FOG Writing Contest 10/21/12

[Christoph]

Masks

We have all worn masks, whether a physical covering to disguise our faces or merely a false front to obscure our thoughts and emotions. Throughout history, humans have worn masks for disguise, decoration, and ritual. Other old cultures used them, in a tradition that inspired Halloween, to scare off or hide from evil spirits and the souls of the dead. One thing is certain; masks have always intrigued and frightened us.

This contest is a little special, aiming to be a bit larger in scale than normal. There are no limits to the number of participants this time around, and story lengths must range from 3,000 and 6,000 words. All other standard contest rules apply. Please post entries here by November 23, 2012.

And finally, if anyone wishes to volunteer their judging services, please post here as well! We need just one more judge for this contest, but it isn't first-come-first-serve. We will make our selection among volunteers over the next ten or so days.

Current volunteer judges:
1. Ten
2. TBA

The staff judge for this contest is Christoph.

Good luck!

[Tartra]

I think I'm in for writing an entry. I feel all inspired. It just has to involve masks in some way, right?

[Christoph]

Masks, in some way or another (figurative or literal), should be the focal point of your entry. Beyond that, go nuts!

[Blackrock]

Damn! This is just the theme I've been toying around with for quite some time now, I think it's finally time I started penning those ideas out and this contest looks like the perfect place to start. Barring any unforeseeable issues, I should be up for submitting an entry.

[Gadreille]

I cannot wait to read these entries. I will not be participating this round, but if no one volunteers to be a third judge I will fill in.

Let's see some more contestants!!!!

[Gadreille]

After PMing a few people to see if they would like to join the contest, I was asked what the general rules for contestants are. I will post what I said to this member in case there is any confusion from other members:

1. Follow FOG's universal rules
2. Stay within the word limit (in this case, 3 to 6 thousand words)
3. Stick to the theme that has been chosen
4. meet the deadline (Nov 23rd, 2012)
5. Write your best!

[Tartra]

Hey guys:

I'm looking at my schedule and feeling extremely stressed, so I'm not sure if I have the time for this. I'm not withdrawing right now, but I am self-demoting my status to a 'tentative participant'.

Sorry, everyone. School comes first. :/

[Gadreille]

Of course Tartra!

I do hope you manage to enter. One entry isn't much of a contest

[Tartra]

Sorry, everyone, but I have to back out. The work hasn't lessened and I don't have time.

[Gadreille]

looks like this contest is cancelled; I think we'll just postpone the contests until we get interest again.

[Christoph]

Agreed -- probably after the holidays.

[Blackrock]

Shame that this didn't go through, I was also swamped with stuff from university so even if we had more people I doubt I would have participated. Nevertheless, it was a good effort - thanks for taking the time to organise it

On a slightly different note, may I suggest that before making the next contest you make a poll first? It's not about interest I would say, but more with the subject of the contests themselves. Like, this one for example, "masks" - what exactly does that entail? I had an idea floating in my head in regards to that, so when I read it the first time I thought: "Ok good, this is pretty cool as I had a story in mind in which masks are important to the plot". But I can see how some other person can come in and ask themselves: "Masks? What am I even supposed to write about this?"

It's one thing to say you want a fantasy or a sci-fi story, its quite another when you say want masks. I don't claim to speak for everyone, but I'd say this kinda leaves people feeling a bit lost. Hence why I suggest that next time around, you put in more than a paragraph detailing what you want people to write (and perhaps give out a few examples).

But that's beside the actual point I was trying to make, sorry for going off on a tangent AND hijacking the thread - what I meant to say was: polls. Ask people what they want to write about, it can be genre-based (horror/sci-fi/fantasy/etc story) or something more specific (like this one about masks or the last sports-focused contest), but make sure you've got enough people aboard before going with it.

[Guest]

We actually talked about this a little bit in the judge's forum and the consensus seemed to be that broader topics were better because they were less restricting. I think that was what we were trying to do with this topic, even though it was a very focused theme, to give people as much room to move about and explore as possible.

But I do agree, I don't think these contest themes and such should be decided behind the scenes. If we want members to get interested and to participate we should get more feedback from the members who would actually be participating in the contests.

[Gadreille]

I do agree. At first, we did decide it outside of the judging forum, I'm not sure why we ended up moving it there...it just sort of happened. However, fixing that doesn't solve the issue of there being a very small few interested - three to five people cannot keep competing each other over and over again, and there is obviously little interest in writing contests with the rest of the members.

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