Competition - Total Write-Off

Aoibheann

Killer_banana wrote: »

Haven't checked in here in ages. so happy to see I'm not the only one who left this late and ending up submitting a pile of crap. Writing competions, exams and quitting smoking really do not mix.

Ouch, you poor thing! I'm sure your story came out much better than you think, and I hope the quitting smoking and the exams both go well for you!

Blush_01 wrote: »

Aoibheann, hope the arms are feeling better!

Shorter deadline next time maybe? Since we're all going to procrastinate until the last minute anyway, why not make it less time consuming for Picka, hanging around waiting for the lot of us to get the lead out??

Physio post-exam on Friday, it shall be wonderful. Uniflu has also been my saviour today, or there would have been no story to whinge about!

I agree about the shorter deadline. I spent so much time thinking about the general idea of what I was going to write, when the actual topic was thought up at about 9.30pm tonight and written in approximately 2 hours. >_>

Oryx

So did everyone actually make the deadline?

Killer_banana

Oryx wrote: »

So did everyone actually make the deadline?

Well I was a few minutes late but I'm guessing that doesn't matter.

As for the exams, it's my own fault really since I got the theme well in advance and could have written and submitted it before they even started if I was in anyway sensible.

The quitting smoking's not so bad. I only really crave them when I'm stressed which I was last night. =P

Mr E

Mr Submitted-last-week here, just wondering what it would feel like to lose to one of the phew-just-made-the-deadline-but-its-awful people.

pickarooney

Unfortunately we have had a couple of no-shows but I'm trying to see can we parachute in some waiting listers to replace them. Otherwise some people will get a bye to the next round, so even if you spent five minutes hitting they keyboard with your shoe while hopped up on benzodiazepine you could still qualify.

I'll put the first pair up a little later today in any case.

pickarooney

Well, no time like the present.

The first head-to-head, on the theme of The Hunt, is now up here.

Voting runs for five days, is single-choice and the results are hidden until the poll closes.
Best of luck to BLACK and GOLD.


Edit: if anyone is able to make a decent sig pic, please do so

And please let me know by PM if there is anything wrong with the way your entry is posted (wrong code name, formatting messed up, all adjectives replaced by 'lepidopterous' etc.)

Antilles

My preference would be to parachute in people from the waiting list; give them three days to submit?

Oryx

pickarooney wrote: »

, so even if you spent five minutes hitting they keyboard with your shoe while hopped up on benzodiazepine you could still qualify.

It was ketamine and my head, but close.

Thanks for all your help with this Pick, we really couldnt do it without ya.

pickarooney

Antilles wrote: »

My preference would be to parachute in people from the waiting list; give them three days to submit?

I've given them 48 hours.

Aoibheann

I'm actually proud that I submitted something now, even though it sucks!

Going to love explaining any additional pain to my physio tomorrow.. "So, there was this writing competition on the internet, and I had two hours to write a story...".

pickarooney

I ended up with too many entries now... the last two head to heads will be put up a little later, probably Monday, as a result.

Aoibheann wrote: »

I'm actually proud that I submitted something now, even though it sucks!

Going to love explaining any additional pain to my physio tomorrow.. "So, there was this writing competition on the internet, and I had two hours to write a story...".

It seems like you're coming to us with your pain and going to your physio with your stories

smcgiff

If there are too many entries, i.e. say three for 'Home' could you put all three stories up for the vote. Top ranking one to go through?

pickarooney

smcgiff wrote: »

If there are too many entries, i.e. say three for 'Home' could you put all three stories up for the vote. Top ranking one to go through?

Do you work for the FAI?

smcgiff

pickarooney wrote: »

Do you work for the FAI?

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH over my head.

pickarooney

Lightbulb?

smcgiff

Ah - totally obvious

pickarooney

War has been declared.

azzeretti

Pickarooney - how many are you going to put up today? Just the 2?

pickarooney

I think so. Maybe one later this evening if I get a chance and two or three more tomorrow.

pickarooney

By the way, I think it's a bit pointless trying not to reveal who you voted for. Your comments should make it fairly clear in any case.

Aoibheann

pickarooney wrote: »

It seems like you're coming to us with your pain and going to your physio with your stories

Hey, writing's all about the pain, maaaaaaaan. :P It just might work in several ways in my case!

Turtyturd

Gotta say I'm really enjoying how different the takes on each theme have been so far.

Insect Overlord

For anyone who's interested, I asked the nice folks in the Digital Art & Design forum to make a sig for us. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=72186661&postcount=2126

This was the first offer.

Blush_01

Insect Overlord wrote: »

For anyone who's interested, I asked the nice folks in the Digital Art & Design forum to make a sig for us. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=72186661&postcount=2126

This was the first offer.

Finally, my brain puts two and two together and stops coming up with the square root of Thursday. Thanks!

pickarooney

The Harvest is underway.

pickarooney

Madness is now on line.

Can the authors please check these for formatting issues as I had to redo qutie a bit by hand.

Oryx

This is a bit time consuming for you, isnt it? By the time this is over you're going to need a holiday. Or a stiff drink, or something.

pickarooney

I've actually no idea how long this will take. The important thing is that it give me an excuse not to do my own writing. Although the internet went down for half an hour earlier and I was forced to rewrite a chapter.

azzeretti

I have to say I am really enjoying this. The only thing I think we should change when (if?) this is run again is to increase the word count for the first round. You can see most all the stories seem to have been truncated and I think this is because people were keeping an eye on the word count.

Anyone else agree?

pickarooney

I'd be inclined to agree that the lower word count serves little purpose - it doesn't help people finish earlier in any case

On the other hand I would say most of the stories written so far could be edited to remove a couple of hundred words and improve. The ones that, as you say, seem truncated would, I have a hunch, still seem that way with another 1000 words.

If you have the time (and you do have the time!) it's worth re-writing whatever story you have, however long it originally is, with half the words and see just how many you really need.

diddlybit

This is great fun. Really looking forward to the rest.

pickarooney

And finally for today, Wisdom.

I might put one or two up over the weekend if I get time, otherwise they should all be up on Monday.

Voting should then wrap up next weekend and the draw for the quarters the Monday after.

Aoibheann

This competition makes me feel like I can't write! >_< To be fair, that's probably true, but I'm still so disappointed in what I've submitted! It's my own fault for not planning things better, and not giving myself any time.

On the plus side, I've been really enjoying reading the stories so far. Going to have to re-read all of them before I vote over the weekend, it's proving tough to decide in some cases!

diddlybit

Aoibheann wrote: »

This competition makes me feel like I can't write! >_< To be fair, that's probably true, but I'm still so disappointed in what I've submitted! It's my own fault for not planning things better, and not giving myself any time.

I wouldn't worry about it. I can't believe how brave all of you are for submitting anything in the first place. That takes real guts.

:cool: <

---

You (and all other contributors)

You all did really well

Blush_01

Aoibheann wrote: »

This competition makes me feel like I can't write! >_< To be fair, that's probably true, but I'm still so disappointed in what I've submitted! It's my own fault for not planning things better, and not giving myself any time.

On the plus side, I've been really enjoying reading the stories so far. Going to have to re-read all of them before I vote over the weekend, it's proving tough to decide in some cases!

QFT!

It's actually impressive to see how many of us are champion procrastinators actually. I felt like I was fantastically prepared when I started on the 10th...

B_Fanatic

I hope you consider doing another of these after the LC. I'd love to get involved : )

pickarooney

The Fire has started.

Antilles

Will the rest be posted today as well?

pickarooney

Yes. One entrant will have a bye though as the replacement entrant also failed to submit.

pickarooney

Home is now up.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Enjoying all entries so far and I've only read the first three heats... Hopefully I'll get around to reading heats 4 and 5 tonight as I doubt I'll get a chance tomorrow and I want to make sure I vote before the polls end on those on Wednesday...

B_Fanatic

B_Fanatic wrote: »

I hope you consider doing another of these after the LC. I'd love to get involved : )

I wouldn't mind signing up for another time as well

pickarooney

Apologies for the delay - there may yet be a final twist in the saga...

Antilles

:-o

pickarooney

In the quite likely event of a tie I have some ideas for a tie breaker, but if anyone else has any, post them up.

Antilles

So did the final story appear?

Blush_01

Would it be bad manners for entrants to vote for themselves?

I figured Picka could disregard the votes if it was frowned upon, but politicians vote for themselves all the time...

pickarooney

Better late than never, I'm pleased to announce the last match-up of the round: Healing.

There's no problem at all in voting for yourself or for your opponent. The names of everyone who voted will appear alongside the results, the first of which are due in about an hour, but it will be some time before anyone can match up the story to the writer (and there's no requirement for anyone to reveal his or her identity even after the competition has ended).

Please try not to make any comment in public about whether you qualified for the next round or not, just to try and keep everything as anonymous as possible.

diddlybit

What happens now? Will you be assigning new themes to the writers of the rounds that results are already out, or will we have to wait five days until the voting is in on the last set of stories?

(Actually just properly thought about that, we going to have to wait, aren't we?)