Contest January-February 2023 Short Story Contest (voting closed)

[Scolenex]

I don't make the rules, I just enforce them...oh wait.

View attachment 128306

There's a cross stitch of you dictating the rules right there.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

I don't make the rules, I just enforce them...oh wait.

Just saying... that second vote would have come in very handy!

 

[Killer Angel]

Here' my turn for some short reviews:

Spoiler: Story one: The Dinosaur

well well well... a meta story that shatters the 4th wall.

Pros: a story with a strong grasp in the Old World, with some discontinued armies (Bretonnia, Chaos Dwarfs...). The style was odd... at first it seemed like a childish tale, but on a second thought i think it fits well with the ending. Speaking of which, the story lives and dies by the (funny) final joke, so i find that the author did well by presenting a short piece, without dragging too much the story.

Cons: I have nothing agains light hearted stories, but this one is not exactly a masterpiece of literature...

Spoiler: Story two: A Day to Appreciate

A mundane story, probably my fav. of the bunch

Pros: a celabration day, lived by the protagonists almost as a routine job. I liked the explanation of why it is necessary to do many apparently nonsense things. The narration gives us enough actions even without any real one. Usually i tend to shun the whole "feeding infos to the reader", but in this case it was functional to the piece, so it works well. And a loveable ending with little Therizinosaurs.

Cons: it's basically like watching a pleasant movie, but with no identification in the protagonists

Spoiler: Story three: This Story Has Chaos Dwarves In It

Ah, we knew there would have been a Jurassic Park story

Pros: fun reading, the exact reversal of the classic scene/s from the movie works great, and the quick resolution of the escape of the warmbloods is what makes the story good. when you are the dinosaur, some human roaming free is not an issue.

Cons: it's the same as the Pros... it's the exact reversal of the classic scene/s from the movie. Parody is fun, but it has its limits when we look at quality. And there are no chaos dwarfs.

Spoiler: Story four: Goring Horn

Finally some REAL action!

Pros: incredibly detailed description of the battle, the reasons and the choices behind it, the various units... it's excellent. And the description of the massive, ustoppable potency of the Stegadon vs war elephants is probably the best take on the theme of the whole competition.

Cons: man, it's looong. Despite the excellent visual images, half way i was almost bored, the story drags itself for too long for my tastes, when the gist of it is concentrated in the end. IMO it lacks internal balance.

Spoiler: Story five: Lustria Park

The second Jurassic Park parody. I bet the writers of this story and n.3 were hoping to be the only one with the idea.

Pros: It's not a complete reversal, it's the new Seraphon that revive old dinosaurs. this makes it for an original PoV and it includes also the right amount of fun.

Cons: as said previously, parody is fun, but not exacly an original story, and when you only have one vote...

 

[Killer Angel]

it seems we have 2 distinct blocks.
And that Jurassic Park parodies suffer from the same fate...

 

[Imrahil]

Nice triple lead! Hope to see some more votes come in over the rest of the month.

Interested to see how this evolves.

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

@Killer Angel and @Imrahil both completed reviews of all five stories. It is likely that one or both of them also authored an entry*, so you guys wrote a review of your own story to maintain entry anonymity. What's it like writing a review on your own piece?

*even if not this time around, I'm sure it has occurred in previous contests

 

[Mr.Crocodile]

@Killer Angel and @Imrahil both completed reviews of all five stories. It is likely that one or both of them also authored an entry*, so you guys wrote a review of your own story to maintain entry anonymity. What's it like writing a review on your own piece?

*even if not this time around, I'm sure it has occurred in previous contests

Not that hard, most authors are their worst critics. Except the ones who are full of themselves, but those are a rare breed.

 

[Killer Angel]

@Killer Angel and @Imrahil both completed reviews of all five stories. It is likely that one or both of them also authored an entry*, so you guys wrote a review of your own story to maintain entry anonymity. What's it like writing a review on your own piece?

*even if not this time around, I'm sure it has occurred in previous contests

It's harder to try to make a review without half-revealing that it's your piece.

 

[Scalenex]

@Killer Angel and @Imrahil both completed reviews of all five stories. It is likely that one or both of them also authored an entry*, so you guys wrote a review of your own story to maintain entry anonymity. What's it like writing a review on your own piece?

*even if not this time around, I'm sure it has occurred in previous contests

I'm not being facetious, I did not enter this particular contest as a writer, so there is no point guessing which one is mine, but I do enter most of these contests, so I end writing reviews for my own pieces a lot.

If you are curious, all of my previous short story contests entries are here and in most cases I re-post all the critiques made on it along with my own critiques and responses to the various critiques.

I cannot speak for @Imrahil and @Killer Angel , but I have discussed this with @Y'ttar Scaletail a few times.

Note, that y'ttar ran the short story contests on the Under-Empire forum (which I entered a couple times), and I took the contest setup from him and y'ttar followed me back.

We both have a tendency to savage our own work after it's done, and you might be able to tell which piece we wrote by which piece we were harshest on.

Y'ttar's strategy has always been to hold off on posting reviews till later when the activity on the thread starts to peter out and use that to drum up late period interests. I tend to follow suit and post my reviews fairly late even if I write them early and then sit on them.

This time, I haven't even started writing my reviews yet. I haven't read the other reviews yet because I don't want the other reviews to shape mine.

 

[Y'ttar Scaletail]

Y'ttar's strategy has always been to hold off on posting reviews till later when the activity on the thread starts to peter out and use that to drum up late period interests. I tend to follow suit and post my reviews fairly late even if I write them early and then sit on them.

Also because I either don't have the time or willpower to write a review until near the line.

I've managed to scribble a few review notes down, but nothing near postable yet.

But yeah, I often dislike to outright hate what I write (only to look back later on and realise I actually wrote something pretty good.) It's only in the last few years my initial distaste has softened a little. If anything, I hate the notion that I have 'failed' the character I am voicing (whether in a story or roleplaying game) via not giving them the right area to shine or not conveying something special about them.

The tricky part of writing reviews is that I want to foremost outline the positives of the pieces. It takes a lot of courage to unburden yourself and craft a story to be picked at by other people. If I give criticism I do my best to make it constructive and supportive. Which makes it hard to review myself since now I have to try and find good things about it without letting my obvious dislike become apparent! But it also forces me to appreciate what I wrote a little more, even if i'm less believing in it.

Another method is to just detatch yourself and not even treat your piece as your own when you write a review. Easier said than done, but it can help to pretend to read it as anyone but yourself (i've done this before with my add-on in-character reviews where I get any of my roleplay or other story characters in for their opinions.)

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

It's harder to try to make a review without half-revealing that it's your piece.

I figured that might be tricky. You really have to get the balance just right.

Is your main focus maintaining concealment or giving the most accurate review of your own piece as you can? In other words, is it an actual review, or just a way for you to be able to review the other pieces without giving away which one you authored.



On a different note, I'm still trying to figure out who were the two Chaos Dwarf authors.

 

[Imrahil]

I figured that might be tricky. You really have to get the balance just right.

Is your main focus maintaining concealment or giving the most accurate review of your own piece as you can? In other words, is it an actual review, or just a way for you to be able to review the other pieces without giving away which one you authored.



On a different note, I'm still trying to figure out who were the two Chaos Dwarf authors.

I agree with the other. Writing a review of my own piece tent to lead to a harsh review, so I have to tone it down a little. I also like to describe what I see or read within the story, it is hard to do this accurately with my own story, because I do not know if others see or read what I intended to write...

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[Killer Angel]

I figured that might be tricky. You really have to get the balance just right.

Is your main focus maintaining concealment or giving the most accurate review of your own piece as you can? In other words, is it an actual review, or just a way for you to be able to review the other pieces without giving away which one you authored.

My main goal is to review my piece, as i believe i know some of its points of strenght and its weaknesses (of course, i may be blind to weak points that are visible to other readers).
The second goal is to do the review without exposing myself.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

My ordered list of most likely suspects for who penned the Chaos Dwarfs stories are:

1. @Imrahil
2. @Killer Angel
3. @Scalenex

But who knows. I've made so many Chaos Dwarf ramblings that it could be anyone.


Now... wouldn't it be a huge twist if I was the one that wrote one of the two Chaos Dwarf stories (for the record... I didn't)?!?!? I bet nobody (outside of @Scalenex who compiles the entries) would have seen that coming!

 

[Scalenex]

Now... wouldn't it be a huge twist if I was the one that wrote one of the two Chaos Dwarf stories (for the record... I didn't)?!?!? I bet nobody (outside of @Scalenex who compiles the entries) would have seen that coming!

I will not see it coming and be very surprised when and if you submit a short story contest entry. What difference would it make if I was shocked on February 28th when the authors are revealed or I was shocked on January 28th when I got your submission?

Hypothetically, if you entered and won you could set the next contest theme to Chaos Dwarves as mentioned before. But that takes effort and risk unlike getting 20 Slannhoods.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

What difference would it make if I was shocked on February 28th when the authors are revealed or I was shocked on January 28th when I got your submission?

That's true.

Hypothetically, if you entered and won you could set the next contest theme to Chaos Dwarves as mentioned before

I already achieved 2/5ths of that in this contest without having gone through the process! I consider that a win!

But that takes effort and risk unlike getting 20 Slannhoods.

A provocative statement. It also happens to be completely and utterly incorrect.

Risk - neither pursuit involves any legitimate source of risk. How is it risky to submit a story on an anonymous forum, where at most, ten people might engage with it? Additionally, everyone taking part in these competitions is extremely respectful and positive towards all entrants/entries.

Effort - it takes WAY more effort to reach twenty Slannhoods. Firstly, consider that multiple people have won these SS competitions and not a single person has ever come close to reaching twenty Slannhoods (because nearly 2/3rds of the way there is not close). As of today, there have only been a collective 27 Slannhoods achieved by the forum as whole. That's 27 arising from over 10,000 forum members, across well over a decade. Second, time! The time required to achieve twenty Slannhoods is much greater. Consider how long it takes to achieve one hundred thousand posts. Enter SS competitions over that span of time and you're virtually assured to win a few (especially with such a low voter turn out, where one or two votes can sway the entire contest). Most (all?) of you that enter these competitions consistently have managed to win. What takes more effort, making one basketball free throw or throwing a basketball at a wall 100,000 times? Unless you are absolutely incapable of throwing a free throw (but still possess the ability to throw ball at a wall), the answer is pretty clear.


How is it that no matter what the topic is, you always manage to take a dig at Slannhoods? If I did the same with the SS competitions, I'd be the bad guy. Food for thought.

 

[Scalenex]

How is it that no matter what the topic is, you always manage to take a dig at Slannhoods? If I did the same with the SS competitions, I'd be the bad guy. Food for thought.

I will back off digging at your Slannhoods. I'm projecting too many of my misgivings of myself on to you unfairly.

When I say "risk" I mean "comfort zone". Posting casual things is in your comfort zone, writing a story is not even if posting 1000 casual posts takes more manual effort .

Myself, I usually write a bunch of setting articles for Scarterra almost every day, averaging about 10,000 words a week, but it takes a lot of effort for me to write a fiction piece that people want to read. I do my job competently, but I am practically on autopilot, but it takes a lot of taxing effort for me to do chores in my own house or force myself to the gym. Things that should take less effort but are not in my comfort zone.

And I also think you would be good at writing stories given how seriously you take your favorite media, and am curious what you would cook up, but I'll stop barking up that tree.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

When I say "risk" I mean "comfort zone". Posting casual things is in your comfort zone, writing a story is not even if posting 1000 casual posts takes more manual effort .

Out of my comfort zone you say... I should probably paint a model then!

 

[Scalenex]

Out of my comfort zone you say... I should probably paint a model then!

Let's not get ridiculous Nightbringer...

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

Let's not get ridiculous Nightbringer...

Okay... you're right... maybe I got a little ahead of myself