Competition: Variations on a theme 1 (Kim)

Oryx

Then post like crazy for the afternoon. I recommend AH.

nervous_twitch

bah, this isnt gonna happen for me. i look forward to reading!

bazma8

hey the thumb just appeared...maybe 10 was the limit nice one.

One vote for me ...yipee

pickarooney

bazma8 wrote: »

hey the thumb just appeared...maybe 10 was the limit nice one.

One vote for me ...yipee

Don't forget, you have to give yourself feedback

Killer_banana

I decided I'd give this a go last night hoping it would help with my writers block. It helped with my block on my other stuff but now Kim's stuck mid-story and I have no idea what's going to happen to her or how I'll end this within word limit...I really really need to plan out plots beforehand. Ah well. Good luck to everyone who managed to submit an entry before it the deadline cos from the looks of it I won't.

Memnoch

pickarooney wrote: »

Don't forget, you have to give yourself feedback

Should be easy.

An outstanding entry, and obvious choice to win the whole thing. It's probably Ian McEwan posting under a pseudonym. Definitely gets my vote!

pickarooney

Killer_banana wrote: »

I decided I'd give this a go last night hoping it would help with my writers block. It helped with my block on my other stuff but now Kim's stuck mid-story and I have no idea what's going to happen to her or how I'll end this within word limit...I really really need to plan out plots beforehand. Ah well. Good luck to everyone who managed to submit an entry before it the deadline cos from the looks of it I won't.

Explosions and helicopters are a quick and exciting way to end any story within the word limit!

Oryx

pickarooney wrote: »

Explosions and helicopters are a quick and exciting way to end any story within the word limit!

Oh grrreat. Thanks man, for giving my ending away. Sheesh.

Killer_banana, just do something crazy to her. She wont mind, and its only a wee competition between posters, you may as well let us see what you did, not do the work for nothing.

pickarooney

That reminds me of something the maths teacher would say to the kids who got so stressed out they ended up eating their exams papers instead of submitting their partial work.

Don't eat it KB!

Killer_banana

Haha thanks guys. Sure I'll have another go at it and if I can't think of a decent ending I'll just give it a cliffhanger ending and submit it.

pickarooney

I'm away tae beid. For those in Vancouver, you have until midnight when I'm pulling down the shutters.

Antilles

pickarooney wrote: »

I'm away tae beid. For those in Vancouver, you have until midnight when I'm pulling down the shutters.

Noooo! I saw you online after 00:00 and hoped you'd be putting up all the entries now. D'oh!

pickarooney

OK, time's up and we have 18 entries. Good show people and thanks to all who took the time to participate.

I'm going to unsticky this thread and create a new one just for the stories. I realised last night that a poll would finally be the best way of counting votes as, if it's a tight race then it will be impossible to tell if thanks were added before or after the end of voting. By all means thank posts as well if you feel like it.

Voting will open as soon as all posts are up and will run until 9AM on the 11th, with the winner officially announced on Monday 12th (although the outcome should be obvious once the poll closes).

Any feedback on the stories themselves should be in the new thread. Please give as much feedback to as many stories as you can, positive, negative, neutral, as long as it's in some way constructive.

Any comments or questions on the competition itself should either be posted here or PMed to me if it's urgent.

If, when reading back your own story, you notice something is not right (I think I've got all the late updates and will do my best to preserve basic formatting), pop me a PM and I'll correct it as soon as I can.

Best of luck!

pickarooney

Voting is now OPEN! (although if anyone votes in the next hour, they haven't read all the entries and they're banned!)
Thread is here.

Mr E

Man thats alot to read.....

Thanks for organising this, pickarooney. Looking forward to reading them properly over the next couple of days.

pickarooney

Looking at them all together, it is quite a lot to take in and I'm wondering if the deadline shouldn't be extended....

Mr E

Just mulling it over, I think people should be asked to pick their top 3 or top 5 (rather than tick all of their favourites). Imagine if I ticked every story except story 12, for example. How bad would that person feel?

Just a thought...

Antilles

I think the deadline is fine. Just read them all and have a few that I think stand out above the rest. I'll wait till other people start voting before I add my own comments though!

dawvee

Just finished reading them through as well. There are a few stand-outs, for sure.

I've resorted to jotting down a few notes for a number of the stories, and I'll post some of those in the thread once I've had another look over them.

pickarooney

Mr E wrote: »

Just mulling it over, I think people should be asked to pick their top 3 or top 5 (rather than tick all of their favourites). Imagine if I ticked every story except story 12, for example. How bad would that person feel?

Just a thought...

Pfff, if they feel bad they can write a poem or something

Oryx

Have read through, and agree a few really stand above the rest.

Were a murderous lot though. Kim gets killed quite a bit. Other than that a lot of the stories were remarkably similar, even given the rigid structure, I would have expected more differences in the actual story, but most of us generally did similar things with it. Interesting to see how different the style of the stories are though, because of writing style and clever tweaking.

Memnoch

the deadline is fine, but I agree, we should be limited to ticking 5 stories or something. It's a bit much to be able to vote for every story. Also, would be nice if we could agree to refrain from voting for ourselves, this could be easily added to the rules since no one has voted yet, and it will be obvious if anyone has done so when the names are posted later?

dawvee

I found it funny how many people went with the man in the green jacket being shabby, smelly, repulsive, etc. Though all told most don't paint a very flattering picture of Kim, either. Writers are a surly bunch, apparently. :pac:

Memnoch

Can we vote more than once (not for the same excerpt). For example, vote for a particular excerpt, and leave our reason in a post, then come back later and do the same for another.

Or do we have to compile all our feedback as well as the votes together in a single go?

pickarooney

No, take your time and do it piecemeal. Often you'll change your mind about something as soon as you've posted or a couple of days later.

If you vote for yourself, remember you have to give yourself feedback and the poll is public, so if you can handle the scorn, I've no problem with shameless self-promotion.

I think only 2 people made Kim a man and nobody had him/her as Asian. The majority went with heart attacks and there was quite a lot of death.

I need to read them all through again, particularly the resumbissions and will give feedback to all 18 entries when I vote.

Who's going to be the first to the polling booth?

dr.bollocko

pickarooney wrote: »

No, take your time and do it piecemeal. Often you'll change your mind about something as soon as you've posted or a couple of days later.

If you vote for yourself, remember you have to give yourself feedback and the poll is public, so if you can handle the scorn, I've no problem with shameless self-promotion.

I think only 2 people made Kim a man and nobody had him/her as Asian. The majority went with heart attacks and there was quite a lot of death.

I need to read them all through again, particularly the resumbissions and will give feedback to all 18 entries when I vote.

Who's going to be the first to the polling booth?

AFAIK you can't edit your poll vote once you vote.
So if you only vote for one person initially then you cannot vote again.

Memnoch

dr.bollocko wrote: »

AFAIK you can't edit your poll vote once you vote.
So if you only vote for one person initially then you cannot vote again.

Yeah, that's what I was worried about. I don't think the forum software will allow us to change our vote, so while we can keep adding feedback over time, once you vote that's it. I'm just gonna compile my feedback in open office and then do it all at once, will prolly take me a few days though.

pickarooney

Rats to that Can mods edit people's votes if they request it on thread?
I foresee Ukraine-scale jiggery-pokery...

dr.bollocko

pickarooney wrote: »

Rats to that Can mods edit people's votes if they request it on thread?
I foresee Ukraine-scale jiggery-pokery...

No they cannot.
They can however manipulate poll results (IE change the total awarded to a certain value in the poll) but not individual votes if it's public.

Antilles

pickarooney wrote: »

I think only 2 people made Kim a man and nobody had him/her as Asian. The majority went with heart attacks and there was quite a lot of death.

Hey pickarooney, my main character was an Asian

man! I never specified his race in the text because I didn't think it was relevant, but the characters name (as given at the start) is Jim Kim, as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kim_%28Star_Trek%29