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[William Broom]

TigSource Writing Competition

Like I was talking about in the other thread, I'm starting a Tigsource writing competition. I want this to be a light-hearted affair just like the game compos, with no prizes though I do plan to have a definite first, second and third ranking. It's kind of experimental since I've never done something like this before, so feel free to complain if you think I should be doing it differently.

Instead of voting like in the game compos, I plan to have a small panel of judges decide the winners by awarding each story a score. If you want to be a judge, please PM me. The judge's work will not be strenuous, all you have to do is readeach story and give it a rating out of 10. Of course you can't be a judge and enter the competition as well. If I can't find enough judges I suppose I will fall back on voting.

Scratch that. Let's do the voting thing just like normal.

Rules for Submissions
- Submissions may be poetry or short stories, but must be under 1,000 words in length (roughly 2-3 pages).
- Submissions must follow the competition theme, which is '####punk'. This means you can write in the style of any *punk genre such as cyberpunk, steampunk, clockpunk, biopunk, brickpunk, splatterpunk, er... dieselpunk... you may also invent your own *punk genre (it's all the rage these days) but be sure you can justify it.
- Submissions must be recieved by 31 August 2008. I know this coincides with Chinese Bootleg Demakes but I don't think it should be a problem considering how small the stories will be.
- Submissions may be posted in this thread, or if you don't want the bother of using the forum's formatting, you can upload them as a text document and I will convert it to forum formatting for you.
- There should be text and nothing but the text in your submission. Embellishments such as hyperlinks, coloured text, oversized text or other  frippery  should be avoided. Bold, italics, underlines and strikethroughs are acceptable.
- Multiple entries are acceptable as long as they are not connected to each other.

Criteria for Assessment
Your submissions will be rated on the following:
- Quality of storytelling, imagery, characters and everything else that makes a good story.
- Adherence to the chosen 'punk' style, and/or justification of invented punk style.
- Just to be clear, even though in the other thread I was whinging about how cyberpunk isn't punk anymore, for this competition I'm talking about the generally accepted definition of the punk genres. You don't need to include an anti-authoritarian theme if you don't want to.

Competition is now closed! Look forward to the voting thread!

[Kinten]

Excellent! I shall write in swedish, swenglish, engrish, NO!
I shall write in love.
Good day.
 

[increpare]

Instead of voting like in the game compos, I plan to have a small panel of judges decide the winners by awarding each story a score. If you want to be a judge, please PM me. The judge's work will not be strenuous, all you have to do is readeach story and give it a rating out of 10. Of course you can't be a judge and enter the competition as well. If I can't find enough judges I suppose I will fall back on voting.

I'd personally be in favour of whoever rating; I'd like to see what people who think they're qualified to judge such matters would be able to produce. (And I don't mean this in a snarky way).

[ithamore]

Instead of voting like in the game compos, I plan to have a small panel of judges decide the winners by awarding each story a score. If you want to be a judge, please PM me. The judge's work will not be strenuous, all you have to do is readeach story and give it a rating out of 10. Of course you can't be a judge and enter the competition as well. If I can't find enough judges I suppose I will fall back on voting.

I'd personally be in favour of whoever rating; I'd like to see what people who think they're qualified to judge such matters would be able to produce. (And I don't mean this in a snarky way).

Maybe the judges should have to submit examples of their writing or literary analysis abilities that everyone votes on before the contest's deadline. Then the weight of each judge's vote would be factored according to how well the judge's entry scored.

[Cymon]

Too bad there's no prizes because my story's going to take this one.

[Alevice]

I pick numberpunk first!

[increpare]

Ooh good pick Alevice! Lots of sexy possibilities with that choice.

[Valter]

I've always thought that steampunk/clockworkpunk were the best genres to write in. All the other derivatives just seem gimmicky to me. If I submit an entry, it'll be one of those two.

[Pacian]

I'd personally be in favour of whoever rating; I'd like to see what people who think they're qualified to judge such matters would be able to produce. (And I don't mean this in a snarky way).

Maybe the judges should have to submit examples of their writing or literary analysis abilities that everyone votes on before the contest's deadline. Then the weight of each judge's vote would be factored according to how well the judge's entry scored.

I think we should appoint a panel of judges to vote on which applicants should be allowed to become judges.

And so on, ad infinitum.

[Seth]

In my opinion the judges should have to get together and try to reach a consensus about the winners before they resort to voting.  I think when reading several stories like this it's all too east to skim a story or to miss a key element, and readers can often be biased and like a story for silly reasons.  Forcing the judges to actually talk about the stories and make arguments for and against stories will help minimize these problems and help the judges make better and more informed judgments about the stories.

And it really shouldn't take so long, considering each story is 2-3 pages and there probably won't be too many entries.

Also I think the only criteria for a judge should be that they have a genuine and active interest in literature.  Just because you can't (or haven't) written a good story doesn't mean you can't tell if one is good.

[Cymon]

I've always thought that steampunk/clockworkpunk were the best genres to write in. All the other derivatives just seem gimmicky to me. If I submit an entry, it'll be one of those two.

I'm going to go with clockworkpunk/crystalpunk. With a little alchemy thrown in.

[Smithy]

I'm lost.
What is punk?

[dmoonfire]

I'm lost.
What is punk?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

Those are two pretty good starting points by people a lot more elegant than me when it comes to writing. At least on the essay side of things. But, depending on you ask, a genre that focuses on either A. fighting against established order and organizations more powerful than you (the typical cyberpunk) or B, doing amazing things with a certain set of technology (what steampunk is kind of turning into it). In pretty much all cases, the first part (cyber, steam, splatter) tells you what the main focus is (high technology, steam-powered, blood respectively). Of course, you can pretty much go from butterflypunk to clockpunk and brickpunk, depending on what you are having fun with or just enjoy writing.

I happen to lean into the clockwork, brick (because I can), and steam for my own writings.

[McAndrews]

Now seems a good time to bring up this book...
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Log_of_Phileas_Fogg



The book is Around the World in Eighty Days with space aliens, Captain Nemo, and clockwork teleporters.  And it's very Victorian.     
I haven't decided to be a judge or enter yet.
But on the matter of the choosing of judges, I just think they should have read some ****punk, something, or similar scifi, lots of short stories, and be moderately able to read/write English.  Or able to bring up similarly strange book involving top hats and teleportation.   

[Akhel]

I'm not sure about having judges. Wouldn't letting the whole community decide be more fair?

[Tasoth]

Is there an option to position for an increase in word count or perhaps a second category for larger works? I can blow through 2-3 pages like its nothing and still not have told the story.

[McAndrews]

That's why its called a short story, and why its a challenge.  Actually around this size its a vignette or something like that.  I don't mean to be mean in my first statement, sorry if I come off that way, but making a story effective in the shortest amount of space is part of the fun and challenge of a short story.  Heck there are short short stories, one page pieces that people do.  I think three pages is plenty of space.   

[imaginationac]

I'm already formulating ideas for my cyberpunk masterpiece that will most likely never be finished. And if I don't submit anything by the deadline, I'm open to being a judge.

[cyber95]

*starts writing a story based around solarpunk*

[William Broom]

Is there an option to position for an increase in word count or perhaps a second category for larger works? I can blow through 2-3 pages like its nothing and still not have told the story.

It's part of the challenge to fit into the smallish word limit. I also don't want to do something huge and epic since this is our first writing compo and it's going on at the same time as CBD. If this goes well, though, I can certainly see a compo for longer stories in the future.

As for the judging vs. voting, I'm kind of undecided right now. I'll think about it and take note of what people would prefer, and surely reach a decision before the compo deadline.