Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

    Code:
               Title                      1st    2nd   3rd     Total Points
    
    SW - unknown                           1      2                  7
    Meghan Fing Markle - lostfootage       4      2                 16
    Swapsies - dpaterso                                 1            1
    Games - jmpowell7                      2            2            8
    The Vineyard - Lil drowsy                     2     3            7
    Big congratulations to lostfootage for 1st place, jmpowell for 2nd place and Lil drowsey and unknown tying for 3rd place.

    Thanks to all for participating.

    And thanks to Will aka DoneDealPro for the first place prize of a one year subscription or a one year extension to DoneDealPro.

    Please post any notes on the submissions, if wrote some down, in this thread.

    Thanks again to all who participated and again congratulations to the winners.
    TRIAL FORUMS



  • #2
    Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

    Congrats to lostfootage, I thought that one might sweep the votes. Well done also to everyone else, thanks for writing and making it happen. Yay to Mark for suggesting and organizing the contest.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

      Thank you to everyone who contributed and the organizers in particular. Good work everyone.

      I have no notes.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

        My votes went like,

        1st - Meghan Fing Markle
        2nd - SW
        3rd - The Vineyard

        And my comments went like,

        SW

        I empathized with Fred who wasn't just everyman, he is me. When I saw he was wearing a muzzle I thought he was a dog, which made the script surreal, but then it was explained and my puzzlement went away, oops. No idea what SW means but it still gets a vote.


        Meghan Fing Markle

        No idea who wrote this but it smells of genius and had plenty to keep me amused, my 1st place vote.


        Swapsies

        Mine, fun to write even if it doesn't work as well as it should.
        Added post results: thanks to the lone discerning reader who threw me a 3rd place vote! :)


        Games

        I didn't quite get this, sorry. The writing was smooth enough but it's like an excerpt from an episode of something bigger rather than a standalone that can... stand alone. The songs didn't help, Russell and Angie just started quoting titles out of nowhere, maybe it's their cute couple thing but to me the reader it was, huh?


        The Vineyard

        You answers a Craigslist ad, you takes your chances. Gory little horror vignette, fun read, gets a vote, though it suffers from RANDOM CAPITALS FEVER which looked odd after a while.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

          Originally posted by dpaterso View Post
          SW

          I empathized with Fred who wasn't just everyman, he is me. When I saw he was wearing a muzzle I thought he was a dog, which made the script surreal, but then it was explained and my puzzlement went away, oops. No idea what SW means but it still gets a vote.
          I don't know exactly where "SW" came from either. I put the title of the of my "script" (so to speak) in parentheses but, looking back, I can see where that would be confusing as it was also the name of the contest "Summer Vacation." The name of the attached text file was "sv.txt" so I'm guessing "sv" somehow got turned into "SW." So Fred's "summer vacation" was just relaxing in the back yard and forgetting all this 2020 crap.

          I guess I was thinking of past PDF entries where I put the title and my "handle" on the Title Page. But I kind of liked being "unknown" with a cryptic title. Now I've gone and ruined it.

          If I had remembered to get back and vote I don't think it would have changed much... it would have knocked me out of a tie for 3rd however, so consider it no longer a tie. Congratulations Lil drowsy, sole possession of third place. EDIT: Actually that might have moved you up to 2nd place. Votes are important. Sorry.

          Honestly I thought yours (Swapsies) was the best written of the bunch, but the "ick" factor in it was very strong – so that made it hard for me to warm up to it. It still would have probably ended up with a number 2 vote just for strength of writing.

          Number 1 would have been Vineyard. It was a bit predictable (but not icky) and it was pretty well written. I think it would have been better without the last dialogue exchange between Buford and Chauncey. The explanation wasn't needed. We got the gist and this just seemed like obvious idiot dialogue.

          I'm not sure what Number 3 would have been. Meghan Fing Markle seemed like a vehicle for name dropping to me and Games seemed a bit too "clever." Honestly, I probably would have just tossed a coin to make the decision. (I'll admit I'm pretty dense when it comes to who's who in Hollywood and I'm not much for gossip anyhow.) Nothing wrong with the writing. I just didn't warm up to the stories.

          Again, sorry about the confusion and not getting back. I see Mark Somers sent me a follow-up email, that I just now noticed. We're down in Texas with our daughter who's about to have our first grandchild, so things are a bit up in the air right now. I just did a "drive-by" of this forum and thought "are they getting any entries?" and so I wrote something (40 minutes isn't long enough to develop a good story).

          Good luck everyone. Congratulations to the entrants. Sorry for rambling.
          Last edited by Centos; 09-13-2020, 01:04 AM.
          STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

            I knew there would be a good reason why you weren't on the roster, no worries, you were busy, family comes first, hope everybody's doing well.

            Originally posted by Centos View Post
            Honestly I thought yours (Swapsies) was the best written of the bunch, but the "ick" factor in it was very strong - so that made it hard for me to warm up to it. It still would have probably ended up with a number 2 vote just for strength of writing.
            I could'a been a contendah! Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

              It's been a long time since I won anything, and I'm very happy to get an extension on a year at Done Deal. I am a subscriber and I'll use it. Thank you Mark for running the contest, and Will for supplying the prize.

              I read through the rules too fast -- I thought if we turned in a piece, we weren't supposed to vote. Reading it again, I see that it said -- don't vote for your own.

              I thought all of the entries were interesting to read. My first pick would be Swapsies. I thought it was well written and I could see it as I read. Close second is Vineyard which had great visuals. And for number three, a tie. SW was relatable for right now, and The Games one was fun.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

                Originally posted by lostfootage View Post
                I read through the rules too fast -- I thought if we turned in a piece, we weren't supposed to vote. Reading it again, I see that it said -- don't vote for your own.
                You fool you've fallen for one of the classic blunders, the first of which is never start a land war in Asia.

                Thanks for the comments! Yay for the win.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

                  A land war in Asia -- lol.

                  Next time I hope we get more submissions and more voters.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Results - Summer Vacation writing contest

                    Originally posted by lostfootage View Post
                    A land war in Asia -- lol.

                    Next time I hope we get more submissions and more voters.
                    5 to 6 entries during the summer is about par. The Halloween writing contest, on the other hand, is the first contest ever here and it's the most popular. It's a tradition.


                    Thanks Centos for clearing up the 'unknown'.

                    And thanks again, folks, for your participation.
                    TRIAL FORUMS


                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X