagination. Yum!

pickarooney

Blush_01 wrote: »

Poor you - most of them probably didn't even fit into one PM, so you'll be doing twice the cutting and pasting!

Can't wait to read them, to be honest. It's like visual chocolate - little nibbles of other people's imagination. Yum!

I like that. Now change your sig, please :pac:

Blush_01

Yes Mr Pickarooney, sir!

pickarooney

The stories are up. Let me know if you see anything out of order (like two parts of different stories stuck together!).

Best of luck to everyone!

pickarooney

I just a first read through them. This is going to be very difficult to vote on - there's such a variety it's almost impossible to compare them.

Mr E

I agree. Great variety!

I'm surprised at the amount of "I've just sent mine but it's sh*t" comments earlier in this thread. The standard is high again!

ToasterSparks

Really diverse entries this time around. I've voted, but it seems so unfair to vote for one over the other - they're all good, so it'll depend on voters' genre preferences I think.

We really pushed ourselves for this one I think!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Won't get a chance to read any of the stories until Monday, but looking forward to seeing how everyone did...

pickarooney

Poll is a mess. Nothing tallies, hit and run voters, unregistered voters...

ToasterSparks

pickarooney wrote: »

Poll is a mess. Nothing tallies, hit and run voters, unregistered voters...

Well, that explains it then! I just assumed my story was awful, but clearly it's the poll's fault.

--amadeus--

pickarooney wrote: »

Poll is a mess. Nothing tallies, hit and run voters, unregistered voters...

Could it be to do with the fact this forum allows unregistered posting? In ART (and I think most other forums) if you aren't logged in you can't vote, all you see are the running totals. Here though, even if you are signed out you can still vote.

pickarooney

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Could it be to do with the fact this forum allows unregistered posting? In ART (and I think most other forums) if you aren't logged in you can't vote, all you see are the running totals. Here though, even if you are signed out you can still vote.

Ahh, that makes sense. I logged it as a possible bug that unregistered posters can vote (multiple times) but had overlooked the unregistered posting thing here. Votes should have to be approved in that case.

pickarooney

Conor sorted out the problem for us. No more anonymous voting from now on.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Not gonna be able to vote in this one unfortunately as I won't get a chance to read the stories before the poll closes... I'm sure they're all great though...

pickarooney

You can still give your feedback though; I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

pickarooney wrote: »

You can still give your feedback though; I'm sure it would be appreciated.

I will once I get the opportunity - life is really getting in the way at the moment, so it could be awhile before I get around to it...

pickarooney

Stupid life! :mad: Unless it's sex and drugs and travel life as opposed to work and drain-cleaning life.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

pickarooney wrote: »

Stupid life! :mad: Unless it's sex and drugs and travel life as opposed to work and drain-cleaning life.

It actually is the former sex, drugs (alcohol is a drug) and travel life, so I can't really complain...

pickarooney

Meanwhile VOAT version 5 is being discussed here for the time being. An official thread on it will go up, probably on Friday. In the meantime, use either this thread or the one linked above for ideas.

The Mad Hatter

I'd actually love another one-hour flashfic competition - really enjoyed writing that one.

pickarooney

Right, what kind of time frame and word count are people suggesting for the Bad Romance contest?

Should we be looking at full stories or just a few paragrpahs of awful literature?

Mr E

Carte blanche, pickarooney. Let people do what they want around the theme. Just set an upper word limit, set the theme, and maybe include the piece I quoted on that other thread as a possible example of a style to aim for.

Not sure about the "Bad Romance" title though.... you could end up getting some dark spousal abuse stories.... the fun side of it needs to be emphasised.

Oryx

Just put in a clause that misery lit will be disqualified.

pickarooney

Oryx wrote: »

Just put in a clause that misery lit will be disqualified.

No way, badly-written domestic violence could be hilarious. Couldn't it? No?
/hits backspace repeatedly

Anyone else got a sig idea? Something that gets across the notion of bad-for-the-sake-of-bad-but-funny.

Mr E

http://www.mamohanraj.com/Amusing/romance.html

pickarooney

I had forgotten about this line (which I just snipped from my book):

Wise words could not lighten the depressing anti-climax of their stillborn adventure. While their missed carriage made its slow way up the line to Aguas Calientes they turned to face the other direction.

I'm a natural!