Post by James on Nov 1, 2016 16:35:07 GMT -5
I did a little write-up the last time we did this type of competition and I thought I would do so again. I'm going to give some general comments about the competition, some more specific comments to the writers, and I’m also going to recommend a few stories that I think everyone should read.
The last time we did this format for the competition in 2014, we had 53 stories written in two months. This time around we saw 48 stories written in about a month and a half. That’s a fantastic effort. I think this competition felt like we had a lot of drop outs and not a lot of activity, but actually, minus Matteo, it was a huge success. If we factor in the 20 stories from the Arena and the four stories from the King of the Recluse, AWR has written collectively a minimum of 72 stories this year. So even if Skype is replacing the social side of AWR, the writing side is still really healthy.
Writers
As we all know, Sensar ended up winning. You did a fantastic job, man. Some of your earlier stories were a bit shaky, but as you worked off the rust, the beauty of your prose really came through. All I can really say is that occasionally you need to tighten up on the little mistakes. I hope you keep writing, even if it’s not your main creative focus.
In second place was Sam. You wrote some of the best stories of the competition. At a prose level, your writing never disappoints. You’ve got a way with words and crafting some wonderful sentences. If your stories are cars, the bodywork is always magnificent. Sometimes, though, you run the risk of trying to cram too much in or losing focus of pacing or characters, and that’s something to keep an eye on. Make sure everything works beneath the beautiful writing. But when it all clicks, you’re basically indistinguishable from a published author.
Alex came in third. I’m giving him a big shout out for being the writer who worked most with his feedback. He took our advice on board and improved throughout the competition, achieving things well beyond what we have seen in previous competitions: prose, pacing, themes, dialogue, all great improvements. You need to keep up the good work and don’t settle. Try and incorporate what you’ve learnt into different styles and find one that really sings.
We had a tie for fourth. Jason might have made the finals if he hadn’t dropped out in the last round. Still, I think we saw a real step up from you. Your stories hinted at wider worlds, you displayed real craft. Dialogue felt increasingly real and I found that your writing started to go beyond telling a story to having clever turns of phrase and just great sentences. You still need to tighten up on mistakes, though, and I’d like to see more emotional impact resonating from your stories, which your Bookbinder story showed you are capable of, even if you think you are a robot.
Ink was our other writer tied in fourth. He’s going to be huge. Seriously, your writing at 17 is just insanely better than what I was writing at 17. It’s ridiculous. Previously, your stories have struggled by being great writing paired against average story ideas, but that’s beginning to change. Your stories had more impact now. I’m really excited to see what you write as you get older. All I can really suggest is keep writing, keep honing your craft, and read widely. Take in as many influences as you can.
Adam came next. His record doesn’t really reflect the quality of his writing. All four of his non-drop out losses were close and probably could have gone either way depending on who was judging. I don’t really have much to say to you except: keep writing. The utopia story shows you as an intelligent writer and the start of the bookbinder story shows you as a great writer. I want to see you cranking out your own ideas more often.
Tied with Adam was Sawyer. I’d like to see you get out of the trap of “thinking about writing” to just actually practicing writing, and also don’t get ensnared by elaborate mythologies and canon. When you aim small, like your flash fiction story, you show you’re capable of tackling cool ideas with decent writing. But sometimes, your stories buckle under the stress of having to carry so many ideas that are not relevant to the story, like for the Rose/Angel world.
Finally, we need to talk about Matteo. His position at the foot of the table doesn’t reflect his writing ability. What he did throughout this competition was something I had not realised till it was too late. He incorporated white space in a consistent manner, reflecting a new synergy between his stories. Through the emptiness, he provided space for aggressive story growth and multiplication, which in the long run, give him more of an opportunity to branch out than his competitors. He is truly a Certified Pardot Salesforce Consultant.
Story Recommendations
For people who aren’t involved in the competition, it’s probably hard to keep track of all the stories posted. And for people who are writing, you may not end up reading everyone else’s stories. So I want to take a second to recommend a few stories.
From our winner, I want to highlight his final winning story, which is a beautiful captured moment of a portrait being painted, and also his excellent adventure into humour in Round 5:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399315
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399207
I’m also going to point out Ink’s Jesus story, because both Sensar and Ink wrote fantastic stories involving Jesus in the same round and that fact still makes me laugh:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399018
As an example of some of the finest writing on the forum, I’d like to highlight Adam’s The Bookbinder and the Thief. The story in its entirety has problems, but you simply have to read Part One: The Library, which I adore:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399059
And finally, it takes great courage to stand up to our enemy, but even more to stand up to our friends. I award Neville Longbottom, ten points.
And finally, I’m going to recommend what I think was the best story of the entire competition. I suggest you read it now, because I’m also going to take this moment to strongly advise Sam to delete it, edit it, and send it off to places. It’s simply a fantastic piece of work. James’s story of the competition is: Domains of the Deceased:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/398940
Conclusion
So, there we are: the end of AWR’s 14th major competition. It is the 33rd competition to be recorded in the Hall of Fame in total. For the first time in 2010, a major competition did not have an Admin in the top three, which is fantastic.
Thanks to every single one of you who wrote something. There were very few stories I didn’t enjoy reading; you all produced great work. Also, a massive thank you to m’colleague, Pete, for judging. Whether it’s a judged competition or the Arena, AWR wouldn’t work if we didn’t have people take the time to write, read and review. It’s all important.
Where does AWR go now? I suspect we won’t have another major competition till our annual competition in January. Maybe another Arena? Let us admins know what competition format you like the most.
As always, I will again mention The King of the Recluse. It has the potential to be a real boom for the forum, but it always seems to struggle. Pete, I believe, is going to challenge me and then hopefully we can see this competition having a new round at least once every month. That’s my hope.
Finally, I really urge you all to keep writing even when we don’t have competitions. Write the things you want to write, not what a competition demand of you. Post it up on the forum and get feedback from people. Read the stuff people post on the forum and give them feedback. Competitions are fun, but there’s no reason the writing should stop because they are in hibernation.
Whether you’re aiming to be published or you do this as a hobby, or even just as therapy: just write and make art.
The last time we did this format for the competition in 2014, we had 53 stories written in two months. This time around we saw 48 stories written in about a month and a half. That’s a fantastic effort. I think this competition felt like we had a lot of drop outs and not a lot of activity, but actually, minus Matteo, it was a huge success. If we factor in the 20 stories from the Arena and the four stories from the King of the Recluse, AWR has written collectively a minimum of 72 stories this year. So even if Skype is replacing the social side of AWR, the writing side is still really healthy.
Writers
As we all know, Sensar ended up winning. You did a fantastic job, man. Some of your earlier stories were a bit shaky, but as you worked off the rust, the beauty of your prose really came through. All I can really say is that occasionally you need to tighten up on the little mistakes. I hope you keep writing, even if it’s not your main creative focus.
In second place was Sam. You wrote some of the best stories of the competition. At a prose level, your writing never disappoints. You’ve got a way with words and crafting some wonderful sentences. If your stories are cars, the bodywork is always magnificent. Sometimes, though, you run the risk of trying to cram too much in or losing focus of pacing or characters, and that’s something to keep an eye on. Make sure everything works beneath the beautiful writing. But when it all clicks, you’re basically indistinguishable from a published author.
Alex came in third. I’m giving him a big shout out for being the writer who worked most with his feedback. He took our advice on board and improved throughout the competition, achieving things well beyond what we have seen in previous competitions: prose, pacing, themes, dialogue, all great improvements. You need to keep up the good work and don’t settle. Try and incorporate what you’ve learnt into different styles and find one that really sings.
We had a tie for fourth. Jason might have made the finals if he hadn’t dropped out in the last round. Still, I think we saw a real step up from you. Your stories hinted at wider worlds, you displayed real craft. Dialogue felt increasingly real and I found that your writing started to go beyond telling a story to having clever turns of phrase and just great sentences. You still need to tighten up on mistakes, though, and I’d like to see more emotional impact resonating from your stories, which your Bookbinder story showed you are capable of, even if you think you are a robot.
Ink was our other writer tied in fourth. He’s going to be huge. Seriously, your writing at 17 is just insanely better than what I was writing at 17. It’s ridiculous. Previously, your stories have struggled by being great writing paired against average story ideas, but that’s beginning to change. Your stories had more impact now. I’m really excited to see what you write as you get older. All I can really suggest is keep writing, keep honing your craft, and read widely. Take in as many influences as you can.
Adam came next. His record doesn’t really reflect the quality of his writing. All four of his non-drop out losses were close and probably could have gone either way depending on who was judging. I don’t really have much to say to you except: keep writing. The utopia story shows you as an intelligent writer and the start of the bookbinder story shows you as a great writer. I want to see you cranking out your own ideas more often.
Tied with Adam was Sawyer. I’d like to see you get out of the trap of “thinking about writing” to just actually practicing writing, and also don’t get ensnared by elaborate mythologies and canon. When you aim small, like your flash fiction story, you show you’re capable of tackling cool ideas with decent writing. But sometimes, your stories buckle under the stress of having to carry so many ideas that are not relevant to the story, like for the Rose/Angel world.
Finally, we need to talk about Matteo. His position at the foot of the table doesn’t reflect his writing ability. What he did throughout this competition was something I had not realised till it was too late. He incorporated white space in a consistent manner, reflecting a new synergy between his stories. Through the emptiness, he provided space for aggressive story growth and multiplication, which in the long run, give him more of an opportunity to branch out than his competitors. He is truly a Certified Pardot Salesforce Consultant.
Story Recommendations
For people who aren’t involved in the competition, it’s probably hard to keep track of all the stories posted. And for people who are writing, you may not end up reading everyone else’s stories. So I want to take a second to recommend a few stories.
From our winner, I want to highlight his final winning story, which is a beautiful captured moment of a portrait being painted, and also his excellent adventure into humour in Round 5:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399315
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399207
I’m also going to point out Ink’s Jesus story, because both Sensar and Ink wrote fantastic stories involving Jesus in the same round and that fact still makes me laugh:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399018
As an example of some of the finest writing on the forum, I’d like to highlight Adam’s The Bookbinder and the Thief. The story in its entirety has problems, but you simply have to read Part One: The Library, which I adore:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/399059
And finally, I’m going to recommend what I think was the best story of the entire competition. I suggest you read it now, because I’m also going to take this moment to strongly advise Sam to delete it, edit it, and send it off to places. It’s simply a fantastic piece of work. James’s story of the competition is: Domains of the Deceased:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/post/398940
Conclusion
So, there we are: the end of AWR’s 14th major competition. It is the 33rd competition to be recorded in the Hall of Fame in total. For the first time in 2010, a major competition did not have an Admin in the top three, which is fantastic.
Thanks to every single one of you who wrote something. There were very few stories I didn’t enjoy reading; you all produced great work. Also, a massive thank you to m’colleague, Pete, for judging. Whether it’s a judged competition or the Arena, AWR wouldn’t work if we didn’t have people take the time to write, read and review. It’s all important.
Where does AWR go now? I suspect we won’t have another major competition till our annual competition in January. Maybe another Arena? Let us admins know what competition format you like the most.
As always, I will again mention The King of the Recluse. It has the potential to be a real boom for the forum, but it always seems to struggle. Pete, I believe, is going to challenge me and then hopefully we can see this competition having a new round at least once every month. That’s my hope.
Finally, I really urge you all to keep writing even when we don’t have competitions. Write the things you want to write, not what a competition demand of you. Post it up on the forum and get feedback from people. Read the stuff people post on the forum and give them feedback. Competitions are fun, but there’s no reason the writing should stop because they are in hibernation.
Whether you’re aiming to be published or you do this as a hobby, or even just as therapy: just write and make art.
